Our chicken-keeping friends told us that chickens were “much less work than taking care of a dog.” They lied. However, what they did not tell us was that I would become a card-carrying chicken fanatic in very short order. Crazy chicken-lady? Fine, if you must. But I prefer, The Chicken Chick™. I began looking at different chicken breeds and egg colors online. I was amazed at the variety! Who knew? Some of the breeds were very cute and you can get hens to lay blue eggs- I was sold.

Now, about my husband…I needed to get him on board the Backyard-Chicken-Keeping-Train, but how? Fortunately, he is a reasonable man who can be persuaded with subtlety over time (aka: verbal Chinese water-torture spanning approximately a year.) Whatever works. It helped to suggest that he build our chicken coop- the idea of being able to use a plethora of power tools had to have clinched it.  He began to diagram things and price out lumber. However, it was July already and time was not on our side. The pre-fab coops we had seen online began to seem like reasonable alternatives.  Count us in!! It was decided. We’d buy our coop and he would build the run (power tools still in play here, fear not).

The delivery guy was happy the route was all down-hill as his flat-bed had broken down two houses away!
Strategically marking the coop placement with a plastic ball (my bright idea). We chose the location based on the shade/sun ratio, the ability to view the coop from our house and the proximity to a compost pile (aka: the woods).

Roosts on the left. Stand-by for the modifications in future posts. There was nothing wrong with them, it’s just that part of chicken-keeping involves constant modification. It’s part of the gig.