Hot Chicken Takeover

-Posted by Isaac

I most always post about something bee related. Not this time. This is a...

Bee Culture Magazine has been running an article about chickens or ducks or something birdish, straying away from the meat of their content which is, of course, bees.

It seems silly to my mind. Hello! This is a bee magazine.

I've never actually read the article. It may very well be insightful and interesting. I need to give it a chance sometime.

So if Bee Culture can get away with chicken talk, I can too.

Some of you who have been out to our place like to ogle over the cuteness. The goats, the chickens, the kitty cats happily frolicking.

And sometimes, when presented with a compliment about these iconic symbols of "hobby farming," you are then surprised to learn my obvious annoyance over them.

Chickens and goats especially. I mean, they're always needing something. Fed. Watered. Cleaned up after. Buried if you happen to forget the first two. They're annoying! Plus, they distract from the real thing that we're trying to do around here. Which is, of course, bees.

This winter the chicken yard and chicken coop had to take a back seat to the bees: the new honey house addition.

But we weren't about to do away with the chickens. Oh no.
While they happily retired to the barn, their cozy winter retreat, I got busy finding a new place for the coop.
The place I had in mind simply wasn't big enough to hold our gigantic coop. Something had to be done.
Maybe a half-sizer would work.

Plus, a half-sizer was much easier to move with our mighty forklift.

As the winter progressed, things slowly took shape. As always, a coat of paint does wonders for old stuff.

I have just this week finished the fence and moved the chickens back out to their new summer retreat.

Some new and improved features:

A layer box positioned so you don't actually have to go into the pen and get your feet smeared with chicken poop.

An "automatic" waterer. All I have to do is turn on the new sink in the honey house. Again, this bypasses the chicken-poop-on-shoes issue.

And finally, a smaller chicken sized exit hole. This should keep only chickens using that door and not small children like we had before. No chicken-poop-on-pants issues.

Still not a fan of chickens, but even I've got to admit, it's pretty cute.