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(black feathers are from the shady tree habitants.)
November 14, 2011
Total cost ~ $75.00 including shingles & paint. I used 1x2s, we'll see how it keeps up in a year. The Girls' Playhouse & run is 4'x8'x4'. I'm hoping if the neighbor's next door are spying out their back window, they will only see the facade of the playhouse under our shady tree. I can't believe I figured out how to do the roof & shingles all by myself. Well, youtube.com had a lot to do with it :) Originally the sides were only 1' as I copied other designs at the feed stores as well as online here; but I added another 1' which is why the chicken wire is 1/2 way up the side. The first night in their new home, they slept huddled on the ground instead of the roosts; so I built a floor too. Of course, the next night they flew up to the roosts. They also walked right in & roosted at "bedtime"; so I only had to close the gate :)
Before positioning it, I raked up the landscaping rocks & then put playground sand in the run. I put straw down on the floor of the playhouse; but they love to spread it all over the pen too. The nests, although unused to this point, have Aspen wood shavings (from Lightning the hamster's cage supply). I hung the feeder and the waterer is up on rocks (although they still kicked a ton of straw in it this afternoon). Just realized I still need to jigsaw the "egg doors" on the side to. Looks like a job for "Honeyman"!
The girls now know if they see our 5 year old, that means scratch and they race up to her (much to her delight). They are 5 1/2 mo barred plymouth rocks according to the backyard breeder in Mesa. I did make sure they had rounded tail feathers & there isn't any Roo'ing but No eggs yet...
December 1, 2011
An egg! An egg!
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Zoey
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December 27, 2011
Two egg layers! And although we have two nesting boxes, today they were both squeezed in there.


January 17, 2012
THREE egg layers!
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October 9, 2012
It's been almost a year and I still can not train them to NOT poop on the patio. And their newest trick: Patio Table Since we are getting our yard ready for winter overseeding, I decided to spend a few $$ and build a run for them (~$20). It's about 3 x 10 x 4. I'm hoping to also build a "chunnel" between this one (continuing down this wall) and one that I'll build on the side of the house.
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They are still averaging 5 eggs/week each. So far, we've had some minor incidents. Our leader went broody for a good few weeks but the other two haven't at all. A week or more ago, I noticed our leader "Zoey" had started molting around her neck. But she's still been laying. The worst occurance: round worms appeared late last week. I've been giving them jalepeno peppers hoping to avoid this. I treated with Wazine. I'm hoping for total elimination.

Since I wasn't sure if we would get "called out" about our new pets with the HOA, I built the open coop with the cheapest material. OSB from the 51c bin at HD & 1x2s. Maybe I'll ask for a new one from Santa this year.


Girls finally learned to use the nipple waterer...only took a few days. And yes, that's a treadle feeder to the left built from the plans on this site.