31. December...

Yes, yes it HAS been a while since our last update!
With the early December baby long overdue, Mom has a few moments to get to details that have been missed these last few months.

So, without further procrastination, we recently had our first snow!!
Here is a view of the coop:



Pablo, the reigning coop rooster, and some of the new as-of-yet-still-unnamed hens test out the first snow of the season. He soon calls them back in with a few roo-clucks. Along with the weather came some wind and falling branches which took down the netting roof... so add another project to the coop to-do list!

30. September Arrives

Over the summer we finished the roof, enclosed a run off the coop hatch and netted over the top. Since then, we've been trying to get other projects on and around the house done and this coop blog has been sorely neglected because of it!!

So, to keep things up to date, we still intend to paint the coop red to match the house and center supports will be needed for the netting before the snow comes... However so far so good. Aside from hearing some raccoons through the woods and the soaring above of hawks and owls, our flock has been safe this season... The fall may bring about new animal antics so we have our eyes out and our ears open.

Inside the coop we created another roost since the newly hatched flock was using the nesting boxes as their night time sleeping spot which, in turn, kept some of the older hens from wanting to lay eggs there during the day... Also, we added some new nesting spots. At next coop clean I will take out the camera and post the photos.

29. Roof is DONE!

Amazing, I know... The roof is finally done!

The next projects are to make another roost inside the coop for the new birds (so far they have been sitting on the nesting box supports which is not ideal), siding the one last interior wall of the coop, bird netting the top of the fenced in run, tying up all loose ends of hardware cloth on the fence and then super-finally painting the structure!!
The fenced in run has been a wonderful addition to our coop project - assuming we can get the chickens to stay inside (hence the cover netting on the to-do list!). Also, if we need to leave the house through the evening, there is some peace of mind to having them kept inside the fence (assuming again that we can get them to go in the fence all together once they have been enjoying the great free-range outdoors!

Either way, in or out, life with chickens is wonderful and I can't see myself living without a few beauties in the future...