Ch-ch-chickens!

[layla]

... ow. Arms hurt. Feeling very wimpy now.

We built a chickenhouse on Sunday, and today I drove into town and picked up two chickens (a rooster and a hen) from a co-worker of mine who had offered them to us. (He had to get rid of the rooster because of housing covenants where he lives.) Hopefully they'll be joined by another chicken or two before the summer is out ... assuming we manage not to kill these two.




The basic chicken house, nice and tight to keep them from freezing into chickensicles.


Added a roof and a coop.


The rooster and his lady in their new digs.


Lucky is intrigued. So far, the dogs are being very good dogs and, while curious, aren't causing problems. I had to yell at Izzy once (I have no idea what happened; all I know is that she vanished from my sight and suddenly the chickens were kicking up a ruckus in their pen and Izzy came scuttling my way when I yelled at her, looking guilty) but ever since that fracas, the dogs seem to have written off the chickens as "crazy human things" and are mostly ignoring them.


Their very first egg in their new home!

Comments

[naye]

What a neat little coop! The house looks very cozy. And- wow, nice egg! Yum.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

It came out wonderful - weathertight, insulated and cozy! And the stupid chickens won't go into it! They slept out in the pen last night. I even tried to lure them in with a trail of feed. We put them in the house to start with, and after figuring out how to get into the pen, they flatly refuse to go back into the house. Maybe they blame it as the source of their woes. I guess I'll just keep attempting to bribe them with feed. Luckily we designed the house so that part of the roof overlaps the pen; the idea was that they'd have somewhere outside they could go in the winter, but it also gives them a place to get out of the weather until they decide to stop being ... chicken about the house.