My neighbors are probably a little frightened if they look up the hill in the morning. No one has ever accused me of being fashionable when I am on chicken duty. On  a recent, especially lazy morning, I couldn’t even bother changing out of my pajamas before donning my muck boots and heading out to give the ladies fresh water. Unfortunately for my legs, I was wearing a pair of monkey santa hat flannel pants, a gift from my friend Rebecca a few years back. They are wonderfully comfortable, and covered with these:

Unfortunately for my legs, the cute santa hats are the same color as tomatoes. Chickens LOVE tomatoes, so I had six hens attacking my legs, trying to extract tomato juice from my pajamas. 30 second later I escaped, but not before I had 6 painful welts (”chicken hickies”) all over my lower legs.

Moral: Do not wear monkey santa hat pants in the chicken coop.

If you’re looking for a quick start-up for a coop, you might consider the chicken ark. We made one from scratch, but if you’re not comfortable with saws and hammers you can just buy one. Here’s a pretty option, available at http://handcraftedcoops.com/.

Be warned, my personal experience was that the ark was difficult to clean (poop and chips get stuck in the corners.) I actually had a family of mice move in one year!  Also, they are HEAVY so it will take 2 strong people to move it. But, they are cute and trendy and the chickens will be safe from most predators. Here’s my peanut in the foreground, homemade ark in the background:

Thanks to my buddy Rob for passing this one along!

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!

OK, it’s been a long while since my last post. I’ve been having so much fun with chickens that I neglected this blog terribly. I will provide a high-level status update!

• Pro-chicken legislation failed; BUT
• Anti-chicken legislation was deferred indefinitely!

I still have my beloved girls, and they are full-grown and beautiful. Despite the cold weather, they have begun laying. Yesterday I had a record day: 6 chickens, 6 eggs! Now that they are up to production I am able to share the bounty with my neighbors. I am delighted to report that they love having chickens in the neighborhood, so my girls are safe from the law. At this point, the only reason I’d have to give them up would be a neighborhood complaint. I will post daily updates from now on!