#CHICKEN COOP AND RUN HOW TO#

While this is a positive thing for our economy, we feel a small twinge of disappointment each time we drive by a farm that has a for sale sign in front of it by a large developer. We live in a small town that continues to see development. Before we knew it, we needed a bigger chicken coop and started investigating all kinds of chicken runs and coops for the backyard. That was all it took to get us hooked on chickens! We added more exotic breeds to our flock: bantam Sebrights, Frizzles and Silkies and some new layers, giant silver Cochins and the reliable Leghorn. Then it was on to the fair, where our oldest daughter won Grand Champion, Standard Other Breed, for her Ameraucana chickens the trophy was bigger than the bird.

Our daughters, ages 8 and 10, were so excited when the first egg was discovered and they tried to guess which hen had laid the precious prize. We started again and moved our portable chicken coop to a safer location with a better fence. The next-door neighbor’s dog wiped out all of our original flock except for one bird who was renamed Lucky.

#CHICKEN COOP AND RUN HOW TO#

We had many trials and tribulations learning how to raise baby chicks, deciding when it was okay to turn the heat lamp off, how to dust for lice, etc. Newly moved to clean country living in northern Colorado from metropolitan Phoenix, we started out with a small flock of six chickens in an A-frame portable chicken coop in the backyard.

Marci Fouts, Colorado – Our chicken love story started out like many others. The loose tin can on the waterer keeps the birds from jumping or sitting on it, resulting in a much cleaner unit. The roost is simply a branch from the yard, and the nest boxes were found on the property, with plywood added since the bottoms had rusted through.

Chicken coop and run