The coop has become a repository for all discarded things that may be fun to bird brains.
We have an old dog house in there - they use it to get out of the rain. The guineas occasionally lay eggs in it. We got the doghouse when I got the dog kennel for the ducks - it was a freecycle find and you had to take both.
We had (removed tonight) an old ? barrel holder or ? thing to hold wood when cutting it. It came with the house when I bought it 10 years ago. They used it to roost.
We had a bunch of old really big pine trunk pieces in there, they enjoyed jumping on them. At one point I nailed a 2x4 across 2 of them for a day roost. They loved it. Bonus points: occasionally flipping the trunks over for them to eat the bugs. Eventually they rotted. It was a sad day in ChickenLand.
Last summer we were adopted by a feral cat. BF felt bad for it so he built it a cat house. If you're a fan of Star Wars, I will tell you I came home to find this thing in my driveway and I swear it was a Cat-AT-AT. I'll see if I can find a picture. Long story short, feral cat now fights me for my pillow each night, and the Cat-AT-AT has now become a legless chicken shelter.
Lastly, when we swapped out poop boards last year BF cut half the height off the legs and put it in the run and we dubbed it the Sunsetter Retractable Awning (it didn't retract). He had put a shelf over the back of the poo board that was about a foot higher than the actual poo board to help the fat ladies get to the roost at night. They loved it.
When that started to fall apart after a long winter, he got the idea for stadium seating based upon how much they fought over that back shelf, both when it was poo-board and when it was part of the Sunsetter.
We also have a covered turtle sandbox in there, that we put sand and wood ash in for them to bathe in. It's a special day in the spring when things have melted enough to open the Turtle Spa. It's an adventure in how many biddies you can cram in a sandbox.
The chickens definitely entertain us. I can say that we don't have any window treatments, so I assume we also entertain them. I do know Miss Piggy watches me around bedtime. She stalks me from one side of the house to the other through the windows until I come out and roost her. It's like having a stalker. You look out the window and there she is, staring back.
We have an old dog house in there - they use it to get out of the rain. The guineas occasionally lay eggs in it. We got the doghouse when I got the dog kennel for the ducks - it was a freecycle find and you had to take both.
We had (removed tonight) an old ? barrel holder or ? thing to hold wood when cutting it. It came with the house when I bought it 10 years ago. They used it to roost.
We had a bunch of old really big pine trunk pieces in there, they enjoyed jumping on them. At one point I nailed a 2x4 across 2 of them for a day roost. They loved it. Bonus points: occasionally flipping the trunks over for them to eat the bugs. Eventually they rotted. It was a sad day in ChickenLand.
Last summer we were adopted by a feral cat. BF felt bad for it so he built it a cat house. If you're a fan of Star Wars, I will tell you I came home to find this thing in my driveway and I swear it was a Cat-AT-AT. I'll see if I can find a picture. Long story short, feral cat now fights me for my pillow each night, and the Cat-AT-AT has now become a legless chicken shelter.
Lastly, when we swapped out poop boards last year BF cut half the height off the legs and put it in the run and we dubbed it the Sunsetter Retractable Awning (it didn't retract). He had put a shelf over the back of the poo board that was about a foot higher than the actual poo board to help the fat ladies get to the roost at night. They loved it.
When that started to fall apart after a long winter, he got the idea for stadium seating based upon how much they fought over that back shelf, both when it was poo-board and when it was part of the Sunsetter.
We also have a covered turtle sandbox in there, that we put sand and wood ash in for them to bathe in. It's a special day in the spring when things have melted enough to open the Turtle Spa. It's an adventure in how many biddies you can cram in a sandbox.
The chickens definitely entertain us. I can say that we don't have any window treatments, so I assume we also entertain them. I do know Miss Piggy watches me around bedtime. She stalks me from one side of the house to the other through the windows until I come out and roost her. It's like having a stalker. You look out the window and there she is, staring back.
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