The Chickies Get A Permanent Home in the Backyard!

Just when we thought we were out of chicken housing options and were facing a chicken crisis, we found a solution. Donna kept checking Craig's list for possible chicken homes. We didn't find any chicken houses, but we did find a dog house built by a local, recent high school grad. I decided we would visit the local Craig's List poster. If he could build a dog house, could he modify it for use with chickens? When we met Grant, the builder of the dog house, we knew we had come to the right place. His place was further out into the rural part of our town, and he had at least 100 chickens, of many different breeds. Grant's chickens were well kept and preening like show dogs. This was a guy who loved and understood chickens. He agreed to modify the dog house into a chicken tractor. Here's Grant with the finished product in our backyard and the the chickens enjoying their new home.

Once we had the new coop in the backyard, we painted the tin roof and exposed wood green to make it more visually appealing for our neighbors.

The new home has turned out to be a winner. Rhett still enjoys looking after the chickens.

We occasionally have to move the chickens out when we move the tractor and put in water and food. Today, all three chickens got out of the tractor and were roaming around the backyard. Luckily, there were no hawks around to dive bomb them. Donna managed to round the chickens up and catch them with a butterfly net that we use for that exact purpose.

Here they are happily back in their tractor. We've got about three or four weeks before they're fully mature. We're looking forward to getting some eggs soon!

Still Looking for A Permanent Coop

By early mid-May, it was obvious the chicks were outgrowing their dining room table nighttime home. We looked online for possible permanent coops, but none of them appealed to us, and we thought the chicks would be too big by the time we ordered and built a kit. We kept them in the soccer tractor during the day, but of course, they couldn't be in there at night. We'd already spotted a large coyote roaming our neighborhood late one night, and we knew any home for the chicks would need to withstand an attack by this large predator.

At first we tried building our own permanent coop.

Here we are in our garage painting and priming wood. We eventually built a fairly large box out of plywood, and we attended to attach it below our kids swing set, which had a large platform, and was a perfect chicken coop size. However, we couldn't figure out exactly how to attach the box at a decent height. Not only that, we figured out that the space would actually be too big for our three chickens, and also, we wanted something that could be moved around the yard so that the chickens could eat the grass and bugs.

In addition to the coyotes, our area also has large hawks and cormorants, so we can't let the chickens free range. Belle, the pure white one, would not last long, as a hawk would certainly spot her. We've come home numerous times when our cat would be hiding from one of the hawks or cormorants circling above, so we knew the chickens would need strong protection from above. At this point, we only had about a week before the chickens would outgrow their current home in the brooder, and of course, they couldn't live in the soccer tractor at night. We were running out of time.

The Chicks Go From Babyhood to Adolescence

I'm Donna's husband, Dave, making this post. I have to say that, although I wasn't sold on the idea of backyard chickens in the beginning, I am really enjoying them now.

It's been quite awhile since our last post when the chicks were one week old. Since then, they've grown fast, and we've gone through several chicken coop solutions. The dining room table Target storage box brooder worked well for awhile, but the chicks quickly started to outgrow it. We came up with a temporary solution. After seeing some brooders online that were built with PVC pipe, I figured out I could modify my kids' backyard soccer goal into a chicken tractor. The kids so far have not warmed to soccer and never used it, and the size and weight of it was perfect.

This new coop only took a few hours to build, and it worked great. We moved it all around the yard, and the chickies were able to eat lots of grass and bugs and fertilize the lawn, just as I had hoped they would. Our dog Rhett really enjoyed watching them, too. It took him awhile to learn he was supposed to guard them and not eat them, but he soon figured it out.

The soccer tractor turned out to be very portable, and the chickies loved it.

Rhett really enjoyed spending time outdoors with the chicks. The only problem was, we couldn't use it at night, because the raccoons and coyotes would be able to make quick work of the chickens in a temporary shelter like this one. The chicks were clearly outgrowing the dining room table brooder, and getting bigger every day. So, the race to create a permanent coop was on.