The Le Tour de Coop last Saturday was so much fun. I know a lot of you couldn’t make it since you don’t live here, so let me give you the tour! Here’s the sign saying that our house was a stop on the tour.

Welcome back through the side gate.

It was cold and overcast that day but we set out chairs for people to sit just in case. Behind the chairs, under the cherry tree is our chicken coop. Scott built that PVC structure and covered it in chicken wire. He built it out of PVC so that we could move it around the yard as we wish. But when it is there, we pin it down with u shaped prongs so that raccoons can’t pull it up to get underneath.

Before you head around to the back of the coop, try a cookie. They are lavender mint shortbread cookies that I made from last years lavender and this years mint. (no eggs in these cookies!) Next to it is a bowl of eggs that we get from our chickens so you can see the three different colors we get.

Our coop was already there when we bought the house. It was this funky little shed that was open on this side. When we got the chicks, four years ago, Scott walled off this side and added a door, all out of scrap wood he found around. When we first got interested in chickens we searched all around for coop designs and as much as we liked the fancy little house looking coops out there, we decided that we wanted more of a repurposed, recycled, frugal coop. It just seemed to make more sense to us and let’s face it, those custom cute looking coops are crazy expensive.

Our nesting boxes are actually an old cabinet that we found laying around the property.

Meet Edna. She’s an Americana. She lays blue/green eggs. We got her and her sister and a Buff Cochin last spring. The two cookoo marans and the buff orphington we got four years ago.

Over to the other side is where we keep their water and their food. We hang their food up for two reasons, because if it’s hanging they don’t scratch and kick their food all over the place and so that the rats have a harder time getting to it. (yes rats, an on going battle around here). For some reason I didn’t get a picture of the rest of the girls, they were milling around their chicken yard. If you look up at the second picture from the top, you’ll see part of a white picket gate, behind that is a little yard that is fenced in and that is their yard to mill about during the day. Then in the evening, or when we leave the house, we let them back into their coop.

We had such a nice crowd who came to visit. I’d say we had about 50 people circulate through our backyard during the four hours the tour was held. It was great to talk chicken with so many folks. Some had just started their flock, others were seasoned chicken wranglers and others were just curious. Some came through quickly and many others stayed and lingered, chatting and walking through the garden. We only were able to get out to see one other coop, we got so caught up in visiting with people who stopped by our house.

I wish you all could have come by, but I hope you enjoyed this little photo tour instead. Happy Spring!