Chicken Pretties

As I lay here in bed, I have the melodious sound of Trouble our cat happily crunching away on another defenseless rodent who foolishly attempted to eat some of our produce. ... The other day at work a lady told me that with any luck the doctor would put me on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy, I think she was trying to be nice but I felt like saying, "Why on earth would you wish that on anyone?" Stuck in bed without being able to do anything is not really my idea of fun. Working on the farm is the only thing that keeps me sane(ish) and to take that away is just pure torture. Although I must admit that I have seed catalogs at the moment to keep me company the thought of ordering anything just to have it sit there staring at me is not really that fun either. So as not to dwell on the suckage.... lets look at one of the pretties we made this year:

Front view, although the pistachio and the fence slightly obscure it.

Side of the coop as if you walked out into the orchard area: Size: About 9ft wide by 17ft long by about 13 ft tall.

Bottom section of the blue opens up to allow easy cleaning of the straw on the upper story.

Top section of the coop is designated for roosting animals: Chickens and Turkeys. There are also 11 nesting boxes for them to use with hinged doors to allow for easy extraction of eggs.

Plenty of ventilation on both stories so that it will promote a healthy living environment.

Most of the material we used on it was purchased at Restore or we used from bits left over from previous projects. The birds like it just fine but I've found that the cycle of straw is the best thing ever! Cycle goes something like this: Add bale or two of straw to second story. This allows the chickens and turkeys to scatter it about a bit and to allow them to poop in it while roosting. For cleaning I first take out all the straw at the bottom and scatter it on crops or sectioned off garden areas. I then drop the straw from the top section into the bottom section. The ducks and geese go through the straw, but the best part is that the bulls still fit into the bottom section and they roll in the straw, kick it around, and poop in it as well. The chickens then come back in and scatter everything about leaving amazing compost to spread on the crops come cleaning time. Also, Jed gave me a garden hoe for Mother's day and it's one of the best presents ever!! I used it to clean up the coop, along with my pitchfork... I'm only lucky person to have found a husband who knows me so well. =) Love you Jed!!!