Little Red Barn

When we made the

desicions to get chickens last year, we started looking into coops. You would be surprised what a "Sonoma County Coop" runs. They are the high rent coops made in California wine country for the rich and famous. . The ones we looked at in town were made of ply wood and very unsightly. David, however, agreed to make a little "Red Barn" coop for me, complete with Pela windows! It took a long time to make and he almost broke his back, and that of our friend Todd's moving it, but it was worth the work. He was able to salvage a lot of wood from a house "scrape" a few doors down, and my sister-in-law donated the windows, so we didn't have to buy much. The coop is so bright and cheerful and the hens didn't need any prompting to get into it. They seem to know instinctively that's where to go at night. The other side has a small door that opens to allow you access to the eggs right from their nesting box.

I planted this peach tree last year, in the foreground and it is surviving (I had to put the green chicken wire around the base to keep the girls from scratching the roots, but it had over 50 tine fury peaches on it last month. I followed gardening advice and removed all but 12 (Ugghhh it was so hard to do, but I dropped them to the hens who loved them even in that stage.)