- Oct 13, 2010
- 1,789
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- 153
Hi,
I have been checking out the chickens/coops/info on this site for a while and figured it was time to join up!
My "flock" is really my moms, but Mom is in her late 80's they are also my project.
We have had chickens at our county zoned "island" since the 60's when my parents bought their property.
Our chicken "house" came with the land and is falling apart. I had been telling mom no new chickens til we replace the old chicken house. But she enjoys her gals so much we went ahead and ordered 8 new ladies this spring (one turned out to be a roo) We have 4 older hens and a rooster who is about 10 years old. He is VERY friendly and a wonderful rooster.
I am midway to finishing up a new chicken house. (I got side tracked all summer with work and did not get it done in time for the new gals) I have the drawings, but will wait to post pictures til it is closer to being done. I designed it to look similar to the house with the problem of the garden being on a hillside and on a lower level than the house ( 3 foot retaining wall) I have an egg box that will be on the upper part of the lot so mom can get her eggs easy. Since rain is only a minor issue and cold winters mean you need a jacket and shoes, the chicken house is much more open than many I have seen here.
We also have a large area they are free range on, with our garden in the middle (Moat) The Chicken house is more a safe place from critters at night and to lay eggs, the yard around it is just to enclose them when needed. They have 25-30 feet around most of the garden to patrol (the top a bit less and the bottom a lot more space) and plenty of mature fruit trees to hide out under. We just cleared out the center garden area this spring, but our chicken patrol has done a good job. We rarely have a snail in our garden! Of course we do have a couple of pesky hens visiting it every now and then. We used "found" fencing this year so it was less than hen proof. We planted a flower border to the garden to attract the pests to the flowers, we used plants that the chickens did not really like to eat too. Hollyhocks, nasturtiums, feverfew, daffs, Ca Poppies.....
They are some lucky hens!
Now to figure out a Danish name for our hen house!
Carol
I have been checking out the chickens/coops/info on this site for a while and figured it was time to join up!
My "flock" is really my moms, but Mom is in her late 80's they are also my project.
We have had chickens at our county zoned "island" since the 60's when my parents bought their property.
Our chicken "house" came with the land and is falling apart. I had been telling mom no new chickens til we replace the old chicken house. But she enjoys her gals so much we went ahead and ordered 8 new ladies this spring (one turned out to be a roo) We have 4 older hens and a rooster who is about 10 years old. He is VERY friendly and a wonderful rooster.
I am midway to finishing up a new chicken house. (I got side tracked all summer with work and did not get it done in time for the new gals) I have the drawings, but will wait to post pictures til it is closer to being done. I designed it to look similar to the house with the problem of the garden being on a hillside and on a lower level than the house ( 3 foot retaining wall) I have an egg box that will be on the upper part of the lot so mom can get her eggs easy. Since rain is only a minor issue and cold winters mean you need a jacket and shoes, the chicken house is much more open than many I have seen here.
We also have a large area they are free range on, with our garden in the middle (Moat) The Chicken house is more a safe place from critters at night and to lay eggs, the yard around it is just to enclose them when needed. They have 25-30 feet around most of the garden to patrol (the top a bit less and the bottom a lot more space) and plenty of mature fruit trees to hide out under. We just cleared out the center garden area this spring, but our chicken patrol has done a good job. We rarely have a snail in our garden! Of course we do have a couple of pesky hens visiting it every now and then. We used "found" fencing this year so it was less than hen proof. We planted a flower border to the garden to attract the pests to the flowers, we used plants that the chickens did not really like to eat too. Hollyhocks, nasturtiums, feverfew, daffs, Ca Poppies.....
They are some lucky hens!
Now to figure out a Danish name for our hen house!
Carol
