I spent a full winter dealing with ice in the chicken water container coop. Twice a day, I would fetch the plastic water containers, bring them to the house and de-ice under hot water. I got tired of this, and then tried using a hammer to smash the ice out. The problem with that approach is that chickens need water, and if it’s too cold they won’t drink it. The next winter I finally spent cash on a heated dog bowl — it’s up there on my list of “the best $25 I’ve ever spent.” This is the model I use, available at Amazon.com: Farm Innovators 1-1/2-Gallon Round Heated Pet Bowl – Green Model P-60, 60-Watt

Now I change water once a day, and they have ice-free liquid all day. Definitely worth the $25.99!

Just as I thought I knew as much as I could about chicken keeping, I learned an important lesson, the hard way: Good drainage is critical for your coop location.

Our yard is quite small. We have a couple of acres, but it’s mostly a steep hill. The coop is built at the edge of the back hill. 2009 was a relatively rainy year, and the water flowed down the hill, directly into the coop. Every time it rains the water collects in the coop and creates a mushy, muddy, stinky mess. Good thing for my gals that I don’t mind some hard labor. Every time it gets muddy I don my muck boots and shovel out a layer of stinky mud. Chickens are notoriously wasteful of their food, so all the layer ration gets flung out on the ground and mixed into the mud. It smells awful when it’s wet, just a cloying, sickly smell. So, I have to shovel it into a wheelbarrow and haul it to my compost pile, and bury it.

If you’re considering a coop, keep drainage in mind. I am looking at my options, maybe digging some drainage tunnels behind the coop. Unfortunately it mostly rock and shale, so it’s going to be some hard digging!

Now Indiana has caught the chicken bug! Here’s hoping that residents are allowed to keep their backyard flocks. You can read more here: ‘Chicken underground’ emerges in Indiana

I was most interested in the “stealth chicken coop” concept. Apparently people are making coops that look like garbage cans to circumvent the law. I’d rather change the law so I can get a hot pick eglu!

Angie, one of the coolest people I know, adopted six Light Brahmas. If I come back in another life as an animal, I want to be one of her pets. Or one of Michele’s cats. Check out her coop (in progress):

Angie’s Girls:

If you’re handy, you might want to build your own chicken coop to suit your property. There are lots of good photos for inspiration on BackYardChickens.com. They have separate sections for small, medium and large coops. If I could offer any advice, based on experience, make ease of access one of your top priorities. You will need to clean this thing, and I’ve crawled in chicken poop enough to wish I had designed better access. Second, but no less important, is security. Remember, everything eats chicken. I sometimes stand outside the coop and play “let’s be a predator.” If I was a raccoon, how would I get in? A fox? A weasel? An owl? A hawk? A coyote? A domestic dog? An opossum? The list goes on.

Our coop in progress is a variation of the Playhouse Chicken Coop (see image below). The enclosed run should be a huge improvement over my last setup. I can’t tell you how many times I would shake my fist and yell at the red-tailed hawks circling the open coop yard. I also learned (Ok, this could be snopes.com material, if they reported on chicken fatalities) that owls prefer to eat the heads of chickens. I once entered the coop to collect eggs and found a decapitated chicken in her nesting box. I was new to chickens at that point and easily traumatized. Johnny, our neighbor, must have been worrying about my impending nervous breakdown. Scott spent the next eight hours enclosing the covered area of the coop, which prevented future owk attacks.

Which leads into next piece of advice – be prepared for death, potentially lots of it. It’s very sad when it happens, but everything has to eat, and chicken tastes really good. I did have many birds that lived 6+ years, including Larry the rooster who died of old age. More about Larry later.