It's an Egg!

September 01, 2009

As I was working in the chicken house this weekend, I saw Rhoda displaying great interest in the nests. She moved from nest to nest scratching and turning round and round. I just new I was going to get to see her lay an egg. No such luck.

Several weeks ago we put a golf ball in one of the nests (just like the books said) so she could see that's where eggs go, after all, she's working only on instinct; she's never been around chickens that lay and has probably never even seen an egg, except the one she hatched from. She must have figured it out today. When we got home this evening, the golf ball was laying in the middle of the chicken house and a perfect, medium sized brown egg lay in its place in the nest.

Building a Chicken House

We had talked for some time about building a chicken house to raise chickens for eggs, and Mom had mentioned on several occassions that she would like to have some chickens. After lots of research and looking at chicken coops on line, we drew plans for an small 4' x 6' coop to house half a dozen chickens. Then something went terribly wrong. We saw the Gopherboyfarms Chicken House on Backyardchickens.comand fell in love with the design. "Gopher Boy" had put not only a lot of thought into his chickenhouse but also into detailing how they built it...very entertaining. Needless to say, our small coop turned into an 8' x 12' chicken house with a 12' x 30' fully enclosed yard. And our half a dozen chickens turned into 23...Sigh we can never do anything the easy way.

We started out by framing the floor. It was easier to level it and make it square. The entire floor rests on a 4" x 6" beam and each corner and the center of the side walls is supported by 4" x 4" posts.

After framing the floor. Next we nailed in the floor joists and supports.

And then we got an audience

The hen party started long before the chicken house was finished.

And then we added the decking.

Next came the walls

And the trusses.

Siding

Deck the roof

Martha Stewart barn door red paint.

Shingles

Shutters to protect against the elements.

Trim, skirting, security lights, and porch lights.

What chicken house is complete without a weathervane?

It may be a little much, but we decided inexpensive linolium would protect the plywood flooring and help insulate it.

The chickens are here, the chickens are here! We ordered our chickens online from Ideal Poultry Breeding Farms in Cameron, Texas. We called the post office ahead of time to let them know we'd have chicks coming in the mail. The postmaster called us at about 7:00 a.m. as soon as they arrived and we went to pick them up. They were adorable!

This is Rhoda. She was the sole survivor of the great chicken massacre at my brothers. The dogs got in his chicken yard and killed all of the chickens but Rhoda. She was traumitized when she came to live with us.

Had to get the yard ready so Rhoda would have a secure place to run.

Sit back and enjoy the chickens.

Nothing better to do? Watch our chickencam.

You can also take a look at the chicken album.