I hope you all are having a wonderful Autumn. It's finally feeling a little more like Fall here in Ojai after several weeks of hot weather. I love this time of year when the nights are chilly, and the shadows get longer...
As I wrote about in a previous post, we decided to build a new coop for our chickens and turn our existing coop into a barn for the Babydoll sheep that will arrive at Patina Farm in the Spring. I am happy to let you know that our new chicken coop is complete and ready to keep our hens warm.
The chicken run is visible on either side of the greenhouse.
We can enter the new chicken coop through the front of the greenhouse.
We turned the back panels of the greenhouse into doors.
I'm able to use part of the greenhouse as storage for the chicken feed.
We made plenty of nesting boxes so that the girls wouldn't fight over them.
Next to the boxes, we made a cabinet where we can store chicken treats and extra supplies.
There is a window on the two sides of the chicken coop to provide cross ventilation. We used chicken wire to keep predators out of the coop as well as to keep the chickens from flying the coop! Both windows can be closed to keep the chickens warm at night.
The little Bantam chickens spend a lot of time in the nesting boxes during the day as well as sleeping in the boxes at night.
The bigger chickens, like Buffy, tend just to lay their eggs in the boxes and move on.
There are several roosting poles for the larger chickens to use. They prefer to sleep on the poles rather than in the boxes.
During the day, the chickens scratch and dust bathe in the chicken run.
All of our girls are very friendly, and they love their meal worms!
They adjusted to their new coop routine very quickly.
Here are some images of the coop and chicken run from the outside...
We used the same split rail wood posts from our fence for the chicken run structure.
The chicken coop is attached to the greenhouse. It's made of cedar wood siding with a corrugated metal roof.
The opposite side of the coop has a door that opens to the vegetable garden.
The ladies get to roam around the garden a couple of days a week. They help keep the pest population down.
They also love to nibble on the basil...
and the rosemary.
The garden cloches from Gardeners.com help deter the hens from eating most of the vegetables.
Everyone is excited to have the chickens in their new coop, including the donkeys. Now we are all waiting for the Spring arrival of our Baby Doll sheep!
Wishing you all a very Happy Autumn from Patina Farm!
Please feel free to ask questions about our new coop in the comment section of this post.
To see what else we are up to, please follow me on Instagram (VelvetandLinen).
xo
Brooke
