You can probably tell that the coop is in the middle of the yard. Yes, smack dab in the middle. When we built it we thought that we would let the chickens free range in our yard, but we've since noticed that a good portion of the back yard would have to have new fencing to contain the littler cluckers, which would be expensive. So now we have a new plan which includes moving this heavy coop about 10 yards to sit up next to the shed in this area:
We could then use the wall of the shed as one side of a chicken run, and fence in the three other sides. I think it would be really nice to have chickens moved back there so the coop can be in an out-of-the-way location in an area that's shady all day. I'd like to border the enclosure with some kind of fruit trees, in my mind fig trees. There would still be room back there to create another enclosure if I ever wanted to get a dairy goat or some crazy business like that in the future.
The chickens need to get situated because Egg Watch 2012 is on. These biddies are nearing about 20 weeks old, so who knows when those eggs will start coming. As it stands now, I herd the chickens into my garden area to spend the day (we don't have anything planted yet) and I really don't want to have to set up any kind of nest box in there because it's always been just a temporary solution.
I have also been holding on to these awesome T posts for my clothesline that my dad welded for me.
I've been trying to figure out where to place these babies in the yard. The right hand side of the yard is iffy because I don't want to accidentally dig into the septic tank, and getting too close to the fence may put drying clothes in danger of snagging on barbed wire. I'm thinking now that it may be a good idea to get the chicken run built, trees planted, and position the clothesline a little in front of this.
So to start this whole thing off, I suppose we need a few strong men's arms.
