The City Chick Chalet

My wonderful husband and builder extraordinaire has finished the coop and run, with the exception of a few things. The girls spent their first night in their City Chick Chalet on Sunday. To my delight, everyone survived...including me. For someone who had no building plans or a specific design, I think Neal did a terrific job.

Come along for a tour...

The CCC (city chick chalet) is right outside our back door, near the patio. We used leftover wood scraps from The Ranch for the coop. The top portion is the exterior siding material, and the bottom portion is our bead board ceiling material. Pretty cool, huh?

The egg box is approximately 10 steps from our back door, which will make gathering eggs so quick and easy!

For ventilation, Neal used two old floor vents we had. This will allow us to adjust the flow of air as needed. He also plans to add a window or two which will help with ventilation and give the girls some sunlight when they choose to stay in the coop.

My major contribution to this project was the painting of the coop. We used a deck stain that Neal won at a car show. The color is called "barn red" and I think it blends in nicely with our house. I just love it when I can use something that was free AND it matches the decor!

This nifty design of Neal's operates the coop door. We can use this to open and close the door without having to step inside the run, which means no poopy shoes!

Here you can see another view of the door opener, as well as the roosting perch and what we call the dugout area. The girls love the dugout area!

And they also love their outdoor perch. We thought it would take them a while to learn to get up there, but all four of them made it up on the first day!

Inside the coop we have natural tree branch perches and lots of pine shavings.

The nesting boxes are closed off until they start laying.

You may remember how nervous I am about predators and how I told Neal to build a chicken Fort Knox? Hopefully that problem has been solved by using these latches and clasp locks. There are two on the full-size door, one on the clean-out door and one on the egg box. And as for digging predators, a chicken wire apron underneath covered with bricks should do the trick! Only the best for our girls!

Thanks for taking the tour. Stay tuned for more chicken capers in the days to come!