And Let There Be Light

This weekend a task finally got done that has been waiting to be done for almost a year, at least since we got the Chicken Condo built.  Permanent electricity has been run to the coop.

It is permanent because it is run underground through conduit that has been installed.  This was required because when we had temporary electricity (several extension cords strung together between the house and coop) the neighbor's yellow lab decided that a couple of them were chew toys.  And no, the power was not on at the time.  I'm not sure it would have mattered to that dog.

It has been mentioned before, but it will be said again, it is so nice having a neighbor that owns an excavating company and is willing to loan you heavy equipment.  The request was put in and a Cat Skid-Steer was delivered to my driveway with a bucket and a separate trenching attachment.

Before the photo, let me explain that it isn't as easy as it seems.  First, you are trenching backwards, so you can't see where you are going.  Next, the skid-steer pushes at an angle when you are trenching, making it difficult to go straight.  And lastly, well, my day job is behind a desk.  Need I say more?

 The first path was from the coop, and I quickly realized I was not heading directly towards my target.  I also learned a bit about controlling the depth of the trench.  Lets just say I explored the limits of the skid-steer.  The second path was from the house towards the coop.  And finally, it took two attempts to connect the initial two trenches.  Basically I chewed up my yard pretty good.  But I did successfully miss the buried propane tank, so I call it a success.

The wires were connected to the house and fed through the PVC conduit.  One additional connector was needed to finish the connection at the coop.  In true Haphazard Countryman fashion, I didn't have all the parts for the project, so it was off to the big orange box.

As I was leaving the big orange box, the Middle Son called me to tell me to get home quick, it was snowing!  Looking at the thermometer in the truck, it was 49F and sunny outside, and we are only about 15 miles away. The boys must be playing a joke on me. I got about 3 miles from the house and the temperature plunged to 33F and I drove into a white-out!

It only lasted a little less than an hour, but it left a nice white layer.  It even thundered while it was snowing, which in WI where I grew up, means a big snow.

The snow was fun, but it ended my electricity project for the day.  The snow was mostly gone by the next day, and the project was able to be completed.  A timer switch was even installed in the house so we can set it to go on at dusk and stay on until a set time.  That will help next year during the winter to give the ladies some extra light and keep them laying all winter, hopefully.

Chicken Down, Chicken Down!

 Friday night, after getting home from the spaghetti dinner and silent auction fund raiser at the elementary school, the chicken coop was needing to be closed.  After dropping my stuff in the house and grabbing a flashlight, I headed down to the coop to lock up.  There is a routine: close the fence door and flip the latch, look through the gap in the door of the Guinea Ghetto with the flashlight to count the ladies, walk around to the Chicken Condo to collect any eggs, and then head back to the house to deposit the eggs in the fridge.

This night was different.  When counting the ladies with the flashlight, there were only five.  Five?  There were supposed to be six.  Occasionally one will split from the crowd and go upscale and roost in the Chicken Condo.  After checking there with no luck, my attention went back to the Guinea Ghetto.  A couple times one or two would sleep on the floor of the Ghetto.  After opening the door to the Guinea Ghetto, and counting to five again, it was time to look elsewhere.

First up on the deck, where the lone guinea usually hangs out.  Not there.  

Then under the stairs of the deck where some of the ladies hang out during the day.  Not there.

Then a thought came to me.  When I picked up Oldest Son at the house after work before heading to the school for the big event, I noticed the dog sniffing around the garden.  He seemed very interested in something.  Being in a rush before, not much attention was paid to the anomaly.  

Upon arriving a the garden, the hen was discovered.  It was the Buff Orpington.  The head was gone and a bunch of feathers were off and around the body, but that was it.  The rest of the hen was still intact.  Not sure who the guilty party was, but we are now down to five laying hens.  

It's a good thing that spring is in the air and Southern States usually has a deal where you get six chicks if you buy a bag of feed.  We are going to need to replenish our flock to keep the eggs coming.

 

Buffy will be missed.  She was one of the friendliest and didn't mind being held, even by guests.

 

Molting Poultry

We have been wondering when it was going to happen.  Other blogs have been talking about their chickens molting and not laying eggs any more for the winter.  Fortunately, that hasn't happened to us...until now.

We are only getting three eggs a day right now out of our six chickens, which still isn't too bad.  The only chicken that we can tell is actually molting and losing its feathers is the Black Australorp shown above.  She looks so pitiful with her neck feathers all falling out and her body feathers looking a bit spotty.  Fortunately the other chickens aren't bothering her and she is still able to stay with the others in the same coop and run.

We have been wanting to get a ditch dug between the house and the coop so we can get some electricity down there.  When the Chicken Condo was built, I installed a light bulb fixture and an outlet inside.  When we ran an extension cord, the neighbor's dog ate through two of them that were linked together.  The only problem now is that the chickens roost in the Guinea Ghetto instead of the Chicken Condo.  Aaargh!

Fresh Eggs

Fresh eggs are hard to beat.  Everyone said that once you get used to fresh eggs, you'll never want to eat a store bought egg again.  The first fresh eggs we ate was good, but it had a unique taste.  More than just having a unique taste, it had a taste.  Store bought eggs are more of an egg looking item that just takes up space.

Fresh eggs have such bright yolks.  It is one of the things you notice right away with fresh eggs.  After a little while, you get used to it, and then when you end up at a hotel buffet with scrambled eggs, you notice the dull color of the eggs languishing in the Sterno heated tray.

Fresh eggs to go with the pancakes.

The exciting thing is that we seem to get more double yolks than with store bought eggs.  Not sure if that means we have defective chickens, or they are still getting their systems figured out with this whole egg laying thing.  

The main point of this post is how easy it is to have a few chickens and get some fresh eggs on a daily basis. While living in Phoenix we had thought about having chickens but were weary about all that was involved.  In reality, we could have made a Chicken Condo like the one we have here, changed the door to a ramp underneath the coop and closed in the bottom with chicken wire and we would have been set.  It would have been a perfect home to two or three chickens.  Why did we wait so long?  

Chicken Gone!!

This chicken thing is fun and frustrating all at the same time.  Fun is seeing them grow up from chicks and get to know us, so that they come running to me when I get home from work.  Fun in lifting the lid on the nesting boxes and finding fresh eggs waiting for us every day.  Fun in listening to them talk to each other and us as they wander around the yard, eating bugs and grass, free-ranging to their hearts content.

Frustrating in watching them wander over to the neighbor's yard and hang out over there.  Frustrating in watching them start to roost in the Guinea Ghetto instead of the wonderful Chicken Condo I created for them.  Frustrating in watching them disappear, which is what happened this time.

At last count, we were seven chickens and one guinea.  One of the Black Australorp chickens went missing.  This time there was no evidence as to what my have happened.  No feather trail through the yard like there was when we lost four of the guineas.  Nothing.  Not a trace.

Last Black Australop left in the flock.

The feathers on the Black Australorps have a green tint when the sun reflects off them.  They are really a good looking chicken.  We started with pairs, and now the Black Australorp and Buff Orpington are singles.  The Ameracauna and Barred Rock chickens are still pairs.  Not that it matters since they are all hens and all seem to get along fine.

The most disappointing part is that they are all laying eggs, so we were getting a solid seven eggs a day, and now we are down to six a day.  Nothing to shake a stick at, but one less than before.  We're a little more cautious now with the chickens, keeping them in the run if we are going to be gone all morning and letting them out in the afternoon when we are home.  This seems to keep them closer to the house than if we let them out first thing in the morning.  It seems to be working and they are all hanging around closer to the house.  Hopefully, this means we will be at a steady six eggs a day until winter comes.

General Thoughts and Musings...

Sitting here in the middle row of the Ford Expedition heading south, time has presented itself to me. It's not time at home, which could be put to use doing a slew of tasks, including finishing any of the half started projects laying around the house. It isn't even time at work, which could be put to use looking forward and getting a development plan in place, or coming up with the next great thing. This is time sitting in a car with only the resources in my lap. Luckily my resources include a 3G iPad2. This is new to me as the driving duties traditionally fall to me. With this unheard of extra time, you will get a preview of some of my thoughts.

Chickens & Guineas
Only one guinea remains, and it decided it doesn't like us anymore. The last two nights it hasn't come to roost in the coop or the run. It is still around, but seems to spend more time at the neighbors than at our house.

Why do the chickens not roost in the Chicken Condo? They all have decided to bunch up in the Guinea Ghetto. There are two roosts in the ghetto that would hold all seven chickens, but three or four will use one roost and the others will lay on the bottom screen. They have a nice Condo with a roost, two four-pane windows and three luxurious nesting boxes. Luckily they still lay their eggs in the nesting boxes. That is except for one Americauana. It has decided to lay it's eggs in the woods. Hearing it do the egg laying sqwauk one day, I ran down to the woods but couldn't find the chicken before it finished it's duty. That chicken needs to be kept in the run for a few days so it will learn that the nesting boxes are where it should lay the eggs.

Bees
Daylight time hasn't been available as I haven't had a chance to inspect my bees after the hurricane, but I assume they are all still standing as Possum hasn't called to notify me of any issues. The Oldest Son went with me to my bee club meeting last night. After hearing the discussions there, my bees need to be fed to get their winter stores up before the cost sets in. Their feed isn't just sugar water, but also pollen so they have the right nutrition. My confidence level is high that two of my hives will be fine this winter, but I am nervous about the third. It looked weak at the last inspection. The gentleman from my church that gave me my first hands on experience this spring has wanted to see my hives, so I need to schedule a time to get together with him to go through my hives.

Around the House
There are so many things to do: finish replacing can lights and sealing outlets from the home energy audit, finish pressure washing the deck and then seal/stain the deck, get a quote for installing a retaining wall and leveling a lower patio area in the back yard, get an estimate from the lumber yard for the materials to builds the detached garage/workshop, build a new larger coop and install a second run for a second attempt at the guineas next spring, replace the fruit trees that didn't make it this past year, install some trees along the driveway for the Good Wife, clear out the woods behind the house for the Good Wife so you can see further into the woods easier, wax both cars as it has probably been years, and all the regular maintenance that needs to be done, such as cutting the lawn and general clean up. Hmmmm. Time to prioritize a few of these tasks and get some projects completed.

A friend has also brought the possibility of raising a couple beef cows. I have a horse pasture we aren't using, and figured why not put a cow or two out there. Neither of us have a clue how to raise cows, but one of the Oldest Son's friends has some calves they are willing to sell us to start our project. The meat sounds real good, fresh grass fed beef without hormones or antibiotics. Not sure why we haven't started that project. Another thing to add to the list.

But not this weekend. This weekend we are heading to the beach with some friends. The mom of the family that is joining us grew up with the Good Wife, and they are both a lot of fun to hang out with. I'm just not sure who picked a shark infested beach to hang out at! The Good Wife's older sister is going with, and she is in the passenger seat of our car right now, which is why I am in the back. The Good Wife's other sister and family from Knoxville were supposed to join us also, but their schedule didn't work out. I am really going to miss them as I really enjoy hanging out with the Good BIL (Brother In Law). He is the one that is discussing the possibility of doing meat chickens with me. I have no clue how to process a chicken and he has done it in the past, so I have offered to raise them if he will head up the processing. I'll help, but not sure how helpful I would be as it would be all new to me. This opportunity is still in the discussion phase. Maybe next year.

Postscript
There was a bit of a problem with this post and my iPad, so it didn't get posted Friday afternoon as intended.  After finally getting it to work, it is now getting posted as we are getting ready to head home after the weekend.  Everyone a bit sunburned, but still alive and no sharks to be seen!

First egg...from a chicken!!

Doesn't it look beautiful?  I never thought I would be so excited about something so simple.  Wednesday we left the chickens in the run most of the day until I got home from work and let them free-range for a little bit before dark, but nothing.  Today I let them out of the coop before I left for work thinking they must not be ready yet.

Tonight when I went down to the run to close it up for the evening, I opened up the lid of the nesting boxes and there it was, tucked down in the corner of the straw.  Not the biggest egg, but it is the first.  No idea which chicken laid the egg, but it is a start.  Let the eggs begin!!

EGGS!!...kind of.

We had our first two eggs the other day.  Unfortunately they were from the guineas and one was crushed.  They almost slipped past me without noticing as I was putting some food into the guinea ghetto coop.

Since all the chickens and guineas have been free ranging during the day, their poop has gotten bigger and bigger, almost comparable to something a Canadian goose might leave in a public park.  Not to delve into the subject in full detail, but they have been very dark colored, almost black with a nice white round cap on them.  It almost looks like a bunch of small ping pong balls in the bottom of the ghetto coop.

As I was putting some food into their coop the other evening, there it was.

You can understand now how I almost missed it.  It was tiny, not much bigger than the size of some of the poop.  There I go again, referring back to the excrement of the guineas.  As I looked further into the coop I saw another egg, but this one had been crushed and dripped down through the mesh.

It also was pretty small in size, and the shell looked pretty thin.  I'm guessing the guinea laid the egg while it was on the roost and then when it hopped off the roost in the morning, it landed on this egg and crushed it.  Either that or the guineas are just so big and lumbering that as it was walking around in the ghetto coop it just stepped on it, and since the shell was so thin, it just crushed.

I recovered the one good egg and thought about putting it into the chicken condo to see if one of the chickens would sit on it and hatch the egg.  I put it into one of the nesting boxes and the barred rock chicken that was in the condo at the time walked straight over to the egg and gave it a good peck with her beak!

Not wanting the sole surviving egg to get pecked to death and become dinner for the barred rock, although it would seem like sweet justice for all the harassing the guinea gang has given the chickens, I quickly grabbed the egg out of the chicken condo.

After taking some straw and making a nice nest of sorts in the guinea ghetto coop, I placed the egg gently on the nest in hopes that the guineas would figure it out and start to lay their future eggs in the guinea ghetto coop so they would be protected from the elements and any possible predators.

And there the egg has laid.  I check every evening and every morning now, but no more eggs.  After the attack, we weren't sure if we had two male guineas, or a male and female.  With that question now answered, it only leaves the question, "Will there be more?"

Guineas Versus Chickens - The Feud Continues

It was a rather frustrating and sad day today.  This morning middle son came to me after letting the chickens and guineas out of the run to free range, and said one of the Buff Orpington chickens was still laying in the coop.  He thought that maybe it was going to lay an egg.  We went down there to take a look and it wasn't good.  I noticed a little bit of blood on the her side, and then I noticed some more blood in the corner of the coop.  Not wanting to alarm middle son, that fact wasn't pointed out.

The guineas have been chasing after the chickens at times, but usually at night when it is time to close up the run, the chickens and guineas are on their roosts in the guinea ghetto together.  For some reason, the chickens haven't been going into the condo.  I suspect that one of the guineas got mad at the chicken for some reason, and picked on it a little too much.

After getting a pair of gloves, I put the chicken into the chicken condo so she could rest without anyone bothering her.  We placed one of the watering dishes next to her, but we could tell something wasn't right.

Already being late for work, I had to leave.  I got a few phone updates from oldest son during the day that the chicken was moving from place to place in the coop, but he hadn't seen it standing up.

On the way home, I received a final call.  It appeared that the chicken was dead.  It was in a corner of the chicken condo and wasn't moving.  Upon arriving at home, a garbage bag was in hand and we and headed down to the coop.  All three boys followed along.  No time like the present to learn a lesson of life and death.

The chicken was definitely dead, as it's head was twisted around and it wasn't moving.  Picking it up by the leg, it was already stiff.  I guess no fried chicken from that bird.  The good wife had worked the night before, so I don't think she was up to plucking and processing the chicken anyways.  I would have no idea what to do to process the chicken, but the good wife had seen it done growing up in Morocco.  Not that she could have done it, but that is another discussion.

Youngest son wanted to bury the chicken by Stripeless.  The others voted not to bury the chicken, as we hadn't given it a name, other than Buffy, and that was a general term for both of the Buff Orpingtons.

The two Buff Orpingtons at a younger age.

I'm getting really tired of the bullying that the guineas dish out to the chickens.  It is time for them to earn their keep.  The point of having the guineas is to reduce the bug population, and particularly the ticks.  They have been wandering over to the neighbors across the road, and we have been herding them back.  Now they are on their own.  We will let them out in the morning and if they come back at dusk, they will have a place to roost.  If they don't come back, so be it.  Our investment is in the chickens, and we need to make sure they are taken care of and not in a constant state of harassment.

In case you are keeping track, we are now down to 7 chickens and 6 guineas.  We could really use some good news on the poultry front.  How about an egg soon?  That would be good news.

Update: Chickens, Guineas and Bees

It has been some time since I have given and update on the chickens and guineas.  They are doing well and growing fast.  They seem to be eating more and more, which seems appropriate for growing animals.  We have taken a few of the friendly chickens out in the yard while the dog has either been on the leash or in the house.  We would really like to get the guineas “free ranging” so they can eat the ticks, which is the main reason we are raising them.  However, we need some more time for the dog to get used to them so he doesn’t run them away from the yard or worse yet, make lunch out of them. 

One of the guineas is getting aggressive, and starting to go after some of the chickens and peck at them.  It only seems to go after the Black Australorps, so I’m not sure why this is happening.  I really don’t want to make a separate run for the guineas.  Maybe the guineas are still mad about their ghetto coop while the chickens get the chicken condo.  Either way, if it doesn’t stop harassing the chickens, it may get to fend for itself outside of the run permanently!

The bees have turned into a hurry up and wait proposition.  I started going to the bee meetings last September,  ordered my nucs in November, ordered my hive equipment in December, assembled my hives in January and February…and March…and April, but I still don’t have my bees.  As I have been looking on the internet, apparently everyone is delayed in their packages or nucs.  I’m not sure if it was the cold spring we had in this area or what, but I know they want to make sure the bees are strong and in full swing when they send them to us, so I can’t be upset about that. 

I am hoping to work some bees with a gentleman from my church before I get my bees.  I would like at least one hands on experience with bees before being trusted with thousands of bee lives.  I have read from cover to cover the “Beekeeping for Dummies” book, so I have all the head knowledge.  But everyone tells me that I have to learn to roll with the punches with bees, in that they will do everything and anything that they want, so don’t count on normal. 

I’ll keep you posted as my bee adventure gets buzzing!

Settling In

It appears that everyone is settling into their new accommodations now.  The guineas seem to be OK with their ghetto coop, and the chickens like their condo.  The dogs (both ours and the neighbor's yellow lab) seem less and less interested in the chickens and guineas whenever they are out in the run.

Fenix checking out the guineas.

I added straw into the run where it was dirt to hopefully keep the mud down a bit.  I also put some on the ramps for the coops in the hopes that it would give them a little traction to get up and down.  Not sure it worked too well because the birds picked it all off the ramp and had no problems going in and out.

The only issue I have been having now is when I open both the chicken coop and guinea coop doors at the same time.  After a little while, everyone ends up in the chicken coop.  Apparently the guineas like to go uptown and hang out in the nice digs.  The chickens don't seem to mind right now, but once everyone gets a little bigger, it is going to be a tighter fit in there.

Two Barred Rocks and an Ameraucana venturing out of the coop.

The only chickens that have been adventurous enough to go outside the coop are the Barred Rocks and Ameraucanas.  The Barred Rock are the friendliest and will come right up to us and let us hold them.  The rest are a bit shy, so we need to pick them up more and get them used to us touching them.

As soon as the guineas get bigger, I think they will be able to defend themselves from the dogs.  Hopefully by then everyone will be used to each other and it won't be a big deal, otherwise we may be fertilizing our yard with feathers once the dogs are done with them.

In case you were wondering, we never did catch the seventh guinea.  We have been letting the remaining six loose in the run every day hoping that they will make some noise and attract their brother back to the pen, but we haven't seen or heard from him.  We may have chased him into the next county and is now living happily on some other farm.  Unless we see him again, we are going to stick with that story.  It makes for a happier ending!

The birds are free!...at least from the basement.

After the realization that the guineas have been starting to use the entire basement for their home, I figured it was time to get everyone outside as soon as possible.  A few bad guineas spoiled the fun for the whole crowd.  Although, the chickens were definitely getting the better end of the deal in the chicken condo.  I had to get them out before they discovered my wife's seedlings she is starting in the basement.

I intended to spend a good part of Saturday getting the guinea coop ready for their occupation, but the good wife had other plans.  She wanted something nice around the house, so I was off to Home Depot.  (I didn't bother putting a link since I have done that on enough posts!)  Luckily I called ahead, because they only had one sod cutter and I arrived just before someone else that also wanted a sod cutter, but I had called ahead! Score one for the good guys.  After coming home and failing to "cut the sod" where she wanted, because it was more rocks and dirt than sod, we decided to work around the house some and removed the sod all around the one end of the house where we intend to put mulch and few shrubs.  After hosing the sod cutting beast off and getting it loaded into the back of the truck, I was off to Home Depot to get it back before my 4 hours expired at 3:30 pm.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It was now almost 4 pm by the time I got home and hadn't done anything on the guinea coop.  I do have to give the good wife some props though, because while I was gone she painted the panels for the guinea coop to match the chicken condo.  We didn't want the guineas to feel too ghetto.

I was able to get all the panels onto the guinea coop and a ramp for them to come up and down.  I had to wait until Sunday morning to get the feeder and waterer installed into both the chicken condo and the guinea coop.  The idea was to each have their own home and stay separate, so the guineas will start to free-range later on their own.  However, we woke up Sunday morning to bit colder weather than anticipated.

Yes, it snowed Saturday night and Sunday morning.  Notice the matching guinea coop on the left and the chicken condo on the right, thanks to the good wife.  By Sunday afternoon, the snow had melted and I was determined to get the birds out of the basement.  I put a heat lamp into each coop and put the water and food in.  The only thing remaining were the birds.

My oldest son and his friends gladly transported the birds to the coop and the run.  That evening, we got the chickens into their coop and sealed them up all nice and tight, and then caught the guineas and put them into their coop.  They were a little more reluctant since they just had a wire bottom, a couple of wood clothes rods for perches and a heat lamp.  Not quite the lap of luxury like the chickens have.  We wished them the best and then let them get to sleep.

Looking down from the deck before bed time, everything looked so peaceful.  The chickens in their condo with the heat lamp on, huddled into a ball close together to keep warm in the pine shavings.  The guineas up on their perches under the heat lamp, sleeping away with their heads hanging low.

It was supposed to be cold Sunday night.  Now we just had to hope we didn't wake up to guinea popsicles!

The Chicken Condo

I'm not sure what it is about this fresh country air that makes me want to go outside and build something.  Last fall I got it in my head that we were going to have chickens so that we could go outside and get some fresh eggs whenever we wanted.  I didn't know the first thing about chickens and have never raised a chicken in my life.  My wife had at least seen them processed for dinner while growing up in Morocco.  She was one step ahead of me.

So I took the first logical step and headed to the internet.  It is amazing the amount of information that you can find about raising chickens on the internet.  The two best websites I found that have the most information and the friendliest people on the internet are East Coast Chickens and Backyard Chickens.  East Coast Chickens is just a forum, but it is a lot of local people in the greater Richmond, VA area, so they are raising chickens in the same conditions that I would be taking on.  Backyard Chickens has the most general information, about all things fowl, not just chickens.  They also have a great forum with an amazing number of participants all across the country.  If you can't find something there, then it doesn't exist!

The one theme that came across on all the websites I visited was that I should have their permanent home built before I bought chicks, because it always takes longer than you think, and the chicks grow up quicker than you think.  Apparently once you buy chicks, your time estimation skills are ruined.  Taking this to heart, I decided that was a project I should start.

After going online and finding all sorts of websites trying to sell plans, forums showing sketches and pictures, I had a general idea of what I wanted.  I even went onto Google SketchUp to see if anyone had posted any plans.  After printing out a bunch of ideas from SketchUp and various other websites, I sketched out some rough plans for my coop.  The next step?  Home Depot!  You can only plan so long before starting to build.

A nice 4'x4' base seemed like a good place to start.  A nice foundation to build up from.  And build I did.  (I apologize for not having a full set of pictures and plans, but I built this before I started my blog, so I didn't have this process in mind.)

My youngest son decided to join in the fun, and told me that if the whole chicken thing didn't work out, could he use it as a fort.  This gave me an out of the chickens didn't work out, which at one point, I was glad I had!  I continued to read on the internet when I had the chance and build the coop at night and on weekends.  I'm glad I listened to the advice of all the random people on the internet, because it took me about 6-8 weeks to build my coop, but it was finally done!

I know, the red and white are a farm cliche, but it was my first new building on my property and it seemed fitting.  My wife even picked out the red color for me.  

It even has electricity and a built in light for the winter when the chickens need more light to keep laying eggs.  Another tidbit gleaned from the internet.  I also put an electrical outlet inside in case I need to plug in a water warmer for winter or a heat lamp if I use it as a brooder in the future.  It has two front windows that open with screens, a rear vent, three nesting boxes with a lid that opens from the outside for easy egg access, a side chicken door to let the chickens out and a side human door for easy access to feed and water.  But the one thing I am most proud of is the poop door.

The poop door provides quick and easy access to the poop tray.  Everyone on the internet said that cleaning the coop was the most difficult task, and anything that could be done to make it easier would let you enjoy your chickens, and eggs, that much more.  So I built a tray with walls on three sides to hold the pine shavings, and covered it in linoleum.  That way, when it is time to clean the coop, I can pull my garden trailer or wheel barrow up to the side of the coop, slide out the poop tray and scrape all the used pine shavings into the trailer.  Then slide the tray back into the coop, close the poop door, and put down a new layer of nice clean pine shavings.  I am assuming that once the chickens see the luxury condo that I built for them, they will be happy chickens and gladly produce nice large brown eggs for my family.  In theory, this all makes sense.  Once I put the chickens in there, it may all go out the window.

So now I had a beautiful chicken coop in my garage.  My friend Dave from Phoenix stopped by to visit in early November, and after admiring my coop, asked why it was in the garage.  With him there and willing, it seemed like an appropriate time to move the coop from the garage to the yard.  After scooting the coop to the edge of the garage, and I say scoot because that is about all we could do, we needed a new way to move it.  I hadn't just built a chicken coop, I built an anchor.  That coop weighed 400 pounds, at least that is what it felt like!

We decided that we would jack it up, back up the truck, put on the motorcycle hitch carrier and then lower the coop onto the carrier for the ride down to where it would sit in the yard.  After about an hour of jacking up the coop and getting the hitch carrier under it, we were ready to lower the coop.  We started to lower it down, waiting for the carrier to hold it.  We kept lowering it, kept lowering it, kept lowering it, and finally when the coop touched the ground, figured that even though the hitch carrier is rated at a distributed 400 pounds, it wasn't going to be strong enough to hold the coop.  How much does this thing weigh?!  Maybe my first estimate was accurate.  I didn't have the chicks yet, so apparently my estimating skills were still intact.  We needed a plan B, aka, the neighbor.

My neighbor isn't just your average neighbor, he owns an excavating company.  And what do excavating companies use?  Heavy machinery!

He just happened to have a large tracked diesel bobcat at his house that weekend.  And not just any bobcat, but one with forks!  He gladly came right over, lifted up the coop with ease and motored it down into the yard.  Thanks Clay!

It sure seemed bigger and heavier in the garage than down in the corner of the yard.  But there it sat, in all it's red and white farm glory, waiting for the chickens.  Ready to be the centerpiece of my urban farming adventure.