Places to Party

Monday, October 19, 2015

The "Chickery"

  • 8 Exhausting weekends
  • 3-5 People each time
  • 3 Gallons of primer
  • 1 Gallon of paint
  • 12 cans of spray paint
  • 4 rolls of hardware cloth
  • Lots of expensive lumber
  • 2 scratched fingers
  • 1 old screen door found in the rafters of the garage
  • 1 can of old stain found in the garage
  • 1 messy house that hasn't been cleaned in 8 weeks properly
  • Several chores that have been put on hiatus

For six chickens.

At this point I figure I have the most expensive eggs in the world.

But finally, the chickery is done.

I typically post every week but there has been a lot of silence on the blog as of late.

Every waking moment has been dedicated during the weekends to this project.

And not a moment too soon. As I was painting it, snowflakes were falling!


Yeah, those are automotive stands holding up the bottom of
the nesting box after it fell off. At one point the entire nesting
box came off!


It became readily apparent as soon as we got our coop together that we bought on Amazon, that  it wasn't going to last the summer let alone get through our hard western New York winters. It started falling apart before we even got finished building it.











There are pieces of it all over my yard..









I bought this book.



 
We decided to make the coop a bit bigger because the initial plans were for only four birds and I had six. Then our friends who had offered to help (and had much more chicken experience then us) pointed out that we would be creating a death drop of a run if we simply made more house than coop.
 
 
 
 


It was never supposed to be this big.

Before we started I called my local village enforcement office . As long as the coop was less than 10'x10' we didn't need a permit I was told.

This coop measures 4' x 10'. We figure we could get about 18 birds next year.






Steve working on the door.




Every weekend found us working on the coop.

This weekend we put the final touches.

There are still some cosmetic things I'd like to do, but at this point the girls could move in.



Or I could  rent it out. It's about the size of a small apartment in NYC.... Maybe recoup my investment?









Our friends originally anticipated that it would take 1/2 a Saturday to build a coop. Six weeks later we were still building this.




 This weekend we finally  put up the ramp and the handle on the door.


I had a mishap with the primer..
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 





The heat lamp is clamped down tight high up and roosts are built.

It got so cold this weekend the paint wouldn't even adhere to the door.














But this week is supposed to get a bit warmer so I can finally get that done and move the girls in.



I feel like we've all been through the wringer but we all feel better that the girls will have a permanent home over the winter.


And I won't have to worry about "Chicksicles".






They grow up so fast...

Back in April

Now



All buckled down for a long winter.
































 

 

 
 

14 comments:

  1. lovely! and they have plenty of room to roam and grow while being safe and warm! My brother is talking about building one for some chicks next year - now do I tell him about this or wait and see what happens? :)

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  2. This is amazing! I've told my husband since we got married that I wanted chickens (or a breed of egg-laying ducks). He said I could get some when we bought a house. Then we bought a house without much of a yard in a planned community. . . so I guess I'll have to live vicariously through people like you!

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  3. The chickens are so much fun, they are such amusing little girls. Love them all.
    If you do have him build it Crochet Hooks, make sure it's a lot smaller than this one! We are so sick of building it, it's not funny. But glad to have it done!

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  4. This is so cool! My husband wants chickens one day, and with the amount of eggs we eat, I see the value in it for sure.

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  5. I currently have four dozen in the fridge. At the cost that these are in the store now it's so definitely worth it!

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  6. Your introduction was wonderfully clever! :) Thank you for sharing your chickery with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays!

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  7. Stacey! I loved your story. ... Your long list of 'input' for 6 chickens. I laughed outloud. Good for you. Their eggs will taste amazing, have no doubt. Thank you for linking this up at SHARE IT 33!! I love stories like this. So, a new party will open again tonight/tomorrow and we hope to see you there again... and read more clever DIY writeups! ~ Rose

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  8. Thank you so much for sharing your journey to make such a wonderful home for your chickens with us at the Hearth and Soul Hop! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post!

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  9. So cool! Pinned and tweeted. Thank you for being a part of our party! I hope to see you on Monday at 7 pm. We love partying with you! Lou Lou Girls

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  10. Nicely done on the big project! I can't wait until we get some land so we can have some chickens of our own. So since the chickery is bigger than you expected, will you be getting more chickens? Thanks for sharing at Talented Tuesday.
    Cheers,
    AJ

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  11. Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop

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  12. The chicks are living in style now! Great job!! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  13. Great house for your chickes! I love chickens in the yard! Thanks for joining Home Sweet Home!

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