Building The Brooder

We set out last weekend to build the chick house or the Chick Inn as my husband likes to refer to it. The humble abode that our babies will call home for the first five weeks of their lives.

We contemplated buying a traditional wire cage brooder (see photo). But opted instead to construct our own. Infinitely more fun and customizable. Plus we already had the lumber necessary on hand left over from a prior "build our own office desks" project.

Traditional Wire Cage Brooder













The Team Departs


















Our first stop was the local lumber yard --Concord Lumber, where we searched for fine gauge wire for the top and bottom of the brooder. Something large enough to allow all of the chicken droppings (apparently abundant) to fall through, but small enough that their little feet will not get stuck.

To Home Depot - for a piece of plexiglass for the front.














While Fred started in on the construction, Isabelle and I headed indoors to test out Terry Golson's Challah recipe from her publication The Farmstead Egg Cookbook.

Fred Hard at Work



















Isabelle Hard at Work

SUCCESS

The bread was AMAZING and the brooder looks great. We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of our chicks and ultimately our very own eggs so we can try out the Challah bread recipe with fresh Monument Street Coop eggs.

A Visit with Terry Golson

Today was an exciting day! Augu and I were invited to visit Terry Golson's home, to see her gorgeous coops and her chickens. Terry is the author of The Farmstead Egg Cookbook and Tillie Lays an Egg, a wonderful new children's book about a curious chicken at Little Pond Farm. She also mans the rocking "Hen Cam" which I link to on the sidebar.

Terry lives in the next town over from us and has a flock of hens on 3.5 acres. She has TWO coops (serious coop envy), one sweet shingled coop decorated with salvage windows that I fell in love with. The other is more like a small barn, pre-fab and FANCY from Country Carpenters, which she used to photograph Tillie Lays an Egg and also will soon house two goats.

Since we were getting ready to start planning our coop, I wanted to get some ideas from a chicken aficionado. Terry was most accommodating and had LOTS of great ideas, many of which we will incorporate.



Here is Terry's shingled coop. Love the purple barn door and the salvage windows. Augu tests the strength of the chicken's ramp.



A few of the hens puttering about. Candy, the lop-eared bunny, has a hutch inside the run. This bunny has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen. Augu was scared of her.



Terry has an 8'x16' structure for her coop. Half is devoted to storage for all things coop - galvanized barrels contain shavings, food, etc. A screen door divides the two spaces (the coop itself is 8'x8') and allows for ventilation.



Here you can see Terry's metal nesting boxes and her roost. Terry had an ingenious idea for the roost - it's on barn hinges so that you can lift it for easy clean-out.



Terry shows Augu her lovely speckled Sussex named Lulu... Thank you Terry!!!!!