Fowl Play: creating a hen house for fun!

Nothing entices me with the idea of pastoral paradise more than the crowing of a rooster at dawn, so you can only imagine how my mind took flight when my friend, JoAnne from Raleigh, North Carolina, told me that she and her husband, Levis, just established a chicken coop.

Now, as my thoughts took these fanciful flights, I wasn't thinking about practicalities--penning in the birds, and picking up after them--but of the enormous farm-fresh eggs that would have my mouth watering for omelettes every morning, and the charming clucking and pecking of fat, happy hens wandering around the yard.  Ah, sweet dreams are made of such thoughts....

But the reality is that this dreamy scenario can quickly turn nightmarish without proper preparation.  Establishing a viable hen haven is hard work.  Fortunately, JoAnne assures me that it's well worth the effort.

Of course, the first step in the process is to get your hands on some healthy chickens.  JoAnne and Levis bought theirs at a chicken auction.  Now, if you're like me, you probably didn't even know there was such a thing.  JoAnne happily recounted their adventures: 

"They had auctioned off two goats and a few rabbits as well. If we had a farm, we would have come home with the goats! We wound up winning the bid on the hens we had picked out before the auction: one Barred Rock and two Rhode Island Reds (pictured above). The Reds are beautiful, but I really love the Barred Rock. She's a big, beautiful bird. The funny thing is that when we were first looking at her at the auction, she laid an egg!  She acclimated easily to her new home. The other two, which had been sold as a pair, stuck together for the first two days, but slowly came out of the coop, and started exploring on their own."

JoAnne also graciously shared photos of their project.  She writes:

 

 

"As you can see in this side-view photo, Levis built the coop onto the shed to save room, and to save on lumber and siding. He used discount lumber from Home Depot. This was lumber that had flaws. It really helped to keep the project's costs down.

Inside the coop is a nesting area where the hens go to lay their eggs. This area can be accessed from the outside of the building by lifting the roof of the nest-area extension. Inside the coop is also a roosting area. This area has a pole for the birds to sit on, and a screen underneath for when they go to the bathroom.

Outside the coop is an eight-foot high fenced-in area with a gate. There's a sand pit in this area because the sand helps the chickens with digestion.

Attached to this fenced-in area is a four-foot high chicken run. The run is 40 feet long, and four feet wide. The chickens really enjoy this area, typically eating the grass.  One thing we were surprised about was how much water chickens can drink!

 

For anyone interested in learning more about securing and raising chickens, JoAnne suggests the following website:  http://www.backyardchickens.com/, which "has everything you'll need to know about chickens," she says.

 

Except the answers to those age-old ponderings: why they crossed the road, whether it was the chicken or the egg that came first...or why one should never count them before they hatch!  Seems like a harmless enterprise, after all.

 

Such timeless trivia tells us just how vital chickens have been to their human counterparts through the ages.  And for those of you who love them...start building your coops.  Plenty of hens are looking for homes.