Getting Into Chickens

Well, it looks like it's time to start chickening.  According to the displays in our local Tractor Supply Company (one of my favorite stores, by the way) it's time for peeps.  Since I'm already up to my eyeballs in eggs, I'm not going to order any right now.  We'll probably let our hens hatch a few just for fun, though.  But just in case you're thinking about getting ready to raise your own laying hens, I thought you might like to see my collection of ideas that inspired us to get our own chicken operation going.


Since we were clueless about raising chickens, I looked up a bunch of ideas online so we could figure out what we needed to do.  Here's a few coop designs that I liked.

We also needed to build a secure run.  We wanted the chickens to free range but needed them to be safe when we weren't home.  This one's my favorite....

I like the flower/herb gardens in front. I might do that eventually.

   We ended up just improvising with an old dog kennel that was already on our property.  It looks a little red neck, but serves its purpose.   It is very secure, which is the most important thing. 

 There's about as many different ways to house chickens as there are chicken owners.  So, don't worry too much about following a certain plan.  Chickens are easy going.  Just make sure they're safe. Because they have lots of natural predators, even in a neighborhood.  And they're real chickens. ...

We were all wondering if it was even going to work.  That's our neighbor helping me hold my side.

I covered the bottom couple feet of the fence with chicken wire to keep the babies in.  And then buried the bottom edge to keep the bad guys out.

Half of the roof is covered (to block sun and rain) the other half is chain link panel.

Hopefully we'll be building a run that's a little cuter looking this spring.  But, hey, it works!

On the inside...

After we built a wall to divide the building in half, we put a big window in for light on the back side. We used an old storm window that we already had.  Captain framed it in real cute so it matched the building.  I had to build a chicken wire window screen that could be removed so we could open and close the window.

I love power tools.  : )

 If we add another window, we'll just install the chicken wire under the window framing on the outside.  Hindsight is 20/20.

We stapled hardware cloth over all the openings on the ceiling and floor.

Cut a door that opened up to the run and could be closed securely at night.

Built some roosts.  We used little cedar trees from our woods.

And attached the nesting boxes.  It would be a while before they'd be needed, though.

Home Sweet Home to Manly Stanley and his happy harem.

Ta-dah!
Oh, yeah, and I stole the screen door off of the back of the house.  That way the air circulates through.  Can't have unhappy chickens, now, can we?

It's funny how you can look all over the internet and read a bunch of books and magazines about how to do something and your own version turns out completely different.  It's not much of a savings to raise your own chickens if you spend $500 making their coop stylish.  So, the whole idea is to use what you have or what you can get free or cheap and Make It Work.  Whatever the case, if it's legal for you to have a few chickens in your back yard---  Go For It!  If you have the space...have a whole flock.  I've never met anyone who regretted it.