Chicken Adventures

When we were still in the process of moving my good friend Sue came over to the new house and helped me build this little structure out of old windows I had picked up for free off the side of the road.  The front door is hinged and there was a latch so we could close them up at night.

This structure was only supposed to be temporary until we could build or buy something more permanent to move them into. I was nervous about their security but we had put the window box on a large piece of plywood so nothing could dig in to get them and the kids were very faithful about locking them up every night.  Ricky thought it was the silliest thing but we didn't lose a single chicken while they were in this window box! We had lost one chicken during the day because they would jump over the fence and go in the woods to free range all day and the one didn't come back to get locked up the one night. 

It was supposed to be a temporary house but of course we had so many other things going on this summer and never got around to building a new coup.  Ricky finally decided we needed to buy a coup or shed for them and I did some research and found an Amish guy close by and was able to custom design our new poultry shed. 

We just got it as the shell, nothing on the inside. But he painted it and put a window a back vent and a chicken door on the one side and a larger door on the other side for turkeys or goats or dogs or whatever.

Ricky built the nesting boxes and put in a roosting bar for them.

And built this wall with loft to section them off... We have a lot of extra doors leftover from the construction upstairs.

So the middle part when you walk in will be for food and he'll build a wall on the left for turkeys in the summer.

The chickens really seem to like it and we even got four more to go in with them.

Now I don't have to worry about the dogs pestering them during the day... as long as they stay in their fence.  I clipped all their wings but still the other day the rooster and his hen got out and something ate the hen.  It was a snowy day and I'm suspicious it was either a fox or a hawk.  We were able to get the rooster back though and bought a new hen from the neighbors to make up for that one.  So it took 11 months but we finally got them moved into their permanent house :)