Purchase Coop CHECK!

Coop has been purchased. While it's not the sleek, modern coop I was hoping for, after a discount coupon that I found online and with shipping, it was only $197. I looked on craigslist repeatedly and just couldn't find what I wanted. And all the modern coops for purchase online are like $1000. Seriously? I think we'll still try to make some hip modifications. Like a corrugated roof for starters. I'll keep you posted on the difficulty level of putting this bad boy together too. Remember, we are not handy people. If this thing shows up Ikea style with all the holes pre-drilled and whatnot, we're good. But if we need to saw and drill, we might be screwed...no pun intended.

Now we just need some consistently nice weather so our snow can melt and we can begin transitioning our side yard into our chicken garden!

Chicken Swap round 1

Well, we hit up the chicken swap at Earthdog Denver through the Denver Urban Homesteading organization. It was awesome. There were at least 6 different vendors from different farms with chicks as little as 3 days old all the way up to full grown chickens. There were bunnies, goats and a llama that rode in a jeep. The kids were in heaven.We're going to their Chick Festival on April 6th in hopes of finding our new flock. We're going to go with 4-5 chicks, anticipating that all won't survive, although if they do, we've been told that they'd be a piece of cake to sell online. We've decided on Easter Eggers (Americaunas) for sure and then hopefully a silver or gold laced Wyandotte or a Buff Orpington. I've researched a ton and these seem to be the nicest mix of beautiful eggs and friendly with kids. Hopefully we're right!

After the swap I discovered the best Margarita in Denver at El Noa Noa. How have I lived here for 16 years and never realized that they had such a delicious Gold Marg?? It was a nice sidetrack to the day for sure. Then we continued on to our chicken class at Denver Urban Homesteading. The instructor, Jennifer Loyd, was an amazing wealth of knowledge on all things chicken. She has an urban farm in Lakewood, Co and is also in her first week of her own blog Idlewild Urban Farm. She is much more looking for her blog to be a resource sharing forum with less pontification than I plan to do here. Anyhoo. Jennifer has years of experience under her belt and was eager to share all of it. I was pleased to hear that she also utilizes the deep litter method of poo control/composting. She had great info on predator proofing your coop as well, which is something I needed more of. The class was $36 and was totally worth it. You can register for them at Denver Urban Homesteading. After 2 hours of chatting, we walked across the street to an urban farm with roosters and chickens and met this guy:

It was the highlight of my day.

Coops and Poops

I like to think we're pretty hip and modern. So we can't have some dumpy, country kitsch coop in the backyard. It's gotta be clean lines, urban inspired and look nice through my kitchen window. And I suppose it should be conducive to chickens as well.

So I bought this book:

I love every single design in this book. If only my husband were handy with a saw and a drill. If you are handy, this is definitely a great resource. It's available on amazon for $13 or so.

Unfortunately every single coop I like is like $1500. Did I mention we're teachers? $1500 for a chicken coop is definitely not in the budget.

So we've decided to buy something simple and then make modifications. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

So now for the poops.

Chickens can be smelly. I know I said they're not, but they can be. I've been told to avoid using straw and hay at all costs. That's what causes the coop to smell like a barn. We're also pretty lazy when it comes to cleaning up poop in general. We had to hire a service to clean up our backyard weekly so it doesn't get out of control. So I've decided that the "Deep Litter" method is the most convenient and practical method for coop clean up and here's why.

You can compost! According to the Lazy Homesteader who is also from Denver, but apparently has recently relocated to Texas, but still has awesome resources on her blog, this is the easiest and least smelly way to tend your coop.

Start by laying down 4-6 inches of organic yard waste (leaves, grass, pine shavings). Then sprinkle some DE (Diatomaceous Earth) on top of it and mix it in with a rake. Then let your chickens poop to their hearts content. When you start to notice a lot of poop, give it a turn with the rake, sprinkle more pine shavings on top and let the poop continue. Every 6 months or so, clean it all out, put it in your backyard compost bin and start fresh. I figured we'd time it with our fall and spring yard clean up.

The reason I like this method is because, like I said, I hate cleaning up poop. But more importantly, it can get freakin' cold in Denver in the winter. Because your coop litter is composting, it produces heat and will help warm the air in the coop for your chickens. Pretty sweet right?

Check out Huckleberry Farms for more great info!