Ain't nobody here but us chickens

Building the chicken coop turned out to be quite the adventure. After doing some research and looking at lots of photos, we decided a chicken tractor was the simplest and most economical design.

Ya right. Then Dave got involved ;)

Here are some shots of our deluxe accomodations for our four fine feathered friends -- and it only took about 6 weekends to complete! (Sensing the bitterness?) Dave designed this whole thing from scratch and did a great job.


Dave is attaching the chicken wire on the final building day. The last step was to screw on the side pieces that cover the nesting area shown above and below.


The nests are on the right - there are three on the bottom level, two above that and one at the top. The chickens should start laying eggs in the fall, and we can open the back wall to take out the eggs. Can't wait! There is a hole in the floor and a ramp for them to hop down and peck around in the grass when they're not sleeping. They can get down all right ... but they won't go back up, so every night Dave goes out and moves them to their beds. High-maintenance birds, I tell ya.


Final shot from the open end of the coop. After we moved it onto the grass we realized the sprinklers were going to totally soak the thing, so we put up more protective boards over the ends of the coop, to keep the food dry and avoid direct water shots to the chickens. What a pain.



The kids had a great time through the whole process. Caden was outside with Dad every step of the way, either trying to help or "whittling" the 2x4's with a pocket knife. Then they started making "inventions" by screwing together the scraps of woods. It was great creative fun.