Monday, February 22, 2010

Chicken Coop Mods - Just Begun


I have such a hard time calling this a chicken coop! It's a playhouse!  My goal is to give the chickens more space by making an enclosed "yard" for them on the near side of the playhouse.  These large hens should have about 4 feet apiece, which would be 20 sq feet total.  What they've got is maybe 10 sq feet.  The challenge is that I want the "yard" to be where the playhouse is now, and the playhouse to be closer to my front door (barely visible behind the playhouse).  The playhouse is now resting on 2 pieces of 4 x 4 plywood, so I moved the hens to a dog crate and shimmied the plywood apart.  Then slid the playhouse back, breaking 2 eggs in the process.

That's all I did with the coop yesterday.  Over the course of the week, I'll try to get a frame built and chicken wire put over the yard (just like some schoolyards on building roofs in NYC).  I'll roll the wire down from the top of the playhouse window and put a ramp in so the chickies can go in and out through the window.

I didn't start working on this until mid-afternoon.  In the morning, I made muenster cheese with the last 2 gallons of cows milk from last weekend.  That was roughly a 5-hour endeavor that I couldn't do during the week (and really, it turns out should have done on a Saturday, unless I wanted to stay home today to turn the cheese over in the brine solution as the instructions say.  The cheese is brining unflipped today while I work for a paycheck to buy more milk).

Now, cheese made, playhouse mods started, sun is shining. Life is good.

4 comments:

  1. You sound as though you are having a blast this year!! No more defence!!

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  2. It's true! I'm SO much warmer than I was last year!

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  3. Those lucky-ducky chickens! Can't wait to see their addition/play yard.

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  4. Yeah, and in the spring you need to add my swingset to give them more exercise and excitement! Good work on the cheese. What kind do you think you would eat/use the most??

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