I just came across your link when I was looking for updates on "The Coop". Absolutely hilarious and the pictures complete it! LOVED IT! Thanks for posting the link. I'm going to send it on.

Yes, chicken nipples! They work great! We bought ours on line at homesteadersupply.com. Drill holes in a 5 gallon bucket, insert the nipples and hang - the water is covered so doesn't get dirty and the chickens learn quickly to tap the nipple for water.

going to try using the nipples today. putting them in a 1" pvc pipe with a rubber hose running into the pipe from a bucket. that way i can keep the bucket outside the coop and don't have to get in there. lots of room for error, especially at my skill level.

The PVC sounds like a great idea! Good Luck

More from the coop....to answer sleepysue, it isn't big enough and it cost too much! We are already considering an added 'yard' to let them range in. It won't be as 'entrenched' as the primary yard with railroad ties and earth moving to level it and mesh underground. Just an added enclosed space to give them more room. They are a little crowded and cranky with the underlings at times.

Sadly we had to say farewell to Vivian, one of the americuanas. As time went on I realized something was up with her, at first I just thought she was timid.Then I realized she wasn't really eating, even the most desired treats of bread and yogurt. Her tail was drooping and her comb was shriveled, so I caught her one day and to my astonishment , she was just a bag of bones and smelled really bad. I tried to force feed her and give her syringes of water and diluted yogurt and juice but it was very clear she wasn't well or happy.

We will miss Vivian, she was a very pretty golden americuana:




So we have 13 hens now. A barred rock, Phoebe , we never got to meet. She got her head stuck under a feeder at her original home before we went to get the birds.

Little Billie has become a devoted chicken sitter and we have started letting her in the run with us from time to time. She is able to just 'be' and not fixate on the birds and we praise her abundantly. Most of the other guys all seem keen to rush the fence once in awhile to stir up drama, for which they are promptly sent away. The hens have learned that the dogs don't get through the fence so they are comfortable even being close to it with a dog glaring at them. I make them stop starring when I catch them at it.

Teagan was very upset with her big friend Stanley today. She set a fresh egg down on the step to close the latch on the run door and Stanley took her egg. She yelled at him and he dropped it and it broke. She didn't know what to do she was so mad. To her added horror he started eating it raw. She wouldn't speak to him the rest of the day, but I think he made up with her by this evening as they were walking the back of the property together, he a respectful two feet behind her.

We have painted the coop to match the house and Jeff has completed the manure boxes and I'll install them tomorrow. We moved the roosts as the ladies were crapping down the walls and that wasn't a happy thing.









I keep buying bags of sand and spreading it around. The girls LOVE to take dirt baths, but the sand settles down into the decomposed granite in no time. I am on a 6 dollar a week sand allowance....after flapping and cavorting in the dirt they preen and groom and mutter and mumble to themselves.






There are four speckled suffolk, that I am going to rename as a forties girl group ( one of these is a very mean chicken) and three buff orpintons that are already named after The Ross Sisters, Aggie, Maggie and Elmira.







The americuanas, feature Aunt Bea and BB for bald butt, ( and two others) she is the bottom of the pecking order and has been abused but I found a stinky purple salve that , if I apply every other day or so, the others leave her butt alone and her feathers are coming back. despite her abuse she is a very productive chicken and lays the biggest eggs.







And the onlies are Miss Kitty, the silver laced wyandotte and May, the dainty Japanese banty, who gives us the most precious little eggs, tan and freckled just like Teagan's little nose...



I had a an area of my garden where the grass got really high and went to seed. I cut it down and the girls enjoy pecking and scratching through it and eating the seeds. Repurpose.

We created a space under the coop for them to get out of the sun and it has really become a very popular place in this heat, the wind just channels under the coop and keeps the girls happy, you will find them all setting there in the heat of the day and they like it to get out of the rain we have been blessed of late.

We are really enjoying our chickens. I come out in the morning with my coffee and sit and chat with them as I toss them bread or fruit parings.

I scoop the poo a few times a day so it is nice to walk around in there.
I usually dump and change the water in their fountain mid afternoon, I have even loaded it with ice which they have appreciated when it was so hot last week up here. I will post again as time permits. thanks for all your interest and please keep contributing to the thread as you like!

Thirteen is an unlucky number Maybe you need a rooster! I have extra if you'd like one - 18+ week old beautiful Ameraucana's

I am seeing many roosters available for free. At some point I may want to have one and either incubate some eggs or see if one of the ladies would go broody, but for now we are limited on space and the rooster would HAVE TO BE A SILENT one.
An Americuana would be my choice as I prefer this breed. I am not superstitious regarding numbers etc...
thanks anyway!

Lucky chickens!

Jo, I could not remember all their names already! Very nice setup and I am sorry about Miss Vivian. I sent you an email about Chicken Football (an idea from a friend whose brother has chickens). Look forward to more pictures and updates.

Worms huh?
When I was cutting the grass there was an unlucky grass hopper then I snagged and tossed him into the coop. BB was on him like a fly on.....
she made short work of him and all the others came running to see what she had.

I am convinced that chickens don't have an original thought. If one is doing something the others apparently feel they must be doing it too. If one goes under the coop, the rest go just because they might be missing something. If one is preening then they all are preening. If one is taking a dust bath of course all of them need to be taking a dust bath in that one very same spot.

The manure boxes were a riot. They wouldn't go in the coop through the chicken door because the edge of the box was right there! OMG!! there is something new there!! OMG!! It might eat us or attack us! OMG!! don't go near it!!!

I had to open the people door to get them to go in to roost for the night and that took 15 minutes of them hopping up one at a time and scrutinizing the edge of the box with their heads cocked to one side to make sure it wasn't a evil trap laying in wait. Of course the rest wanted in to roost but the pausing chickens created a jam at the door so chickens were falling and squawking and making such a fuss. And then, oh horror! I had painted the perches and that wasn't how they were when they left them that morning so no one would perch! I just closed the door once they were all in and hoped they would sort it out before it got too dark for them to see. Heard some clucking and thumping and complaining as I walked away.

This morning a few braved the chicken door as I pulled it open, they had to walk over the manure boxes to get out. A few still wouldn't fly down and cross it, so I opened the people door again. I hope after a day or two it will have been there long enough that it doesn't mess with their heads anymore.

Poor little bird brains.

Careful with the grasshoppers, my coworker had a chicken choke on a grasshopper and die!