Cluckingham Palace was not built in a day. It actually took two weekends and a small bit of work during the week. Why, you ask would we need a new chicken house/yard?
- Free Range Chickens are not all they are cracked up to be.
Pooping wherever they want? They also eat flowers and dust in flower beds. The biggest problem however, is that in the summer, they go to bed really, really late, sometimes later than we do and this has caused us to loose a few ‘girls’.
This situation is not new and I’ve been trying to give the chickens more space since last summer. I ordered additional fencing from, (can you believe it) a company called ‘Omlet’, which has every item for chickens they could ever need and a few items they don’t, including clothes. (Folks, I cannot make this stuff up!)
2. The old chicken yard was not only small, but it was…a tad ugly.
The girls needed better, so we begin the ‘demo’.
I had a ‘plan’ and My Loving Spouse goes along with it…although, he did put his foot down when it came to adding dormer patio roof extensions for the girls. Seriously!
We lay out the new yard.
We work on Cluckingham Palace’s yard, while the flock enjoys their last few days of pooping on the porches.
We dig the grass up all around the palace to ensure no skunks or other vermin dig below the fence to accost our hens.
With the grass back in place the palace looks great and threat free.
We add a second door made out of an old screen door I’ve been hording.
The roosting structure is made from two of the old porch railings we’d replaced.
The chickens checkout the new maple tree we’ll plant in their yard. Cluck House has lovely grounds and we’ve hopes for more hens. A dozen eggs are ‘brewing’ in the incubator, due next week…and if they don’t hatch…well, we’ve a backup of chicks coming from ‘The Chicken Outfitter’ . (The stuff you can buy on the internet!)
We are blessed and so are the chickens, except they don’t actually know it.
I love the way you repurpose things from the farm and give them new life. And now you will be blessed with seating you don’t have to check first!
Amen! 🙂
Ellen, I totally enjoyed reading about Cluckingham Palace. Happy Chickens ahead! I helped my dad build a dog house that took us over 8 months and too much sweat equity to talk about without crying. We named it the Dog-Mahal. It is complete with air conditioning, windows, ceiling fan, tile floors, covered porch, etc.
Oh, Kathy! I love it!!!! The Dog-Mahal!!! Thanks for making me smile!
I have to say, I love the name, too. Is there a Queen in residence? Shouldn’t there be a flag flying?
Well, there is a Cock in residence…Russel Crow. As far as a flag, I’ll take that up with My Loving Spouse who just finished buying the appropriate ensign for his sail boat.
Those are some lucky chickens to get such nice new digs!!! And LOVE the name!
Thanks Mims, I love the name too…but they would truly rather poop on the porch!
You guys are amazing (as always) and I think Cluckington Palace is my favorite name so far🐓🐓
Happy Mother’s Day Ellen❤️💐❤️
Happy Mother’s Day to you dear friend!
Very eggs-otic accommodation for your girls..!
Thank you Richard, you are one of the few who will understand the slang of Cluck House.
Nice work! I’m assuming there’s a roosting place inside the palace too? and cubicles for privacy? I was raised on a poultry farm, egg production not meat, don’t particularly like Leghorns, too flighty and nervous. But yours look like the calm personable breed. Can hardly wait for your post on how to imprint humans to little chixs from day one 🙂
Oh, yes our hen house works just fine, lots of roosts and nesting boxes although they all like the same one. It was just the yard that was too small. They come when we call them. We like dark egg layers like Marans and Rhode Island Reds. Lets hope we get some chicks as we’re face timing with the GRANDS about them.