Chicken Coop

Fowl Pen, April 2008

The chicks we adopted needed a proper home instead of the old cardboard box in our shower. Sooo... Hubby and crew built a little chicken Taj Mahal. There are nesting boxes full of wood shavings in the compartment on the right, the perch on the left is to sleep on. The door on the left swings up and latches for security at night, and the roof lifts up for viewing, cleaning, and gathering eggs.

I must say the coop has served very well! After the chicks grew up, hen Georgie plus occasional guests have used it for egg laying and hatching. We have gathered numerous eggs from time to time, though nowhere near the 333 that would pay us back for the materials. It's all about the experience!
P.S. The grassy leaves in the foreground are sugar cane. In about eight months the cane grew taller than the house and shades our southwest bedroom nicely. The leaves swishing in the wind make a nice white noise to lull us to sleep. This spring (2009) children and adults have discovered our nice stand of cane and come by often "beggin' cane" to cut up and chew the juice out. Nature's candy.

Kids just love sugar cane!