Our story is I used to be afraid of birds but then decided I really wanted fresh eggs when I decided to do healthy things for my body so instead of buying them from others chicken owners we got chicks and raised them and now love being a "chicken mama".
My boyfriend is a handyman and we watched videos and looked up on what others said were the best ways to make things easy when building and raising chickens and then my boyfriend just started building with no plans and things kept changing as new ideas came in for us. It took about a month to build it and then the decorating began and is still happening.
It is a 14 ft x 5 ft very sturdy coop. I'm not a builder so I can't give many details. We keep adding and changing things as the days go by, which is what is great about having a handyman around so when my crazy ideas popped in my head he could usually create what I wanted. I think the coop is beautiful and probably a little over the top from what most people do for their chickens but they have become my new passion so why not enjoy being creative and spoil them in the process.
I love things to be neat and clean and I heard this could be pretty difficult with chickens but I love to decorate and I took on the challenge of decorating it so it would be cute yet comfortable for the girls.
I take a lot of time with them and clean 2-3 times a day to keep it up but honestly other then the poop on the floor and ladder it is pretty easy to keep clean. I just use a kitty litter scoop. Having sand and gravel on the floor is the smartest and easiest ways to keep it up. We decided to wallpaper the coop walls and hang mirrors and two roosting bars inside the hen house and also decorate just to make it cuter. There is also a large mirror and roosting bar in the run area, and a dust bathing area under the hen house in the back of the run. We also have a roosting playground for them outside the coop. The girls get to free range in the yard and like to try to take over my deck area. All I can say is it is fun raising them and we enjoy doing the planning of it all.
I never knew how fun it could be raising and watching them go about and enjoy their days, and for us we find it very amusing and relaxing, each day is different and we continue to learn more and more. We are now looking forward to having some fresh eggs soon.
