Bird Brain

Having chicks for a little over a week is certainly making me the expert on chicken lingo.  Today I put a bowl of treats into their cage.  They all stood around ignoring it until one chick pecked at a piece of zucchini.  Suddenly the race was on and all four chicks HAD to have the same piece of zucchini even though there was a whole tray full over it.  They fluttered and chased each other all over the cage, spilling hay everywhere and surely ruffling their feathers.

Chicken Coop Day 1

After spending all day yesterday (a Saturday) looking at coops for sale online, on pinterest, on DIY sites we got nowhere!  The coops that we could buy were way to expensive and too small for our four chickens.  We also couldn't afford to spend $500 to $1,000 for something that looked nice and was big enough.  So we started trying to do it ourselves.  The day ended with frustration.  Luckily Katie had felt a little sick all day and had been stuck in bed so by the time the evening rolled around she was ready to go.  Dan and Katie went to Lowes at like 9 pm (gasp) and bought some wood and screws.  We were committed.  Without a plan in mind I knew I wanted something Dan called "fancy" for my chickens.  He brought home siding which matches the style of our house and some 2 by 2s.  After drawing a crude design we got to work this morning.  Dan cut and I painted.  We decided to stick with the colors of our house, which is pretty dull, but it will blend in nicely in the backyard and we already had the extra paint around from the previous owners so it was essentially free.  I also figured I could add a few touches to spruce it up.

After a day of work, I think it is coming together nicely.  We have the base of the house built.

A giant piece of siding to work with

Dan is cutting the frame

Katie is ready to paint

first coat is on

Painting the shutters (I tried 4 colors)

Everything is upright now

Katie Approves

The coop so far

We still have A LOT to do!  We need shutters for the other side, planter boxes, shingles for the roof and not to mention the practical stuff like roosting boxes, a pull out tray for easy cleaning, a stick for them to sit on, a ramp to get into the coop, and an actual run to play in.  Glad tomorrow is Monday and this probably will be sitting in the garage all week :)  At least if the chicks don't make it Katie will have an adorable doll house!