Yep, plural, coops not one but two,(now three) almost four but that became the storage barn (for now).

My bucket list was chickens, not Mt. Everest, swimming with sharks, or skydiving. Pretty boring, stinky and stupid you might say, (and others have said)  however we all have our crazy little wish list and having chickens was mine.

After 43 years of  saying “I’d love to have chickens”, God opened the ears of my other half, sent  instigators, created circumstances, and factors beyond any human control and miraculously we have chickens, not just any chickens, beautiful, big, fat, fluffy, laying machine chickens. I didn’t expect them to work so hard, an egg every other day would be fine by me, but they are spoiled hens, so in their little hen minds, they must be feeling a little beholden. Six days a week, at least, they settle down into their oversized hay nests and lay their perfect green, brown, beige, blue pinkish brown eggs.

The coop city complex is comprised of two coops, one barn, a shared courtyard with salad bar planters and an additional outside foraging run with grown vegetables. The barn houses our supplies, garden tools and a fridge dedicated to our beautiful eggs. For ourselves we have built a deck and shaded pergola between the wings so we can relax and watch our hens during our break times and evenings. Our families love it and so do we.

Wingspread Coop with run, east and west wings.

More on the construction and evolution of our coop complex here:  Coopheaven

The Wingspread Coop

The 36′ Run

Run with wire cloth installed

East wing with nest access

Coop 43, barn and wingspread coop

perches

Nesting boxes

Open courtyard between coops

We have added a larger coop and merged our two original flocks into it. There is much more shade and more room in the new coop.