The chicken palace is done! Well almost….We are thinking we'll put a small window in that front wall on the left. For extra ventilation and so the girls can look out.
My intention is to have a separate chicken palace page with all the details of the construction and some tips and lessons learned. I'm working on that and when it's done I'll post a link.
In the meantime here are a few pictures.
My favorite part – the screen door. The brackets came from Anthropologie and the door knob was knocking around in Rick's spare hardware drawer.
The backside of the palace. The nesting boxes are on top and there is storage below. This design inspiration came from Heather Bullard's coop except hers is on the end of her coop. Actually I have to say a LOT of the inspiration came from Heather's coop and a set of coop plans that we purchased. We kept referrning to both during the construction. We just made adjustments to suit our particular needs.
The end of the coop. Those are the clean out doors. Sorry the picture is a little bit crooked. I had to climb up on a weedy hill, alive with ticks, to take that picture. I wanted to just snap and get out of there.
The inside of the coop. Arched openings to the nesting boxes are another design idea borrowed from Heather's coop. We ended up putting a lower, portable perch in here until the chickens are big enough to get up to the higher perches.
One of the girls checking out her new digs. They didn't like the ramp at first. We had to pick them up and put them in their coop. We ended up buying some non-slip material for it and now they march up and down the livelong day (you can kind of see it in the picture below – it's a medium grey color).
I've named all the chickens only I can't tell them apart yet. Well I can tell one of the Buff Cochins because her tail is shorter than the others, but that is it. I'm waiting for their little personalities to develop so I can properly assign their names.
I have Rick to thank for this beautiful palace. He was very patient with me and my design demands. He made it sturdy and safe and didn't roll his eyes when I walked in with Anthropologie bags and insisted on returning the ugly plastic waterer for a more esthetically pleasing metal one. He asked me where the chandelier was going to go (and he'd hang one for me if I asked).
The girls and I truly appreciate his efforts.
All I have to say is that when you embrace a hobby, you don’t fool around. The chicken palace is amazing! Shoot, I’d stay there.
A chicken spa/palace indeed! As an urban dweller, I miss out but do appreciate your energy and your sweet design. ~Kelly
unDeniably Domestic
Ooh la la what a palais! Rick should go into the poulet palais building business. You could be the palais architect and decorator. C’est magnifique!
Wow..I am impressed! Good job. BUT the chicken doesn’t match the decor! Not white enough…tee hee.
so stinking cute. I love the name plaque. it looks like a little toy house in the crooked picture – thank you for sacrificing for us all 🙂
I love your palais des poulets. I bet your girls are gonna love it too.
Thanks for stopping by! And what a coincidence that we both posted abotu chicken coops. Thanks for your words of motivation. And I LOVE your chicken coop and blog also!
How awesome is that! It looks similar to a style my middle daughters husband built her except your hubs made yours a lot easier to clean out. Which I have found after less than a month of the girls living in ours is a wonderful necessity. I had certain ideas on how I wanted mine and hubs made a lot of adjustments on how he would build it so I could keep it clean easier. I came by to thank you for the visit and your sweet comment.
Fanastique! Love the palais… and the girls names too. Thanks for sharing. Rick, thanks for building!
What lucky chicks you have! I love that door as well!
Brenda
Gorgeous!!
A chicken coop Martha Stewart would be proud of!!!!! I love it.
Pleasanton has the street fairs twice a year. I’ll let you know when the next one is.
I just have to say wow that is the cutest chicken coop I have ever seen…lucky chicks..
WOW.
Just WOW… because.. well OMGWOW. I love it.
I love it! It’s just perfect for the girls. Rick is an artist!
I LOVE IT!!! This is so cute. Can I move in there? WOW.
Just absolutely love it. Love the chicken checking out the new home!
It’s perfect!
Kathy
Thanks for adding me to your list 🙂
Is that doorknob from the little green house?
I am in awe. Who knew??
You should post this on backyard chickens.com they would go nuts over this coop. We are still working on ours. I was told that the first egg costs $1000.00 and the rest are free… Maybe in your case that first egg is a bit higher than that…ha ha ..just beautiful!!
C tres bien et vraiment formidable.
Wonderful design! Please don’t let the jealous BYCers get you down! There are some very helpful and nice folks for the most part. Just wanted to let you know that I loved your coop!
Known as Mistyvalley on BYC. My coop is all reclaimed stuff from around our farm. So, I’m jealous too but in a good way.
I have to say this an amazing Chicken Coop, I certainly take my hat off to you.
I run a Chicken Coop Plans website http://www.chickenhousekit.com (Build a Simple DIY Chicken Coop) myself and I have to say it contains nothing like this one.
In fact having read some of your comments here I wouldn’t mind betting you could make a small fortune from the plans to this one.
I would love to have a link from my website so that my readers could visit this blog to see what can really be done with a little imagination.
Thank you for sharing…
Warm Regards
Clive Anderson
ChickenHouseKit.com
I only have one word.. WOW!
What a lovely palace for the chicks.