The Chicken Coop I’d Like to BURN….

Freedom, baby!

Finally living in the country with 5 acres of land means I can do whatever I want and that feels really good. You may remember when I lived in the city and we were only allowed 3 chickens? Yeah, so we had 4 of course (because I’m a rebel…and that’s just how I roll…) We sure did love those chickens and when we moved to an apartment we gave them up to another lady with a large coop and run. Some days I wonder if they are still alive and well… but am too scared to drive over and see just in case they died or something. Yep, I guess that makes me a chicken too.

So after living in the apartment, and then moving into the new built house everyone started talking about getting chickens right away.  I was still feeling a little overwhelmed with moving, and having lots of visitors each week (family members came to visit from all over). So every time my husband mentioned it I said, “oh maybe in a little while. “I was trying my best to delay it until I felt more settled in.

A NEW CHICKEN COOP

Well, one weekend I drove my parents back to Seattle after their visit to catch a plane home. When I came back home my husband “surprised” me with starting the building process of a brand new chicken coop. He said, “Honey, I am starting Chicken Coop 2.0 and your’e gonna LOVE it! Come see!”

Now many of you may be thinking….that is just so sweet of him! What a great husband. What a nice surprise!

But oh no, let me stop you right there... this isn’t a happy story.

This is the story of how a chicken coop nearly destroyed our marriage. Just kidding.  I’m totally being over dramatic. Just keepin’ you on your toes.

But I was super annoyed when he showed it to me. I mean,  I had to be all like ” Oh, wow! and “How sweet!” saying it with a smile while inside totally irritated. It’s really hard to be mad at someone that is trying to do something nice for you.  And at first I didn’t want to show my disappointment because it was a nice gesture. But I couldn’t hide my feelings for long and that night I came clean with my disappointment. I told him that I had plans for a different coop and that I hated this new design.  Am I a bad wife? Yes. Yes, I probably am.

Let me explain…

First off, I had been researching different coop designs for the past few months. I wanted a design that wouldn’t be so hard to upkeep. After my last coop, which was really pretty, I realized how hard it was to clean the bottom of the coop – I had to crouch down and hand shovel it most of the time. My back ached and I inhaled way too much stink by the time I was done.  The upper area was okay to clean but it did take some time and I had to had remove the nesting box material. So I researched and found that basically I wanted a walk in shed type coop. One door, with one side of the building being the nesting boxes and one side having the roosting bars. That way I could easily take a rake or shovel, and clean out the floor without back pain and close encounters of the poop stink. I saw Shaye’s chicken coop design over at her blog The Elliot Homestead where she used wooden crates for the nesting boxes and LOVED it – such a genius idea for quick cleaning a coop.  I was wanting to have an easy to clean coop since it always seemed to be me who ended up with that job.

But my husbands’ new chicken coop design is awful.  A disaster really.

I do hate saying that too… because I love my husband. And he does try. But he obviously hadn’t cleaned the last chicken coop EVER. No, not even once. And he really should have talked to me first before taking this one on. It’s called communication people.

Problems with the new coop:

Yeah, I seriously will need a ladder to gather eggs!!! AND I (not the kids) will have to gather eggs daily. I loved it when my kids got home from school and ran to gather all the eggs for me. But unless we have a stool back there it ain’t gonna happen.

And to clean the coop – ugh. I still will have to clean the floor of the coop leaning over.

I tried to make him stop building it.

I really did try.

I begged and told him to just scrap it and build me the one I wanted. To take the loss and learn.

But he was determined to finish it. Stubborn man. He said someday he’ll build me another one. One that I really want. But we all know how this goes. It will be years before that happens. We just have too many other land development projects that will come first. 5 acres of irrigation, landscaping, pasture and more.

Boo.

And you think he will be cleaning this coop? Oh heck to the no!

I told him he would have to be the first one to clean the coop (just so he understands…) and he just said something along the lines of – then the chickens will die in filth as I’ll never clean it! You see what I’m up against here? Please feel sorry for me…please…………

Just so you know the coop wasn’t finished in this picture yet.

On the bright side I have a nice big chicken run that looks a little bit like my dream one. This will be my first big chicken run ever. FYI I am not letting my chickens just free range everywhere on my property. Last time it was a poopy mess on my back porch and yard all the time. And they always were getting in my garden. I will give them a large run this time and have a tunnel I can open up for free ranging in the front pasture once it’s all fenced. They will have lots of bugs and greens to free range on.

This is a picture of the siding he attached on the outside of the coop. And painted it to match our house.

So there you have it. I’m keeping it real with you guys.

Sometimes marriage is hard and sometimes lessons are learned in love as you work together.

I do love my husband and am grateful for all his hard work. And that he is even willing to build me stuff. I’ve tried to be as gentle as I can be with my disappointment in his design. But it’s soooo hard! I’m a perfectionist. And tired already thinking about cleaning out the new coop.  I need to learn patience and tolerance. And to be more humble. And he hopefully will learn to not disappoint his wanna-be homesteader wife with communicating better next time. Hee hee.

Livin’ and learning…. and loving him still,

Karrie