Behold the majesty that is…
THE CHICKEN PALACE
One of the things I love most about living in the country and working from home is that I get to wander outside into the garden at my leisure. I can go sit out by the vegie garden in the back paddock and soak up a little sun when my natural vampire-like tendencies of hunching over a keyboard or jewellery bench inside all day are taking over. If it wasn’t for the fact that I have to actually leave our shed and walk down to the house for the shower, I am sure days would go by without me seeing outside. Terrible.
Now, thanks to my super-clever husband Nick (and a little input from builder-of-all-things-Dad), I have a new reason to get outside – to visit our new chickens! Nick has spent the last 2 weeks constructing what I like to call the CHICKEN PALACE (imagine that being said in a big booming voice and you’ll get the picture). I also sometimes call it the Chicken Prison, ’cause really, it does look a bit like that.
Nick constructed the entire thing from scrap metal and other bits and pieces that we had laying around on the property – the only new thing was the steel mesh.
Let me take you on a journey…
Mum and Dad recently had to replace their 20-year old dryer as it finally died. So, what to do with said old dead dryer? Why, take the door out and make a whimsical porthole in the larger Chicken Palace door. This little door allows us to just look through the window or open it and poke our head in to see what the chooks are up to.
The have perches aplenty. They even have a skylight, for goodness sake!
The each have their own nesting boxes, like the queens they are…
And they have open space to roam in the sunshine. (Ignore the handles, they were put there simply so we could drag this thing into place, it’s heavy!).
Finally… here they are! Our new girls. This was them exploring their new digs when we brought them home yesterday.
After a week or so of settling in, we’ll start letting them out to roam during the day. We already attempted to introduce the cat to them (from a distance) but the cat was having none of it. He’s a big chicken, himself.
Of course, we need to name them now! I asked around on twitter and instagram yesterday arvo and got some great suggestions, but I thought I’d give you all the chance to get a word in before we made the final choice. What do you think we should name our new girls?
P.S. Those of you who saw my tweet last night about the GIANT CARPET PYTHON we saw on the mesh of the coop last night, never fear, all three chickies are still alive and well!
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Sweet! What a great palace! How about Ephie, Ellie, and Desie? 🙂
haha that dryer window is awesome.
what about Blanche, rose & Dorothy. the golden girls!
They are too cute! I’d say run with a theme! We called all of our roosters names starting with R. Quite funny.
Watch out for foxes and dingos where you are! We had a dingo massacre not that long ago while they were free ranging during the day 🙁
LOVE the dryer porthole!
Oh no, the poor things! They’re secure from foxes/dogs in their cage – you can see the mesh we’ve actually lain the cage on so the little rats can’t dig under the edge… but yep, we’ll definitely need to watch them during the day when they’re out!
Nice Jess. I have been wanting chickens for, well, forever!! Hubby always says, “no, they are smelly and attract snakes”, then after reading your final comment about the python, I was having second, third, fourth thoughts!!! eeep!! Although Snakes are not a common problem in the area I live, we have lots of friendly skinks and bobtail lizards.
Not sure about names – maybe you could name them after your favourite singers
Yay for chickens! I’ve had a backyard flock for about 6 months now and love them. They each have their own quirky personalities and the eggs are delish. Congratulations!
Hi Jess a friend of ours has a magnificent chicken house she calls “Cluckingham Palace” and her girls just love it. Now as to names Eenie, Meenie, Minie and then you can always get yourself a rooster and call him Mo :o)
Love it, though not so much the giant carpet python, LOL. I would love to have chickens but I don’t think we have the space. I am always into goofy pet names, and had a friend who gave her hens crazy names like HENrietta and Princess Layer, LOLOLOL. 😉
Gotta love the girls. Some of my chook names have been –
Henny Penny
Matilda
Sticky Beak
Speedy
Chick-a-dee
Chooky Looky
Oh love the palace. One day we’ll have chooks too 🙂
Bettie, Gina & Ginger 🙂
Your girls looks gorgeous!
I would love to be able to have chickens at home. We’ll see what happens. 🙂
You could call them Peace, Hope and Freedom.
Loving all the names!! Thanks for the suggestions, everyone 😀