The Hen House

Well, really it's turned out to be more of a hen/rooster house. Two of our little chicks ended up crowing despite much reassurance on the part of the salesman at the chicken store. He assured me that in all the years he has been ordering chickens from this particular breeder he has only gotten ONE ROOSTER. Whatever. One started crowing very young(the naughty one that kept getting out of the brooder box). At about 6 weeks old I woke up to crowing at 6am. Their brooder box was in the basement, which is exactly under my bed. I found a lovely farm home for him and thought my plan had worked out perfectly! I really only wanted three hens anyway. Then it happened again. The Mail Man and I were out on the patio a few weeks ago and we heard the unmistakable sound of crowing coming from the coop.

Our beloved Claire (formerly known as Lisette) was crowing. Of course this was the hen I was really counting on to be a good layer as Rhode Island Reds are notoriously predictable.

Ah well. The best laid plans, right?

I contemplated getting two more grown and already laying hens to add to the brood, but learning that they would need to stay separated for 3 weeks led me to decide I should just stick with the two I have left. We might not get enough eggs from them to meet our needs, but at least we won't have fighting and diseases to deal with. Maybe next year we'll add some more.

So now we have Madeline ( I love her subtle coloring and her tail feathers) and Blacky Crow( a seemingly very grumpy bird with pretty feathers) Let's hope they LOOOOVE to lay eggs.

The coop turned out just gorgeous and perfect as I presumed it would. I absolutely love the turquoise window that allows me daily access to letting them in and out of the coop into the run.The top window swings upward for daily access, and then the bottom doors open all the way to clean the coop. They have their very own window, which slides open to let them in and out of the run.At night they go into the coop all by themselves and we just shut the window to keep predators out. My friend had her chickens killed by raccoons about three blocks away, so we are being cautious.
I love that the coop is situated right under the tree house, which provides plenty of shade and protection from the rain, and looks really cool, too! Now all we have to do is enjoy them until about September when they should start laying.
Next year I'm thinking bee hives...we'll see how the chickens go first!