Our Coop.

We recently had the Multnomah County Vector Control come to our house and issue us a permit for our darling chickens. He was completely taken aback by our predator proof coop. Rats, raccoons and opossums are a huge problem in Portland. Especially rats. Portland has a HUGE rat problem being so close to the river and all.

It's often that we hear of rats burrowing into a coop, coons taking off with a chicken head, lovely stories. With having a 7 year old in the house, we wanted to be ultra sure that our coop would be safe so no surprises for Camille in the morning!

Our coop is 4.5' wide, 8' tall, has an enclosed 4.5' x 15' run that is secured with 1/2" x 1/2 " hardware mesh. The mesh is buried 12" down and 12" out aproned to discourage burrowing. The coop is vented and fully insulated as well.

We have a corrugated metal roof that is fully attached with no gaps to a box beam ceiling. Great bio- hazard precaution from other wild birds and their droppings.

The food and water are in galvanized metal containers that hang from chains in the run. The food is brought in every night and the bulk food stored in plastic containers inside.

The droppings tray in the hen house is on sliders so you can slide it out to change the shavings.

This coop is accessed by a 6' door that opens in as to discourage the hens from running out.

It is the perfect coop. We have found no flaws.

Hot Chicks

Alice, Martha, Mabel and Betsy.


Today it is 95 degrees and our ladies are hot. They have spent the better part of the day taking dust baths and Mabel likes to lay in the sun, stretched out getting a tan.

The coop is very shady. We positioned it perfectly in our yard. I had monitored the sun patterns in our yard and this plot gets shade nearly all day.

The hen house is insulated so it stays rather cool.

I woke the hens up at 6:00 a.m. to let them out of the hen house and much to my surprise and pleasure, they all were finally roosting. They normally sleep all piled on top of each other, I am sure the roost was much more comfy.

Other news is that I think Mabel and Alice are close to giving us an egg. They seem to be visiting the nesting boxes quite often during the day. We have placed plastic white eggs in the boxes to encourage laying. They are both 17 weeks old so they could start laying any time now! Let's hope. 5-6 months seems to be the magic age though.

Hey Chicken Lady!

I am calling my new blog, "Hey Chicken Lady" because this is what is called out to me now when I am out and about around town.

We will use this blog to document our chicken journey raising 4 hens in the city.

Stay tuned.....