All Cooped Up

Welcome to The Artful Homemaker’s first big project of 2022!

Meet Iris, our week old Rhode Island Red

If you read the first post on the site then you know we recently got some baby chicks. Four lovely ladies found their way into our house and our hearts, and we are just so clucking excited (pun 100% intended, please expect more chicken humor down the road). While these babies grow their feathers, the mister has been gracious enough to let them live inside the house. However, this can only go on so long, so between his patience wearing thin and the chicks outgrowing their current accommodations, that gives me about 6 weeks to secure them a more permanent residence.

My bio covers the fact that I’m a complete newbie to this way of life. I was raised in the city, in Vegas, where most people have rock lawns and palm trees and no chickens. I’d never been around much livestock, outside the Blue Diamond petting zoo. So Google has been my ever faithful mentor in times of questioning, of which there have been many.

Question #1 to myself:

“How big of a coop do I need for four betties, and where can I put it?”

Question #2 to myself:

“Where will I put it on my meager parcel of land?”

I went straight to the internet and immediately figured out how much square footage they will need easy enough, but where to put it wasn’t something Google couldn’t answer for me. I went to my next most reliable source in this matter, the man of the house, my hubby. And I tell you, his first answer was THEE answer! He secured his place as my number two most reliable source for questions regarding artfully making my home. Here’s how the convo went…

Me: “So, I’m thinking of getting this chicken coop and putting it maybe on the north side of the yard. What do you think?“

Him: “Why don’t you just build a coop under the deck?”

Me: “You’re a genius!”

It was perfect! I realize this doesn’t quite illustrate for you what a genius idea this was, but I have pictures that will do that for you below. Just understand that the benefits of this are two fold. Not only would it provide a fantastic place for the girls to stay safe and happy, it would also force me to clean out all the crap that had been just sitting and rotting under the raised deck for the last seven years! So yesterday, My buddy and I got to work.

Most of the structure is already there, like it was meant to be. It’s about 80sq ft of space under there, plenty for four hens.

We buried wire fencing a foot down on the left panel, so nothing can dig under it, and stapled the top to the outer support wall of the deck.

This is the second stall of the coop, you can sort of see the two sections are connected at the back, so it’s easy to separate the laying box from the food and dust bath, and still give them plenty of space to run around.

This is the side door where you can see the connecting hallway of the two stalls. It’s really pretty roomy. I can walk around in there easily. It also provides an easy access to clean out the coop, gather eggs, catch the ladies, etc.

My buddy and my son digging in the dirt floor and securing the perimeter

8 hours of planning, clearing and building later, and we are just about finished! More pictures to come when we are totally done, but I am just so thrilled to be this far into finishing the coop in week one of a six week deadline! It feels amazing, and God is so good. Huge shout out to my good friend Matt for helping me make this happen so quickly, you are much appreciated 🙂

See you all again for the next update on The Artful Homemaker. Goodnight friends!

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