Out of the laundry Room into the Fire

So it's a big day over here at blog HQ. The chicken coop has passed the home inspection and we are dumping our 2 week old chicks into it. We aren't exactly sure how old they are, but we bought them when they were bite sized and that was 2 weeks ago.

Since I have gained a good bit of knowledge from other bloggers writing about their backyard chickens, I thought I would take a moment to write about my coop building and chicken raising experience thus far.

We went with seven, which has proven to be difficult. I always count them to make sure they are all there and regularly only count six. I have a short panic until I spot the seventh, usually huddled up in a corner or blending in underneath one of the others. They all fit much nicer in the coop we have been working on for them then they do in a metal tub atop our laundry machine.



Perhaps my favorite part of our chicken experience thus far is watching Badger, the puppalupagus, obsess over the birds. They are his new best friends. He watches them endlessly fascinated at their every move. He will lick them and nudge them with his nose, but he has never hurt them. Below are a few shots of Badger over the last couple weeks:

saying hello in the living room

saying hello in the laundry room (their usual home)

and guarding the chicks in their little temporary pen.

Badger and I helped the chicks move into their new home today. I've read a good bit about chickens over the last couple weeks and the one consistent fact is that they regularly get eaten by any of the following predators; raccoons, foxes, opossums, owls, rats, weasels, pterodactyls, and snakes. It is a tough life. With this in mind, we tried to build a safe home for the chicks, but at the same time realize at least half (if we are lucky) of these little buggers will probably end up being the punchline in a Roald Dahl story. That is what makes the move a scary one.


As you can see above, the structure is nearly finished. We just need to stake up some chicken wire in the run area, and bury the extension chord (for the heat lamp). Badger is standing in front of the door. Once the pen is wired, you will be able to open up the small door, to allow the chickens to come and go, or the two large doors to clean the coop and collect eggs. We built the coop off the ground to protect from predators and allow more space, underneath the coop, for the chickens to muck about in the pen. The whole structure is 10 feet long, 4 feet high (at the corners) and 4 feet wide. The coop itself is 3 feet by 4 feet.

Here are the front doors. We salvaged the awesome wood from the barn on the farm when a good bit of it collapsed under the snowmageddon. The hinges were donated from a friend and are one of my favorite parts.

This little door will be open during the day with a ramp down to the ground so the chickens can come and go as they please.

Then when it is time to clean out the coop or collect eggs we can open up the whole wall. The chord in the back is for a heat lamp and the hanging feeders (one for food and one for water) may end up underneath the coop once the chickens grow a bit more. Behind Badger's head is a nesting area with 2 boxes and a little roof. We haven't installed the roosting pole, but we did add the little roof deck above the nesting boxes for some more chill space for the chicks.

You can see the nesting area a bit better here. There are two wooden slats that slide in so you can either have one big nesting area or two smaller ones, whichever the chickens prefer.

The chickens immediately seemed to enjoy looking out the window which is good. I am a bit worried that this window will be the weak link when predators come looming, but I think it is totally sealed.


Here are a few more photos I took today of the chicks moving in:

I believe this is an amber link. We have at least 2 of them, and maybe 4 of them.
Maebe came to say hi, but I think she would eat them, so I drop kicked her.

I'm not sure what kind of chicken this is, but she is much smaller than the others.

I think the one in the back there is a Rhode Island Red, but I can't be sure of that either. She is also pretty small.

shake it
Wish us luck.