Day 53

If you're thinking about getting chickens and building your own coop, I'd like to ask you to really think about it. Not the chicken part, the building your coop part. If you're into wood working and have all the tools, or you're retired or are really underemployed but still aren't broke, then go for it.
Coops aren't cheap--I didn't even pay for any of the wood for mine and it's still ending up above our first how-much-should-we-spend-on-the-coop guesstimation.
So just realize you're gonna spend money. And use a plan. I drew up a sketch of what I wanted and have spent a lot of time midst constructing figuring out what I was doing.
And most importantly I have someone who knew how to build stuff help me. And by "help me" I helped him build me a coop. And it's still been a ton of work.

Of course my coop is totally rad (The neighbors are mighty impressed-- "are those mitered joints? . . . very nice"), though not totally finished.
"How long could it take to stain a little coop?" --Everything is taking longer than expected.
But after Memorial Day we'll just have the last 2/3's of the run to complete.



Noodle Soup, who put her bosom down in some nasty poop in the back yard. I grabbed a wet paper towel and cleaned her off . . .




. . . and while I was kneeling down, holding Noodie to get the poo off, Salad Sandwich jumped up on my leg. She does not like to be left out of the chicken holding. She later jumped up onto my leg when I was squatting down to stain the bottom of the coop.



Pot Pie, who ate a little bit of wood glue I was applying, because she does not want to miss out on any food. I may have gotten some glue on her wing trying to push her way from the glue eating.
(that's not glue on her beak, just normal chick feed)



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