We have been slaving away at the new house, madly working to get it safe and secure for all the critters when we migrate them over on April 1st, and spending MONTHS searching for chicken coop ideas that we could incorporate into the new spot.
This means fencing off almost 3 acres to protect the Blind Dog from the road. This will also protect all the chickens from the neighbourhood dogs, and my veggie garden from the deer!
And actually building THE COOP.
I capitalize it since nothing we do is done halfway! We BUILD. We CONSTRUCT. We DESIGN and we CREATE!
It took us months of clearing to figure out exactly where the coops as going to be in the yard. We took down 5 trees, and layers of leggy salal to finally find the right spot. Just sunny enough that they will get light but won’t be roasted chickens on a summers day. And incorporated enough into the garden space that it doesn’t look like an afterthought, (or like we are trying to hide it) but also not sticking out like an obnoxious sore thumb.
We wanted to make it a part of the space, so the coop itself will ended up being fully landscaped, and a nice spot to enjoy the hens and the yard, once we are complete. The metal stakes and wire fencing will be replaced by cedar posts and hand crafted arbours as well to make it pretty and pull it more into the meadow area naturally.
We up-cycled the 3 windows and the old door and built the coop around them.
And error on our sizing created the cute little deck out front (see, even mistakes can work to your advantage) and the nesting boxes were from an old rabbit hutch. We widened the holes and stacked them to allow for more room. The tops pop off as well for easy cleaning!
Now, it still needs siding and a paint job, not to mention roosts inside! Thankfully there is a bundle of beautiful arbutus wood down on the island since the windstorm and it will make amazing and sturdy perches for the birds. We did get a handy little sliding door built in so we can let them into the enclosed yard without even opening the main door.
For now, it is safe and we will have a place to pop them on moving day! And huge kudos’ go to my mom and dad for helping us get this project done! It became apparent just how much they like the free eggs we give them when they made this a priority project!
Now, all we need to do is move the 26 chickens, 3 rabbits and 2 dogs! Eek! It is going to be CHAOS!