Homegrown Neighbor here:
As you may recall, I volunteer at a local high school where we have been working on building a chicken coop. Last fall we started taking apart the remnants of the old coop. It has been a long, slow process, but I am proud to announce that we are finally finished. The students did a lot of the work themselves and many had no building experience when we started. It was pretty great to watch them figure out how to use a drill.
The coop is big, 10 feet by 20 feet. The first four chickens have moved in and are very happy in their new home. These first four chickens needed a home and the school was happy to provide them one. In the future we hope to have up to twenty chickens at one time.
There is a spacious fenced in area for them to roam in during the day, with a big old oak tree providing valuable shade.
And the usually surly teenagers really enjoy the chicken’s hilarious antics. While digging in the orchard we unearthed some grubs and took them to the hens. One chicken grabbed the first grub and proceeded to run around the perimeter of the coop with all of the others following after her and periodically pecking at the prize in her beak, trying to steal it. Finally, the teenagers found something at school that they find worthy of their attention- chickens.
What a great project! I love that you did this.
Nice goin’, Erik! Cool project.
Hey H2 and all,
Just want to point out that the coop and this blog post are the work of my fine neighbor Lora “Homegrown Neighbor” Hall. And Lora–the coop looks fantastic–looking forward to a visit.
Chickens are fascinating and comical; they are also one of the most beautiful animals on Earth. We often take them for granted, and ridicule them, but what other bird of any size can you become friends with, gives you eggs and meat, and endlessly entertain you?
Mr. Homegrown- I think it is time we put up a group photo of you and Mrs. Homegrown and me so people finally can put names to faces.
And I also want to remind everyone that they can support the school farm by buying Botanical Interests seeds through the link on the right side.
Thank you for supporting gardens in schools!
Great Project, It is motivating to se high school students involved in this project.