The Great Backyard Chicken Adventure, part 3

"Backyard chickens" are all the rage in the Bay Area. One Sloat staffer recently adopted two chickens... we've asked her to document her 'chickens in the city' experience.

The chicken run (pictured above) was built with raccoons in mind. We dug out the soil and lined the space with hardware cloth and replaced the soil. The outer frame is made with 4x4’s and wrapped with hardware cloth. I sewed all seams with wire to keep out burrowing, rodenty-types. So far, so good. The top is covered with the hardware cloth too, although “cloth” is not very accurate. It was very unwieldy, definitely wear gloves!

Chickens are more sensitive to heat stress so I put some bamboo fencing on top to give light shade. The coop provides some shade late in the day too. The girls must always have lots of fresh water since they can’t sweat to cool off. The water cools the blood in their carotid artery as they swallow it.

The ladies’ coop footprint is 2 x 3.5 and 4 feet tall. There are two nest boxes (10” x 10”) in the loft and a little gangplank leading to it and a peaked ceiling. The ceiling/roof is hinged so I can lift one side to collect eggs and clean. I would call the architectural style a combination of Cape Cod and American Rambler. It is situated in the middle of the run, which is 14 ft by 6 ft. I think Thelma and Louise get along so well because they have lots of room to poke around. There is a wire mesh chair I left in the run. The girls both jumped up on it this morning, one on the seat and one on the arm. They had a good look around, then jumped down using their little cartoony wings to help with landing. Their wings seem so tiny compared to their big fluffy bodies.

Eggs! The ladies make brown eggs, almost every other day. Thelma’s are a lighter brown and lightly speckled. They lay eggs late morning or afternoon and there is loud squawking afterward. I gather the eggs while the ladies are eating, and fluff and clean the bedding too. The ladies rarely leave droppings in the coop.

The eggs are stored pointy side down in the ‘fridge… and taste wonderful. The yolks are a deep orange shade, I particularly like them with sourdough toast.