True stories of a small flock of remarkable individuals -- and other critters.



Friday, April 8, 2011

Build a Coop in THREE HOURS?

Heck, why not?  
Terry Golson and I thought we'd give it a shot.


She recently ordered a batch of fresh new chicks, and is hoping their delivery will coincide with one of her hens going broody.  
She needed a little coop to house the chicks and their new mom. 
We only had three free hours to get the job done.   
I was up for the challenge. 
Marky and I tumbled into Terry's back yard with our big bag of power tools, and everyone got down to business.
Lily ran circles around Marky, Terry brewed a big pot o' joe, and I sketched a coop plan on paper, based on the materials Terry had to work with.

Ingredients:
2 steaming cups coffee,
1 busted old go-cart,
1 slightly rusty bunny cage,
2 cups assorted drywall screws.
_____________________________

With saber saw on medium speed, 
chop go-cart into manageable pieces
and random chunks.

Using any means imaginable,  
affix go-cart pieces to rabbit cage, 
and sprinkle generously with drywall screws.

Stand back and sip coffee liberally.
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
  

Terry and I performed our coop-creating feat before a large audience:
Lily, Scooter and Marky feigned interest until they each nodded off and tipped over on the warm sunny lawn.
Candy and her flock lined up to observe.. but what really captivated them was the grass seed that Terry had sown on the opposite side of their fence, just out of reach.

The goats, Pip and Caper, were mesmerized by the entire performance. Man, those boys are easily thrilled.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
The result of our labors:

a little broody coop in 3 hours!

....and with a bit of paint, 
anything

is
possible.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 
But wait-- there's more!
where TERRY is telling this very same story,
in HER own special style.
(and see her critters, in real-time)
Enjoy!

24 comments:

  1. What a fun blog post to wake up to this morning! I love reading your stories and looking at your awesome artwork. Terry is lucky you are a friend - and know how to use power tools too :)

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  2. Wow! I am impressed at the ingenuity and creativity that you gals muster. All I've done this morning is down a cup of java and feed the chickens. Hats off to you both!

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  3. Wow, I'm impressed, first by the selection of fixings to make a coop, I would never have thought of half those things, and second, by the amount of time you had. Awesome!

    Sure Pip and Caper weren't supervising the whole ordeal? : )

    Great job and as always, your post is such a delight!

    I need a coop, do you guys travel? : )

    ~Andrea~

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  4. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lauren, one very talented and entertaining blogger! ~Laurie

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  5. Yay! Fantastic!! I wish I lived closer, I would have loved to help. Next time...

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  6. I cheated and built a Flatpack chicken coop today, I did it single handed with my six year old supervising. I am not that handy to build one from scratch. I love this blog and your cute and funny illustrations, they really make me smile.

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  7. I love your chicken stories! Fabulous!

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  8. I just got here for the first time, via Terry's Henblog. Thank you for helping her with her little broody coop. Now I have TWO wonderful chicken blogs to faithfully follow! I'm in love with Lucy, Fern cracks me up, your stories make me chuckle and smile, and your illustrations... well they're just fabulous.

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  9. Great recycling job. You two were fast. I spent quite a long time recently catching up on your story and I'm completely up to date. What a fun day that was. It's amazing that there are two chicken authors so close to each other. Lauren...you are a great friend to chickens and humans too.
    xo, Rosemary

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  10. I found your blog on the Chicken Whisperer's Facebook page. I am so glad that I did. Your blog is delightful!

    -Valencia

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  11. What great repurposing! I'm thinking about using my son's playhouse to make a chicken coop. Hmmm, inspiration!

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  12. Wonderful, as always! I love your illustrations, they always make me smile. The pic of Candy and her flock is priceless. I love that you got one of the Polish in there, they are hilarious.

    Terry's menagerie is my island of sanity during conference calls, so you girls were my conference call entertainment.

    Mighty fine go cart, rabbit cage broody coop you girls threw together!

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  13. FANTASTIC! I love it! And the hen cam is so fabulous...

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  14. I love your illustrations! 3 hours to make a coop is so fast! Awesome.

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  15. Hi! Really fun illustrations! Jen sent me over from Reddit.com. I love the little goats' expressions :)

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  16. I wish my coop would go up in an afternoon. Lucky duck!!

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  17. I adore adore adore your sweet blog! I had a question for you though, do you know what breed of chicken lil'white is? I have a pullet I raised from farmers market eggs I incubated that is that similar lovely golden blond color with pink feet. The only difference is her toosh was dipped in brownish speckling (and her tail is very short and stunted- as a chick her tail feathers didn't come in yet when everyone else's did!). What's even stranger is that she started out as a very dark colored chick and went California Blond.

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  18. Awesome project - love it. Would love to do one at home. Just stumbled across your lovely blog - following you now. Please come and see me sometimes - hopefully you'll like what i do and follow me too :O)
    Happy easter.
    A xx

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  19. I enjoyed reading this post! Thank you for sharing. Happy Easter!

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  20. Hi, Lauren! Oh my! What a fun blog! And your illustrations -- too adorable! :)

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  21. Grandma and MarieMay 15, 2011 at 9:33 AM

    My granddaughter and I love your blog with its cute story line and wonderful drawings of your chickens and other animals. We would love to buy a book about these chickens with these great illustrations. Any chance you will be publishing one soon?

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  22. Love the illustrations! Wonderful !I'm going to have to work on our chicken coop this summer and expand it a bit.

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