Chicken Coop Prep

I have wanted chickens for a long time.  We eat a lot of eggs.  I think the quality of care for chickens that produce most eggs at the grocery store is awful.  

My ideal would be fully pastured eggs – and we have found a source for those.  Ordering can be a little hit and miss.   And there is, of course, the expense.  Pastured eggs go for anywhere between $5 to $7 a dozen.  

Keith had to dig 9 holes with the auger for our posts.
That was some good hard work!

We planned to get chicks ‘next spring’ (that would be now.)  Except that last fall we got word that my cousin was moving and needed to give up his 2 hens and a rooster by the end of November.  Did we want them?  As I recall, at the very same time, I said,’Yes!’ and Keith said, ‘No.’   Hmmm.  

Shed previously held Christmas decor and old file boxes.

Boys 'helping' dad

We had picked out the spot we wanted to build our coop.  Then, one day, I thought why reinvent the wheel? We decided to clear out my mom’s ‘Christmas shed’ and use the shed as the coop. (All Christmas do-dads were safely relocated to another shed.)

I quickly cleaned it out, and Keith got to work on building the pen around the shed.  It was actually, finally happening!  Very exciting!!