HAHAHA. Ok really… hey guys!! THE COOP IS FINISHED!!!

Two months ago we were looking at an overgrown, unused space in our back yard, and then our friend said hey you should get chickens, and despite our attempts to be sensible human beings, we now have a chicken coop! But it’s more than a chicken coop. This is a mega structure. A behemoth of a thing in our back yard which has one purpose, to contain tiny fluffy butt raptors.

As Pierre has been building it, he would frequently stop and look at the size and wonder why we are the way we are. He stopped calling it a coop long ago, and started calling it a chicken palace. It’s big. And it’s beautiful. Which inspired me to name it … wait for it …. Cluckingham Palace! Bahaha I crack myself up.

We spent this weekend working furiously to finish it. Pierre has done all of the hard manual labor, building, sawing and hammering and nail-gunning (?) and fighting with chicken wire. He has all the scrapes to prove it. I helped to paint the hen house and made some signs and decals to decorate the place. I’m tired and sore, and I barely did anything. I don’t know how he does it. He’s a machine. He has worked on this thing for two months in his spare time, sometimes 12 hours straight, from dawn until after sunset.

But it’s finally finished. I mean, for all intents and purposes, it’s finished. I will be adding plants and greenery and he’ll build some benches and other things to add to it over the coming months. But it’s finished enough for the birds to move in!

The chicks are about 6 weeks old now, technically pullets. They were so ready to move out of their tiny little brood box and stretch their wings. We brought them outside today while we were still working and finishing up so they could explore and get used to humans being around. They ate some bugs and took much needed dirt baths. That’s what they do. They roll in the dirt to clean themselves. Weird little birds, huh?

There’s my 5 little spoiled birds. Look at how big they’ve gotten! And check out their crib…

The egg boxes along the back wall, are blocked off for now. They won’t begin laying eggs for a few months, and there’s no sense in letting them get in there and poop everywhere.

The hen house has gray interior walls and flooring, just like the human’s house.

The breakfast butt nuggets will be collected here.

The girls had a busy and exciting day exploring, playing, eating bugs and rolling in the dirt. We herded them into the hen house and they promptly huddled up and fell asleep. It’s soooo much bigger and roomier than what they’re used to.

I don’t have rules, but the birds do! I sure hope they can read.

I hope they’re happy here. We will be doing some chicken math again soon and growing the flock. I originally said we’d have 10 chickens, but I am totally not sticking to that number. Chicken math is real and we’ll just see what happens. If I don’t set any rules, I won’t break any rules! And let’s be honest, this palace would be an awful waste of space for just 5 birds. They need more friends. 🐓

Guess what?