Well, as you know by reading the previous blog entry, I did
not make the deadline to make a nesting box before the chickens laid an egg. I
was in the process a few days before, so one day after, I finished up. I think
I mentioned this before, but I have a very hard time designing anything that I
don’t have the items to build with already on hand. What I mean by that is I
have to look at my wood pile, in my garage, to figure out what I am going to build.
With a blank piece of paper, and an unlimited budget for wood, I have no idea
what I would think, draw and build. I need to work on that someday. But for
now, I design and build with what I have. Most of my materials are the used
decking and the scraps from the palates and such I got from MCBH.
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| Roof |
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| Box |
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| Assembled |
Everything went together fairly easily. My only problem was
just as I was getting ready to bolt it on to the coop, I started to lose
sunlight. A few flashlights later, and it was connected. I am pretty happy with
it. One funny side note. While I was building it, Jenn said “wow that looks
kind of big.” Well, come to find out she thought what I was building was going
inside the coop. Once she figured out it was going to be an addition to the
coop, she was happy with the product. I am going to have to do some slight
water proofing to the roof of the nesting box. The re-purposed wood had some
drill holes in it. What a great excuse for another blog in the future.
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| Complete and installed |
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| View inside with some cedar shavings |
Geneva was hungry the other night before bed, so I offered
her one of her eggs. This was the first times we cooked one of our own eggs,
and yes, that is a small cast iron pan. They are about 60% to 75% the size of
the eggs we have been buying from the hatchery, but I think in a month or two
they will be up to full size. Geneva said they tasted really good.
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| First consumed egg |
So this competes the buildup phase, now on to the maintenance
phase. As long as we can feed our chickens we will have a steady source of protein.
Geneva has also taken over as the morning caretakers of the chickens. I am
still going out with her in the morning, but she is filling both the water and
the food each morning. She is 6 now, they are hers, and until she leaves our
house, the chicken responsibilities are hers.
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| The whole enterprise |
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| Ladies inspecting the new addition |
I hope you have enjoyed the updates, and please let me know
if anyone has any questions this blog is not answering.
Update: We have gotten 4 eggs so far. The first 2 were in the main coop, before the nesting box was installed. The next 2 were in the nesting box. I hope they have figured out, that's where they go.
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| Future Chicken Coop Model |
