The coop I found (don't laugh... okay, well, it deserves a chuckle) on Walmart.com. Really, is there nothing they don't sell? It is a TRIXIE brand coop, "Coop with a View" to be exact. And it is darling. I fell in love with its cuteness and price and decided there was no other coop to be had. It even had a detachable run you could buy with it to give the hens extra room. What a deal!
Or so I thought. It really is cute, don't get me wrong. But, wow, is this thing small. I have checked with a few chicken owners and they assure me it is no big deal and that three hens don't need a lot of space, but I'm not even sure where I'll be able to put the food and water!
Here is a picture of the girls' new home. Coop Corner ~ Girls Only.
The things I like about this coop, or think I will like, are the openings (laying box and coop both have roof openings, the coop itself has three doors, and the run opens on the top, end and side), and the plastic pull out tray for easy cleaning. And did I mention it is cute?
Okay, so with the coop in place we headed down to the local farm store on the edge of town. I already knew we would need to put something comfy for the hens in the laying boxes, and could also cover the ground with said material to keep down smell and catch poo (to be raked out often). I knew I didn't want pine shavings because it would add too much acid to my compost, which is what I'll be doing with this stinky garden gold. So I opted for straw. (Straw, not hay. I learned there is a difference!)
Another lesson: there are two different forms of feed for chickens ~ pellets and crumbles. Luckily I had seen our friends feed the hens when we visited them last week, so I knew that crumbles were what we wanted. Boy, was it cheap! 45-cents a pound. That seems cheap to me. I bought a 10-pound bag for $4.50 that should last me a couple weeks. We'll see how long it takes them to go through it.
So with feed and straw in hand, we went to look at feed and water containers. What a lot of options! In size and material mostly. The options were either galvanized metal or plastic. The helper warned that plastic can freeze and crack in the winter, but since most of the smaller options are plastic, we still went with plastic. I had to weigh how much space I wanted to dedicate to these contraptions compared to how often I wanted to be out there filling them up.
We came home with these cute (I'm learning that I'm clearly a sucker for cute) one-gallon matching feeder/waterers. They are a bit flimsy and I'm not sure they'll be our long-term option, but we'll start here and see what we learn.
My next step is to spray the coop down with a white vinegar solution to ward off mold and bugs in hopes of giving the girls a healthy new home. Then I think I'll feel ready for our new additions!
Check back in a couple weeks to read about Moving Day!
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