Finishing Project Chicken

We did it! It took us 10 days instead of 3, and we ran out of wood and had to patch bits together to make parts, but we did it – and we even got to stay for dinner and go and snatch the chooks out of the trees and put them in it when it got dark!

Please excuse the poor quality of and general lack of photos, I was so exhausted I wasn’t on the ball in the slightest.

The hutch has removable nest boxes and removable floors and is divided into 3 parts, both for ease of cleaning and so that separate chicken cliques are catered for (that’s serious by the way). The perches are also removable are made from fallen branches found on site, so ethical and locally sourced materials have been used (tick). The rooves are covered with recycled horse and chicken food sacks. More eco points.

The fence was a complete mission, right from the pipe-bursting start to the racing-to-finish-it-before-nightfall end, with leeches in the middle. It includes one layer of chicken wire that’s dug into the ground and another from ground level to 6 foot high. While we were making it some of the chickens came for a look round and seemed to be enjoying it.

It was SO SATISFYING to see it finally done and even put chickens in it! A really good project. Thank you so much to the Ashtons for putting up with us taking so long and making a mess, for feeding us home-baked cookies and even multiple gorgeous suppers, and generally just being absolutely lovely.