The Chicken Coop Addition
Brent and I agree, one of the best things about the blog is that it acts as a sort of diary of our life. I started this blog back in 2011 and since that time we have documented everything from our wedding and the birth of our two sons - Croix and Lot, to every renovation and DIY we have tackled between the two houses we have owned. So it seems fitting I should acknowledge the craziness we are all living through today as way to document this time for our future selves to remember and look back on. We are on day 17-ish of self quarantine. The Corona Virus is running rampant throughout the country, so we are trying to do our part and just stay home, social distance ourselves from the masses and honestly just be thankful for our health and our home.
Other things we are thankful for….our chickens! Eggs are hard to come by these days with the grocery stores running low on this type of food, but lucky us we typically get 3 eggs a day and they are as pretty as they are delicious. It’s a highlight to make our way out back each day to collect eggs and enjoy the warm weather, but one thing making it even more enjoyable is a little addition we made to the coop earlier this year.
As a reminder, this is the original coop set up:
The chickens were happy and who wouldn’t be? They had free reign around the backyard and a safe little haven to retreat to at the end of the day. Chicken life was good, albeit a little dramatic at times, it was smooth sailing until a few annoying little happenings started popping up.
Annoying Happening #1 - they had an affinity for plant destruction.
Exhibit A:
They love plants as much as I do. And by love I mean, love to destroy. They sat on them, plucked the flowers and leaves and dug around in the dirt. They straight up ate our herbs days after we planted them and ultimately made a huge mess and path of destruction on the regular.
And annoying happening #2 can also be seen in the photo above if you look for it. CHICKEN POOP. Sorry to be crude, but if we are going to be real about chicken ownership, we can’t skip over the poop. So, obviously chickens poop, we weren’t surprised by this fact, but because they had free reign over the backyard, which includes the patio around the pool, the poop became a work around and started making walking around on the patio less desirable.
We needed to get things under control so we decided it was time to incorporate a little addition to the coop to box the chickens in a bit.
The game plan was to add a fence with a gate from the existing coop to the side of the house. The only issue was the gate to get inside the lower portion of the coop was on the outside, so we ended up modifying the side panel to add an entrance there too. That door typically stays open all day while the other door (the original) is rarely ever opened now.
The addition went down pretty fast and we were able to get the addition built and painted in a weekend. The chickens acclimated relatively quickly and seemed to accept their new digs. Still plenty of space, but a much more designated area now which I think makes a big difference, both for us and them.
For us, the change was huge. We now walk around freely, most of the time barefoot and don’t have to watch where we step. As for the plants, the weather finally allowed us to move a bunch of them back outside over the weekend. I would say we (the plants and I) are able to breathe easier now, but unfortunately the chickens have been replaced by Lot, my 1 year old as the new plant destroyer. Oh the joy in his little eyes as he holds a fist full of dirt, fresh out of the planter. SIGH, he may be joining the chickens in their newly renovated home soon. :)