It's beginning to feel a lot like home.

.....

New Coop Day!!!

It took an absolute age to paint, but it was worth it.  I am super stoked with it.

The coop was built by Andrew Fuller.  He has a working farm in Gloucestershire, U.K and also builds the most amazing summerhouses/playhouses and now coops, in his 200 year old barn.  He is a really nice chap and his houses are top quality.  He will happily try and meet any requests.  This was his first chicken coop and chimney!

http://www.birdwoodplayhouses.co.uk/default.html

Yesterday, I introduced my ladies to their new home.

At bedtime I had to gather them all from the determined queue they had made outside the rabbit hutch, which has been relocated to the spot vacated by their old coop.
The ladies, well, they prefer their old coop.  Mabel is convinced I've locked her in the chicken version of Alcatraz and Bridie isn't talking to me.

 They just stood around and stared and absolutely nobody wanted to be first on a perch.

...but, just before lights out, Violet was brave.  Hurrah!

I'm sure they'll soon love it and enjoy living there, but today, I have no idea where Mabel laid her egg...!

Night, night ladies, sleep tight x

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One step forward...

...quite a few back!

The coop has arrived. It is as brilliant as I hoped it was going to be.

I collected it on Saturday, and started painting it straight away, eager for the ladies to move in to their new home.  

Sunday dawned and with it, an unpleasant stomach bug.  It's now Wednesday and painting is still on hold.  This is one nasty virus.

It is very frustrating. 

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New Year, New Coop!

I've finally decided on, and ordered my new coop!

It's being built especially for them by a very talented local craftsman and should be ready in about a week.  I spent an hour today with Andrew (the craftsman), discussing nest boxes, perches and 'added extras'!

I then have to paint it as I want specific colours, so I expect I can add another three weeks onto that...(I am hoping to enlist eldest daughter's help to speed this particular process up ;) )

I will reveal it to you all when it's finished and the ladies have moved in. I am super stoked about it!

Until then I wish you, your families & animals (especially chickens), a very happy new year.

Much love,

Rachel, Mabel, Betty, Pearl, Bridie & Violet xxxxx

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Chicken Coop for the soul

I absolutely adore this coop.

If I could have any coop I wanted, money no option, this would be the one.  Not only is it adorable, it's roomy for my five girls and can be moved around the garden.  Isn't it just gorgeous! 
Flyte So Fancy make beautiful, excellent quality coops, I am hoping to purchase one of their coops for my girls next year :D

The link for it, so you can drool further if you like:

http://www.flytesofancy.co.uk/chickenhouses/The-Gypsy-Daydream.html

Their website is jam-packed with everything a chicken keeper could want too!


My husband likes our coop.  While it might not be as pretty as the one above it does blend into the garden well, and he likes that.

Can you spot it?

.....

Right, where's the Phillips screwdriver...?

Yes, the coop had arrived.


The postman very kindly heaved it into the hall.  I figured it could stay there 'til Paul got home.


There were two boxes...they were very large boxes - boxes that looked like the contents would take longer than half an hour to assemble.  


The boxes continued to sit in the hall for a further forty-eight hours.  They arrived on Thursday, Saturday was deemed the most suitable day for coop construction (a whole day to look for lost tools, mend split wood, or go to A&E).


Saturday arrived.  The boxes were carried to the garden and construction started.  Betty wandered over to see what was going on whilst Reggie and Brick viewed the goings on from behind the slide.

Construction under supervision

Paul wielded the screwdriver, Maddy and I held the bits together and Betty got in the way.  Between the four of us it was assembled in just under an hour.  This included chasing bubble wrap round the garden.


The coop went together very well.  It seems Cocoon are on a par with IKEA when it came to ease of assembly. We stood back and admired our work, then we stood back and looked down the garden where the coop needed to go.  We probably should have assembled it there...


Once the coop was in situ we were joined by all the chickens, who were keen to inspect their new living quarters.  

They paid absolutely no attention to the upstairs that I lovingly filled with sand after endlessly researching coop flooring.  However, they liked the downstairs and spent the rest of the day going in and out.  I did see Betty looking up the ramp and later found a little trail of footprints in the sand upstairs. Hopefully she, as the brains of the outfit, would show them where they needed to go.


That wouldn't be just yet though.  Betty was currently a house chicken and as such, had no interest in slumming it at the bottom of the garden, no matter how sparkly and new that coop might be.


As evening drew to a close, Betty wandered up to the house and I scooped up Reggie and Brick and popped them in the upstairs bit of the coop.  They were not happy.  They were not happy for a couple of hours and when eventually all was quiet; I had the feeling their mood had probably not improved.  Ah well, they'd love it soon...wouldn't they...?




And we never did find the Phillips screwdriver.

Coops.

I knew I had to choose one but there were so many to choose from.  I hate choosing, I take so long at it.


To help narrow down the choice a little, I wandered up the garden armed with a tape measure and surveyed the area I wanted to put the coop in.  The identified spot was currently occupied by a broken compost bin, a very broken wheel barrow and some old plant pots.  Looking past those little obstacles, the site was good.  It was protected from the sun and rain by trees and up against a wall; stopping the wind and acting as extra protection from any up-to-no-good animals!


This helped narrow my list down, it had to be a certain width and length to fit.  I knew I wanted a combined house & run, so I could keep them locked somewhere safe when I was at work, so that narrowed it down a bit more.


So I looked at chicken tractors...

...chicken arks...

...chicken houses without runs...

...and chicken houses with runs.

I also looked at Eglus, made by a company called Omlet.  These houses seem to be very popular and would certainly brighten up a back yard.  My husband was quite interested in these (as interested as someone who was having chickens thrust upon them could be) but it wouldn't fit in my carefully measured out space with its run attached, so it was out.

The internet is full of beautiful hand-made coops and there are coops I found in America that are amazing.  Unfortunately, I didn't have room for 'amazing' but here are some that I came across: 

Gothic chickens.

New England chickens.

Country cottage chickens.

It seems you can make a chicken house out of just about anything!

Morris Traveller enthusiast chickens.

Eventually, (and I can't stress enough how long 'eventually' took) I decided on one of the first coops I looked at - of course!


According to its measurements, it would fit into the allocated space.  The house was off the floor and it had a run attached.  There was a pull out floor to the sleeping area for easy cleaning, (which has turned out to be a a brilliant bit of design), ventilation was catered for and it had a nest box.  All boxes ticked. 

I ordered and paid for it before I changed my mind, again!  Now I just had to wait for it to arrive, which as it turned out was the next working day as promised.  It's nice when that happens, especially as I was going to need it sooner than I thought.