June 2nd, 2008
Happy Chicken Day
I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but for Mother’s Day, or during Mother’s Day weekend that is, we built a chicken coop. Joie and the kids had decided several weeks ago that they would get some chickens to raise this spring. This requires somewhere for the chickens to live. Joie and I looked at a number of options, that included everything from buying a pre-built, small, TuffShed, to contracting a larger, storage shed/barn type facility.
As these discussions and research stretched over a week or two – something happened that really got things moving. The chicks arrived in the mail from the hatchery. So, they were setup comfortably, but temporarily, in our garage. In a large metal feed trough, with water, feed, straw and a heat lamp – they were well taken care of, but with 13 chicks in there, this was only a temporary solution. We needed a chicken coop. So, this became the mission and for Mothers Day, Joie requested chicken housing.
An ideal solution came with help from a neighborhood friend, Thomas Kucharski. Thomas is a great person, and among other things, a skilled carpenter. I had researched many plans for sheds online, but after speaking with him about what to build and how to build it, it was clear we could do this easily together. And we did! I made some sketches (I’m visual and have to do this for pretty much anything) and Thomas coached me through materials we needed and the process overall. I got everything we needed on site and then in one Saturday, we accomplished what you see in this Flickr set.
This was a really fun project – especially for me since I sit in an office day after day, week after week – as a business professional, I don’t often get to build such tangible things. It is very satisfying. But, there was a downside too. While we got all this done with great effort on Saturday, Mother’s Day on Sunday ended up being kind of a dud. My fault completely – just ended up not very well planned or executed. Sure, we had flowers, cards, and some gifts the kids made, but the dynamics of the day were odd and uncontrolled and things just didn’t flow well. While the chicken house was a success – mission accomplished on build schedule – I’m taking a Mother’s Day mulligan and am working on a make-good for all of us. We’ll make sure the kids really get a chance to celebrate their Mom – the worlds best!
Meanwhile, work on the chicken shed has continued. We’ve trimmed it out completely, painted it, added a 12 foot by 6 foot chicken run, created a “chicken access” from the shed to the chicken run, shingled, built hen boxes, and added roosting planks, among other things. I’ll post the most up to date photos when I get a chance. One thing you’ll notice is that it is a pretty nice shed. Nicer than one might expect for chickens, but part of the idea here was that once we are out of the chicken ranching business, we can clean it out and it remains as a useful gardening shed.
The great thing now is, the intent of the chicken shed is in motion – the chicks have moved in – the kids are charged with daily opening and closing and other chicken maintenance, and as a family we’re all learning how to be chicken ranchers together. Well, Joie had chickens as a child, so she has less to learn that the rest of us. She’s the head chicken rancher.
I think chickens have to be fairly mature to start laying eggs, so whenever that happens – if you are lucky enough to live close by or to see us from time to time, expect your share once the eggs start flying.
Stay tuned for updates!
