Chicken-Sitting, Preparation, Part 1

Due to a great misfortune (house fire) that has happened to our neighbor and faithful egg supplier, we will soon be chicken-sitting (while this neighbor re-groups with her many critters and crisis home situation). We look forward to helping a neighbor and also to trying our hands at "livestock".

After some pondering and research we decided to convert our potting shed back into a chicken coop, use part of our existing fenced-in garden for a chicken run and, since these two structures are about 50 feet apart, connect the two with what we are calling a chicken tunnel.

Below Steve is at work fencing off a corner of the garden for the chicken run (so they can have access to fresh air and sunshine):

Here you can see Jennifer at work using some wire fencing to build the chicken tunnel frame, which will connect the run with the coop (you can see a bit of yellow in the background - the coop):

Here you can see the corner of the run and the wire tunnel that leads to the coop:

Of course, the chickens need nesting boxes inside the coop so...into the woodshop:

Nesting box installation inside the coop: 

The chickens also need a place to perch. Below Jennifer installs some sticks (that will serves as perches) that she salvaged from one of our wildlife brush piles:

The chickens arrive on Sunday but we are getting close to ready...wish us luck!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Here's a song that made us smile.