This post is by regular contributor Arlee Greenwood of Small Potatoes.
“Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way. ~ John Muir
We have chickens in our backyard. We gather eggs every day. We live in the city.
Those are three sentences I never thought I would write all in a row, but they are all indeed, true. We have five clucky hens in our backyard, Frenchie, Lil’ Missy, Hermione, Mrs. Waffles, and Maggy… and we love them.
It all started with a few eggs and an incubator. I thought it would be fun to hatch chicks with my children and the children that I care for in my home. We did some research, bought an incubator and procured fertilized eggs from my cousin’s farm.
It was so exciting come hatching day, we could hardly stand it! The little peeps coming from inside the shells and then that moment when the children saw the wee birds trying so hard to make their way into the world…
Three of our eggs hatched successfully! Annie, TimBit, and Charlotte. My children were enamoured by them. They took turns in the night stimulating the weak little Charlotte who barely made it out of the egg alive. My children were their parents, and they made sure those chicks were safe and warm, fed, and out of danger.
The chicks loved to snuggle anyone, anywhere! I was constantly finding them in hoodie pockets, and doll blankets. They found their way into my herb garden from time to time…
They even liked to hang out with our dog…
In no time at all, the chicks started to lose their downy cuteness, and they grew older. We were excited. In fact, we decided to keep them instead of sending them back to the farm! What could be better than fresh eggs on your plate every morning?
Turned out there was a really big problem.
Our chicks were in fact, ROOSTERS! What luck! We can’t keep roosters in the city!
After we found new homes for our chicks, I decided that raising backyard hens was really something I still wanted for my children. And so I got down to business.
I purchased a bureau from the furniture store for $199 and began to make plans to turn the bureau into a hen house. That’s right. Our chicken coop is a dresser, and not a very expensive one, either!
Armed with a jigsaw and a piece of paper I had sketched my plans on, I got to work…
I made paper templates of all the holes I wanted to cut, traced them onto the bureau and cut them with a jigsaw. I sanded the entire piece with a palm sander when I was finished cutting.
Now it was ready for some paint! I painted first with outdoor quality spray paint. I wanted the undercoat to be different colours so that when I “distressed” the coop by sanding bits of the top coat off, the bright colours would show through. I was looking for a shabby chic hen house for our girls! I used an outdoor grade latex paint for the top coat…
I let it cure for 24 hours before I sanded some of the top coat off. I clear coated the entire coop, stapled chicken wire in the door window, put on some fancy knobs, and our hen house was finished!
Here’s a look at the inside of the coop…
Now that our coop was ready, it was time to find some hens to live in it! Because our coop is little, I decided to go with bantam hens. That way we could have more hens in a small space. Oh, move-in day was an exciting one! I couldn’t keep my two youngest ones out of the chicken run!
I know right about now, you may be thinking I’m a little bit nuts to put chickens in my backyard. I mean, what will the neighbours think? However, I’m really only a wee bit crazy. Let me give you my top 5 reasons I think this whole chicken business is a fantastic idea…
1. FRESH EGGS: Not only do our fresh eggs taste better, they are also better for us! They are lower in cholesterol and higher in Vitamin A, omega 3 fatty acids, beta carotene, and Vitamin E.
2. TEACHES RESPONSIBILITY: My children are each in charge of their own hens. They feed and water the hens and make sure they are all safe in the coop at night. They actually argue over who GETS to gather the eggs!
3. RAISING HENS REDUCES WASTE: Our hens are spoiled, I will admit it. They eat all our scraps from meal prep and what’s left on kids’ plates throughout the day. Just about anything goes! They cannot eat potato peels, avocado, or junky sweet foods. I keep a bucket by my sink labelled “hen scraps”, and the children take the bucket out each morning and feed it to the ladies. Since we started keeping chickens, we have had very little “wet garbage” in our trash can. This means our can is less smelly, and we are throwing out a lot less.
4. MY CHILDREN HAVE OUTDOOR PETS: The children have given their hens names, they cuddle them, they run with them, and they visit and chat with them, just like any other pet. The hens ARE their pets. Even the children I look after everyday have a soft spot for these birds.
Best part? It’s all outside. That means no house-training for me to have to get involved with, and the poop they DO create goes nicely in my garden and makes things grow.
5. A GREAT WAY TO CREATE A SELF-SUSTAINING LIFE: The only things our hens require of us are food, water, and bedding for their coop. In return, they provide food for our family. No matter what happens in the “egg economy”, we will have breakfast on our table. If we are snowed in, we can still bake those muffins, because we can snatch an egg from our backyard. As long as we take care of them, they will take care of us. It’s a pretty good deal.
Do I ever regret getting into the backyard chicken business? Do any of my children get tired or bored of the responsibility? Absolutely not. They love their hens and their quirky personalities. Maggy is a little bossy thing, Frenchie is a tender “mama wanna-be” and Mrs. Waffles loves to sit and have her feathers stroked. Lil’ Missy is the loudie of the bunch and sweet Hermione wouldn’t harm a flea unless she was really, really hungry!
Our city allows for 6 hens/yard and we have only 5. We are currently on the look-out for that last clucky lady to join our urban hen family.
Do you keep chickens in your backyard? If not, have you ever considered them as pets?
Arlee Greenwood is mum to six and an Early Childhood Educator currently operating an approved and accredited day home in Central Alberta, Canada. Earning her degree at BYU Idaho, her passion for teaching young children emanates through her thoughtful planning for children’s every day play experiences.
Your chicken coop is fabulous and I love the drawer handles, even chickens need a bit of sparkle!!! Our neighbours have chickens, we sometimes do a swap for eggs for some of our homegrown produce – carrots or passionfruit or whatever we have.
We love our chickens. We have 8 at the moment and when we built the yard for them, my one stipulation was that I had to be able to stand at my kitchen bench, look out the window and see them scratching away.
They give us eggs, compost for our garden, eat all our scraps and make our yard alive with their happy noises. The children have rocks that they sit on to eat snacks and watch the chickens, and when we have any friends over, they always get to check the nesting boxes and take a nice fresh egg home for their dinner.
Our chickens are so much a part of our little family that I can’t imagine not having them!
I love this! I have been wanting to get some chickens for several years but haven’t figured out the hen house thing yet. I love what you did! I think this is the year I’m going to take the plunge. My daycare kids will love love love it! Thanks for sharing!
I currently have five chicks in my living room! We are so excited about our backyard chicken adventure! I love your coop!
Love this! We will be down sizing from 4 acres this summer and have always had free range chickens. Our last group of girls Lucy, Ketchup, Snoopy and Flake along with our boy Doodle, made great companions on walks out back. This is the best idea for small space that appeals to me. Looks like you have 2 nesting boxes, did the girls share well or fight? What was the top drawer used for?
We just got our chickens today!! Three lovely ladies and we may add a fourth. I’m sure I’ll be posting about it someday soon! My 3 1/2 yr old son loves it already and wants to check the nesting boxes for eggs every two minutes!
I love your idea for a henhouse!! You did such a great job! My twin toddlers absolutely love their chickens (or chooks as we call them here in Oz!) and they have provided so many wonderful experiences as well as beautiful eggs! I love that my kids know where eggs originate from!
Your pics are lovely and I can clearly see how much your kids love their chooks…thanks so much for putting a smile on my face…although I now have henhouse envy!
It’s not crazy, it’s great! My family had chickens for a few years when I was 9, and I remember how awesome it was… and then we moved. Anyway, I am looking to add a few egg-laying cluckers to our yard next year. Right now my kids are too little for us to have much time to focus on building them a roost, and I need to make sure it’s really safe as we have loads of neighborhood foxes, coyotes and other wildlife. I can’t wait!
Oh, I want chickens very badly, but my hubby is not. into. it. at. all.
Maybe with a bit of time I could convince him. I’m very envious of all of your with your backyard flocks! What fun!
Trust I want chickens to,but where I live they don’t allow them.If you really want something you should have it cause thats our right as humans.
Please Sign The Petition
Legalize Backyard Chickens in Chesterfield County
Chesterfield citizens want to allow urban livestock responsibly and reasonably to empower their community to be more sustainable.
Like more urban cities and counties such as Seattle, Portland, Brooklyn, L.A., Atlanta and more, we would like to responsibly have laying hens allowed in the average back yard. We do not need to reinvent the wheel; we can take existing zoning laws and incorporate them to benefit our community and provide food and education for our families.
As a Chesterfield citizen, I want and support sustainably allowing and legalizing CHICKUNZ!
Petition Background (Preamble):
Sample of Chicken Laws:
Charlottesville, VA: As many as you want.
Corvallis, OR. Unlimited chickens allowed. No roosters. Chickens must be penned.
Mountain View, CA: Up to 4 hens without a permit. Keep 25 ft. from residences. Within 25 ft. is o.k. with written consent from residences. No roosters.
Austin, TX. Up to 10 fowl per household, but keep in enclosure that’s 50 ft. away from neighbors.
Downey, CA. Up to five chickens allowed per lot.
Colorado Springs, CO. A property may have a maximum of 10 fowl (chickens, ducks, etc.) requiring at least four square feet of coop area and adequate outdoor space. No roosters permitted within the city limits.
…and many, many more!
That chicken coop idea is fantastic! Wish I could I have some chickens myself so I can show my children where eggs really come from.
We will be getting chicks once we move….our kids are so excited!! I showed them your coop and my Daughter is in “chick” Heaven!!!
Wow! I am so jealous. I can’t believe they all turned out to be roosters; what bad luck. The little chicks were so cute, but not as impressive as the coop you made. Your whole story reminded me of these geese we kept as children. They used to chase everyone who came to the house and leave them with bruised heels, so they ended up on a farm in the end. Which was probably just as well as the local foxes kept trying to get into ‘play’ with them.
we have three and love them to pieces!
Loveee your chicken coop and what a great way to up-cycle and old dresser! I was curious as to what material you used for the removable floor mat for inside the coop. I plan on building one myself and would love any helpful hints! I’m think bigger than a dresser though so I’m hoping the material can be purchased in large sizes! Thanks so much!!
OMG!
I’m in love! What an splendid idea!
I’m in the process of getting some runner ducks and just got some thought of dwarf chickens to *lol*
Using the chest of drawers as a coop is an amazing idea and it looks great too!
What type of dresser did you use? please answer Asap! thanks