The children are adults and left the coop so we thought we'd fill it with chooks instead. I blame my gardening hero Janet Luke - she who has quail, rabbits, miniature goats, bees and ducks at her place. That's eggs, meat, milk, honey and more eggs. Not sure if she has started killing the ducks yet, but she knocks off the bunnies regularly and is working on a nice fur blanket. She also has a standard size section as opposed to our large allotment sized property.
After the mad measuring of space available for potential chicky coop, I turned to library books on chicken coop design. Alas, despite much considered research, this aspect has proven to be the downfall of Ma and Pa Bishi's chicken farm. Neither of us thought it through until it was too late and the girls were proving that the darn thing was too high and the pitch of the roof too sharp and they really weren't all that fussed about going to bed up there, never mind laying their eggs in the right place. Like good new parents we were concentrating on things like chicken selection, rearing, diseases, food etc. and "can I give up some of my vege garden and can we actually squeeze in a two-chook-coop?"
Unfortunately (or fortunately from his point of view) Pa Bishi was the builder and a very proud builder was he! This was his contribution to family history, an 'A' frame chicken coop. In the days before the girls moved in he was frequently to be found at the window staring admiringly at his handiwork. Alterations were obviously the answer and major ones at that, but male pride was on the line here. So how to broach this delicately? I don't know, I've never done delicate approaches. But !#@!&#!! seems to have done the trick.
To date one ramp with grips and a ground level entry have been added and Priscilla the partying chook has shown the cowardly Camilla how to do things when it's bedtime. Camilla is a bit slow and so far has been physically put on her roost each night. She doesn't seem to mind and somehow they both get down each morning. I'm a nervous wreck from worrying about the girls and Pa Bishi's feathers are ruffled, but he's carried out the necessary alterations to Chez Chic.
Do you manage to successfully keep chickens? Wish you could? Like the concept but afraid to put it into practice? Check out the books above - they are really helpful. The girls are lovely and cluck away in our garden and one day I won't worry about them at all.
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