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Everyone has to have an inspiration piece, right? Well here is mine. I admit to being more than a little chicken crazy. I talk about it to my captive patients all day. My boss and his assistants hear about it all day from the next operatory. My husband hears it as he tries to fall asleep at night. It seems to be all I can talk about, because quite frankly it is all I think about. I dream about it, and I obsess about the details. I hope that the chicks will arrive alive, and that the promised 90% sexing accuracy is way low and they will all be pullets. I want all the feeders to match and the waterers to be easily heatable for winter. I want to stock up on pine shavings now, nevermind I have no where to store them. And last but not least I wonder what to name 30 chickens. Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross are just some I have thought of. My husband has a whole other plan, guaranteed.
My friend, Brenda, has the chicken house that changed my husbands mind about keeping chickens. Hers is fun and quaint with lots of attention to detail. Her husband, Dolan, is quite the craftsman, and built her this dandy chicken house. The 'Girls' have a huge fenced in run but they chose to fly over it and free range in the field. Very cool. Her eggs are also the most amazing eggs I have ever seen. No one believes me until I crack one of hers next to another farm-fresh egg and then the difference is plain. She feeds those lucky birds to the letter and they get lots of the good stuff in the fields next to her house. Happy, healthy, friendly chickens. That is what I am trying to duplicate.
And in closing, I will show you more progress on my chicken house. As I had my hands deeply entrenched in a patient's mouth yesterday, yacking all about my new chicken house and how big it seems, I shoved my own feet in my mouth. This actually happens a lot in my life. She asked if I pulled permits. What? Yep, permits. Seems her relation is the building inspector in our county, the real one, not Ollie. Whoops! Do you need a permit for a chicken house? Maybe if I could learn to call it a coop instead of a chicken house, I would not. But coop sounds dirty to me and I dream of clean chickens with no poop. I know that is very unrealistic but let me have my moments before reality sets in and I scoop the good stuff every day. One can dream can't they? So, I am hoping none of the neighbors that we don't like turn us in. That would really be uncool. I know the building would pass inspection but I don't want to deal with it this late in the game. Does it count if all we are doing is replacing the coop that once sat in this place? I sure as heck hope so.
Very inspirational, the way you put down the details.... Good Luck! ~ Bangchik
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what you need a permit for. We built a shed at our old house (a small one) and we had to get a permit to do it. The inspiration chicken house is beautiful and I'm sure yours will be too!
ReplyDeleteLike I said yesterday - you're going to have some happy 'happy' chickens! They'll be giving you eggs left and right they'll be so happy.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever see where I finally posted my sisters chickens you told me to do? Well I found out Henny Penny disappeared and my sister bought a boyfriend for Goosey Loosey and now she has 6 little chicks. What a life.
It's going to be great!! Permits are a pain in the backside!!
ReplyDeleteVery pretty inspiration shed. It is a bummer about the codes and permit. I doubt any of your neighbors would turn you in-even if they are not your best friends. Many do not know of the requirement to pull a permit. But if your county is anything like ours here, they will find out about your coop. Here our assessor visits the property and physically looks at properties because even if homeowners do pull a permit, it doesn't always catch up. They want every single improvement on the books so we can have higher tax assessments. I am so not impressed at all. Codes will look to ensure it is built properly and that is important but mainly the assessor wants to know you have a building. Here unless a building has a foundation, no permit is needed and codes does not get involved, but the assessor needs to know so he can tax us-then permits.
ReplyDeleteHa ha. Foot in mouth. Well, Kim and I have done things here that don't fit into our subdivision permits, and without consequences. (so far) Our future chickens will also be illegal here, (we suspect), but both our neighbors are cool. Our house is a 'flag lot' so it's more isolated than most and that helps.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. Lovin' your 'chicken house'.
Your friends chicken house is very rustic and attractive. No wonder her chickens are happy and lay nice eggs. :-) But really, the best eggs come from chickens who are allowed to range freely and eat all the bugs they want.
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteThose eggs your friend raise would sell for up to $5 a dozen here! Tell you if you have a neighbor that does not like you they will call for inspection. My understanding here is the building has to be over 12 x 16 to actually require a permit. I've a friend that was building a curved copper topped gazebo and the neighbor called about the permit, they had fits as it had wiring and footers in place already and was nearly done(a $14,000 job)good thing the inspectors knew my friend the builder.
Hi Heather. This is my first visit to your blog and I am so glad I found you. I too am getting ready for some chickens. I like the names you have started with. I'll have to check into the issues here regarding chickens. Your chicken house is coming along - looking real good. Have a nice day. Becca
ReplyDeleteHi Heather~~ I think the permits are all about procuring MORE state, county, (whatever) revenue. The permits aren't cheap, at least here in Oregon. It's a government thing. Sorry for my bad attitude. :) I can't imagine you having any neighbors that don't like you.
ReplyDeleteYour chickies are going to be so loved and pampered, I see beautiful eggs in your future.
Heather~Wow! Your chicken coup is spectacular to say the least. Beautiful work Doyle. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteLove you,
Robin
Gack, permits!!! I guess no good deed goes unpunished. Love your inspirational chicken house, and you're making great progress on your own! As for chicken names, that's part of the fun. My girls originally all had Regency Romance names---Venetia, Lucretia, Portia, etc.---but we now also have Stella, Olivia and Roxanne.
ReplyDeleteHeather you crack me up when you write that all you talk or think about right now is the chicken house. I get that way too very often when I'm excited about a new project, ask my husband. I think he fakes sleep sometimes so he doesn't have to hear me :)
ReplyDeleteIt's getting close to being finished! Love your friends chicken house.
Well, I think it's exciting, you can "talk" to us about all you want!
ReplyDeleteHahaha - the 'Friends' of Coopville! I love it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am just glad I am not the only one that obsesses about stuff.
You are so entertaining and make me want chickens too. Your chick house is going to be grand. Love the one your friend built.
ReplyDeleteShow us a picture of her egg compared to a store bought one. I have no clue the difference. I would like to see it.
I had to get a permit for my shed in progress. They've been out to inspect twice and once they actually got out of the car. Ha! they mainly want the money. I think it was $100. But it would have been $500 had we gone over 12x12. Did you?
Really--don't worry about--lose sleep over it---stress about it. I'm sure no one will turn you in???
I enjoy following the progress of your chicken house and hope the neighbors will be "kind!" I know you are so excited to see the end result. Have a great day!
ReplyDeletehe he! Heather you are so cute...you cracked me up here! Also, I was so touched and honored by your comments on my blog, re: you can't imagine not having me or my blog around...oh, thank you for that! I don't even have chickens or a chicken coop...let alone a chicken house...and you still said that;-) ha ha.
ReplyDeleteWell, we DID have a treehouse once, and the darn neighbor next door called the homeowners association and we were forced to remove it (even though we HAD received their permission, earlier). It had bunkbeds and skylights and was very nice looking. We think they were just jealous:-) !!!
I admire your spirit and your excitement! You make me smile:-) Jan
Heather, I just read all five of your chicken posts. Thank you for sharing so much of your hard-earned chicken smarts. I've been researching and daydreaming about starting my own family of chickens as well. My biggest obstacle, which I have yet to overcome, is convincing my husband that this is good idea. Maybe I should show him some of your "pretty" chickens.
ReplyDeleteWow! Thats one inspiration piece. No wonder she has a the best eggs- her chickens live in a chicken mansion. Yours is coming along great too! As for the chicken poop-hey at least it makes a great addition to the compost. Good luck with your chicks- its so much fun!
ReplyDeleteAHHHhhh..this is FANTASTIC!! I've had chickens on the brain too! Just "smuggled" in four hens to a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants woodland chicken coop. Since we aren't technically allowed to have them, I am hesitant to post on them.. Best of luck with your chicks. If I could have more I would in a minute!
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm so envious! I would like to have chickens....had them as a child...gathered the eggs with my Grandmother...happy, happy memories. My husband, who was never blessed to have chickens, says 'no'....thinks they would be a real mess! LOVE that photo of the chicken 'coop'....gee we have people in Tennessee who don't have such fine housing!!!
ReplyDeleteHey, Heather ~ thanks for putting the pictures of my 14 chooks' home on your blog & for all the nice comments on it from your fans. My husband is very creative (he was the architect)& supportive of whatever takes my fancy. (He's probably just grateful I decided to raise chickens last spring & not buffalo!) My girls do love their fully-insulated cabin which definitely complements our log home here in the west central mountains of Idaho and do free-range in our large lawn once the snow has gone and to a smaller degree in the pasture with our steers. I let them out of their cabin-coop into their very large fenced playground first thing in the morning, then before noon sometime open their two gates so they can range freely & eat whatever they can find (lots of bugs & worms, especially) to their hearts' content. The other day I was resting on our patio after mowing the lawn, watching the chickens checking out the newly-mown grass to see what I had stirred up and interacting with our 2 dogs, 2 cats & numerous birds around the yard at various feeders & birdbaths and thinking I'm so blessed to be able to enjoy nature at its finest. It really helps to have all of our animals on good terms with each other too. One of the things I love most (other than the beautiful large eggs they supply us with) is the way the girls greet me whenever I go outside, running to me chuckling & singing all the way as if I were their alpha hen - if there is such a thing - which has earned me the name, "Chookimum," which is Aussie for chicken mom. Can't wait to see your girls when they arrive and ooh & aah over them with you! :) Luvya, Brenda
ReplyDeletevery informative post for me as I am always looking for new content that can help me and my knowledge grow better.
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