3.28.2009

Yay!!!

Alex and David spent the better part of yesterday and this morning building our chicken coop in the rain. This is the third (fourth?) straight day of rain. This area really needs it so I am grateful, and on the other hand I am feeling a tad bit claustrophobic. I kept watching them from out our kitchen window this morning and couldn't help but think of the irony that they were out there building a coop, and Lili and I felt so cooped up inside. Would that be irony or something else?

Anyhoo. The coop (the chicken one) is 8'x8' with a shed roof. I was really hoping for a gable roof, but it knocked $100 off the cost to go with a shed roof~ Nonetheless, I still think it looks pretty good. I think our 32 chickens are going to be snug as a bug and happy. We put in a little trap door to shovel the poop out, and it will have a few windows too. We plan on putting linoleum down on the floor so it is easy to clean. We will have to build laying boxes (8) for them, and still fence them in an outside area. And after that we will once again have backyard chickens!

I would like to encourage anyone and everyone to start their own little chicken thing. If you had three birds you would get about 2 eggs a day. Chickens are super easy to keep, and you can even keep them in the city often. Just a fun idea. My sister's doing it. :)
Here they are, buliding out in the POURING rain:
The rain let up this afternoon and we decided to take advantage of it and go for a family walk in the fog. Much of the time Lil does not want anyone holding her hand while she walks- she wants to do it herself. So today when she willingly grabbed my hand as we were heading down our steep driveway I was pleasantly surprised. Then Alex came up and she reached up with her other hand. He took her hand and she loudly exclaimed:
"YAY!!!"
That one word washed all my cooped up grumpiness away.

4 comments:

Adam said...

We've had city chickens for five years now. It was something I wanted right away when we bought our house.

Now our renters even have chickens!

Ours just started laying again after taking a break during the winter. Two-to-four eggs a day now. Hurrah!

Any reason why you're not going to just let them roam free, out on your mountain? Will the dog bug them? Predators?

Last year our chickens all got eaten by raccoons, since we moved closer to woods and parks and predators. But I sealed things up nice, and the new ones are doing quite well.

Hooray (and Yay!) for chickens!

Anonymous said...

Yay for chickens and yay for family walks! I"m heading out for a solo walk in the rain, which has it's own charms. Loving you!
Caren

Erin said...

Even I like our chickens! That looks like a pretty great little chicken house. Yay for grumpiness being washed away with a little Lili love!

Unknown said...

that looks like so much fun! I'd love to have chickens one day. And it rained here in Atlanta for 3 days straight, too... now I'm ready for some sunshine!