Decorating for Chickens

...I mean chickens.  Literally.  The chicken coop was the first decorating project I tackled.  The outside of the coop was in need of paint and something HAD to be done with that industrial gray metal door.  So while Ariel cleaned out the inside, I gave the outside a fresh coat of barn red, freshened up the trim and painted the door a bright yellow.

Makes me happy whenever I look at it!

Ariel and I painted the inside a light blue, partly because I had heard an old wives' tale that flies don't like the color blue and partly because I found some blue paint left behind by the previous owners.

The hen house came equipped with power, lights, a concrete floor, insullation, a lovely big picture window, roosts and nesting boxes.  The only problem with our set-up was the nesting boxes.  Our 'girls' were all out of sorts after the Big Move.  They were laying eggs in strange places:  on the floor, on the ramp leading to the chicken yard, even in the middle of chicken 'no man's land'.  Worse yet, they had started eating the eggs meant for us!  Horrors! Something had to be done!  Enter Tom---my personal 'Fixer'. Taking a cue from my son-in-law Matt's nesting BUCKETS, Tom rigged up some awesome nesting bucket/boxes that make it virtually impossible for  the chickens to get at the freshly layed eggs.

This is a five gallon bucket with a hole at the bottom.  The astroturf is to give the hens a bit of traction when coming in and out.

The buckets fit perfectly into the existing nesting boxes.  They are tilted back ever so slightly allowing  the egg to roll gently out the back of the bucket and into the existing nesting box where it can be collected from the outside.  Clever, huh?

I like the hand-painted egg plaque.  It was a gift from my mom and dad.  I think it provides inspiration to our little flock.

Meet Fluffy.  My two year old grandson, Asher, named her.  Fluffy is the only chicken we have with an official name.  She is a Faverolle which is a French breed.  Sometimes we call her Frenchy.  She is quiet and gentle but not particularly smart. If you squint hard, her comb resembles a jaunty beret.

Our cat napping in the middle of the chicken yard.  The little red hen looks befuddled or maybe simply terrified.  It's hard to be sure.