Wednesday, November 27, 2013

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.

9 comments:

  1. Happy Thanksgiving to you too! Those chickens are going to have some nice digs!

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    1. Thanks lady! It's the start of a new adventure. :)

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  2. Great way to show thanks. Way to go.
    Happy Thanksgiving.

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    1. Thanks! They've arrived. We will post this week about their goings on. :):) Hope you enjoyed a great holiday!

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  3. Gosh, Jennifer and Steve, it's been forever since I've been able to visit, so busy!! Just wanted to give you a peek at what's been keeping me so busy these days...http://thepeaceablekingdom.blogspot.com/

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  4. And yay! Chickens are so fun! Your tunnel looks good, I would just advise you stake it down good so that any critters that may be hungry don't find their way under it to snag a bird. You wouldn't believe how tenacious a hungry fox, mink or raccoon can be.

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    1. The tunnel is staked down for sure. We will see how it goes. :)

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  5. what a great transformation!! I read part 2 first...so it looks like a perfect Chicken house.

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