There are lots of reason why winter’s dangerous; you know them as well as I. But the one that scares me the most is lack of being able to garden. Which inevitably leads to daydreaming. Which is a gateway drug to Takingonprojectsthatyoureallyreallyshouldnt.
I got a good start on my road to addiction yesterday. On our old farm (portions of which we think were built in the 1860s) there is a middling-old outhouse. More like 1940s-era. It’s in very good condition and is currently being used to store jarts, a croquet set, and my wife’s wintering pots. It’s been used a couple of times since we’ve lived here, decades ago when the power went out.
Would this make an acceptable chicken coop? It could easily be made varmint-proof, and it would be pretty simple to add a predator-proof run in back. We had chickens for a long time, so there’s not a huge learning curve. Plenty of storage elsewhere for the jarts.
This is how it starts.
vegetablurb 
Will the chickens range during the day? If they get sunlight during the day and use that structure as their nighttime roost, that’s a 5 star coop!
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You’re pushing me closer…stop! :). Yes, they’ll have a run and hopefully a chicken tractor to let them poke around in the garden and woods.
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I remember that feeling all to well. Growing up in Buffalo was rough for the gardener in me. Staring out the window giving deep sighs to the cold darkness. Waiting. And waiting some more. I feel you.
Just slap a run on that outhouse and your in business! Keep the toilet as an emergency backup and you can do your business amongst the flock for a singular albeit odd experience!
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Haha, that’s my kind of thinking James. Love it!
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It looks like it would be a great coop! We built a chicken tractor with a run out back and it is working out very well. We moved it about every day or so last year. Then, at the end of the season, we put it in our garden areas and left it for a week at a time to get the ground good and scratched up, not to mention pest free. Can’t wait to see what you do with it!
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That sounds perfect Melissa! I’m already salivating at the thought of chickens carrying out my Final Solution for those squash bugs.
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I got a sadistic pleasure in watching them catch and chomp on the squash bugs. Not to mention the tomato horn worm!
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Now those would be a mouthful 🙂
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Yep, definitely a meal for more than one bird!
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Neat little house for the chickens, its a dream of mine too, to have chickens, but for the moment we are away too often to justify getting some. Imagine collecting lovely dark yolked eggs from your own chicken, hearing them first thing in the morning after they laid an egg, all lovely country sounds and tastes, sounds only too wonderful 🙂
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I know. It’s a big commitment, and more likely to cost money than save it. But heck, you have to dream!
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Dan that would be a gorgeous chicken coop. Very cute – in fact the creative photographer in me, can see a story for ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ (Australian TV show and magazine).
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Thanks for the encouragement Sarhn! Inside it’s a 3-seater, with a great little seat for the squirts (so to speak).
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As a guy who’s always been fascinated by human nature, I loved the way this idea progressed from the beginning of this thread until now. Being a city dweller, researcher type, with a bum arm making typing somewhat of a nuisance, however, maybe you could save me some effort and just answer a little question I have, “What the heck is a “chicken tractor?”
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No nuisance at all David, and it doesn’t surprise me that you’ve never heard of chicken tractors. They’re kind of a niche commodity 🙂
They’re basically any kind of pen that holds chickens and can be moved with the chickens in them, in order to rotate where they spend their days looking for goodies.
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Well that makes a lot more sense than the picture I had in my head of this really tough-looking chicken sitting on his tractor plowing up the lower 40. 🙂 Thank-you.
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But yours is a much better image.
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