All Cooped Up

Devin ordered chickens.  *sigh*

So that means we're on the hunt for chicken coop designs.  I don't want a run-of-the-mill coop that looks all hickish and tacky, so I told Devin to get his thinking cap on and we'd put together a list of features that we like from various coops around the web.

The Victoriana coop to the right here is super cute, but it doesn't really have any features that I like.  And let's face it, I'm not Victorian in my decor style in the least.  Elizabethan?  Maybe, but Victorian aw, heck no.

Another coop I like the look of, but can't bring myself to emulate is the black plantation style one.  It's stylish for a chicken coop, but it's kinda plain, and really pretty big.  Also, it doesn't have a slide-out bottom that would make cleaning it easier.  And making this process of chickening as easy as possible is really, truly my main goal in the whole process.  Seriously, man.

Another coop that I found to be super well thought out was the Omlet (ha!  cute name, right?) Eglu Go!  This British company thought out a whole lotta fun stuff and that's fantastic and all, but I'm pretty confident that our chickens would bake alive inside that thing when the 120°s come around.  It's the inspiration for a lot of our coop plans though:
We like the slide-out ew-gross-poo drawer and the slide-out egg collection drawer.  We also like that their run has wire that lays horizontally on the outside to keep predators from getting in.  And since our neighborhood is full of stray cats, that's probably a really good thing.  So, we decided that we'll probably incorporate those designs into the look and feel of something similar to this Frank Lloyd Wright chicken coop from Portland, Oregon.

I don't know if I can sell Devin on the siding look or not, but I'm sure trying hard.  The best thing about this design is that it's made so that there can be a garden on the top of it, both serving as garden space (which we totally need because of all of the tree planting that's been goin' on 'round here) and a way to cool the house in the summer for the chicks.  'Cause having plants growing on the roof actually makes the inside temps a ton cooler.  So we'll use those elements to come up with our own coop design. And I like the modern looking gray and white (of course I do, practically my whole house is gray and white) and it aligns itself with the plans we have for the back porch.  Oh yeah, baby.  We totally have plans for the porch.  It's gonna be awesome.


Devin went to Mesa Feed Barn and bought six pounds of chicken starter feed for $2.70 today.  Which is awesome because guess what?  Amazon wanted $12.49 for five pounds.  Woot!


I'm preparing myself for life with chickens.  My urban fantasy?  Ruined.    I'm going to try to treat the little Easter Eggers like pets.  I won't give them names like Dinner, Breakfast, and Lunch like I'd originally planned.  Since the cats are all flowers (how very hippie of us, I know), maybe all of the chickens can be states?  or holidays?  birds of prey? Ah, I don't know.  We'll think of something, I'm sure.

What We're Reading: Shesten - Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin
Devin - Rise of the Black Wolf by J.S. Lewis and Derek Benz