our cute modern hen house

There seems to be some interest in the hen house I mentioned a few posts ago, so I thought I'd share the house and the story that goes along with it.

My friends are the most amazing people in the whole universe. I've been talking idly of getting chickens for years, but I talk idly of many things and shouldn't be taken entirely seriously about any of them. Except the chickens. I really do want chickens (and bees). However they probably wouldn't be coming to live with us in the next few weeks if it weren't for those friends I mentioned above. See, they gave them to us for our wedding.

BEST WEDDING PRESENT EVER!!

Right? I was in tears I was laughing so hard when we opened their present wrapped in an egg carton and full of pretty dried weeds and a book on raising chickens. Brock was pretty much horrified, but he's warmed up nicely to our new family members. My friends actually gave us a check to buy an Eglu and a handful of feathery friends. So we've been waiting for it to warm up a bit before we ordered the house and brought the chooks home.

Here's what it looks like:





Neat, right? I love that it's mobile (see the wheels in the back?) so we can push it around the yard to let the chickens have fresh grass in their run on a regular basis. I found a few farms on craigslist that are selling pretty laying hens so once the house comes, I think we'll take a trip out to Riverside to pick up our friends. While we'd love to get little baby chicks, our house is way too small to keep a box full of them inside until they're old enough to live in the Eglu. And honestly, not sure we want to wait 5 -6 months until they're ready to lay! Baby chicks will come later, when we have kids to join in the excitement of raising them.

So Sara, this probably doesn't help you with your plans to build a coop! Sorry! But if you go to Diggin' Food, she posts a round up of coops around Seattle that might provide some inspiration.

Omlet also makes a smaller Eglu that would probably fit in ANY backyard. Plus the smaller, original Eglu is ready to ship from the US. The cube has to come from the UK and seems to be limited in availability. We almost had to wait until June for ours, but we got a cancellation spot just before the shipment left. Close one.