Sunday, April 4, 2010

chicken coop & such

A couple of weeks ago, Kenton started building our chicken coop, with some help from his dad.


Finn has been excited to work outside with Dad & even has his own work gloves for the tough jobs. :)


Unfortunately, I haven't been very good at getting much of the process photographed...


This was done on the first day...


...this too.


Jump ahead a week or so & we have walls, doors & a roof! In my defense, we've had one of the rainiest Spring Breaks that I can remember. It seemed like every time I thought about photographing the latest progress, it was raining.


Here's the front. We got the glass door from BRING Recycling. It has a little key so that we can lock the chickens in safely at night. :) It's also big enough that we can get into the coop to clean it out, when needed.


Inside the coop.
Kenton made the nest boxes out of a storage shelf that had been left in the garage when we bought the house. He also covered the floors with linoleum (for easy clean up) that had been left here too! Much of the wood was left in the shed in the backyard & we've only had to buy a few boards & sheets of plywood here & there. We've been able to keep the costs down, so far. I love free stuff! :)


We brought the chicks out to the coop once the roof & doors had been installed to get a sneak peek at their new home. From top to bottom, here are Opal, Hazel, Fern & Stella waiting for their turn to go in the coop. I love how Fern looks like she has fancy eye-liner on. :)


The chickies mostly stood in one place, a little huddled together, & took turns pooping. It cracks me up that they poop as soon as we put them in a new place...like the empty bath tub, when we clean out their box. Silly chickens!


Left to right: Brunhilde, Opal (hiding behind Brunhilde), Fern, Hazel & Stella
You can already see their feather filling in on their wings & tails & they're just over a week old! They get more feathers every day! But if you click on the picture, you might be able to see Brunhilde's soft, downy head. :)


All 6 (barely)
Brunhilde, Stella, Opal, Hazel, Fern & Dorothy's backside.

It has been so much fun getting to know their little personalities. Opal is the most tame & doesn't mind being held. Fern & Brunhilde freak out, peep loudly & jump from any height to get away. :)

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