Kuken Haus

 I promised photos of the new, improved outdoor chicken yard when it was complete. If I'm being thorough, it isn't completely complete, as I still have the little door to build that will separate the outdoor house from the indoor one. Traditionally, we have used a straw bale to block the opening in inclimate or Icelandic weather. I am hoping a door is more practical and less space consuming. The new house is in the same footprint as the old one. I really wanted to enlarge it, but due to constraints in other features of the barn, that remained impractical. With the new enclosure, I wanted to have more structure to attach the hardware cloth ( note; chicken wire isn't a good choice for chickens! It is ineptly named. Chicken wire tends to rust and fall to pieces too easily, is easily torn and no true defense against curious hungry varmints). I also wanted a way to shade the birds, as they tend to stay indoors when it is too hot because the enclosure is in the full sun. Most afternoons they get to go out and about, picking at the grass, looking for bugs and giving themselves dust baths, but on the days they aren't let out it would be nice to have a pleasant outdoor pen.

 So on the west side of the house, they have a little garden. In the garden is a sweet autumn clematis, that will grow great big and need taming, a knockout rose, a bright green Little Princess spirea, a lonicera, and a few other cuties like catmint and Heuchera. The little garden is fenced against goose assault- a true frustration for the geese. They are dying to modify the plantings!

If the critters let any of these plants live, the chicken yard will be nicely shaded in the hot summer. In the meantime, they have shutters and a flower box lending shade around the west side "window".  Also in this project has been the reconstruction of the side gate there between the chicken house and the water trough. Now moving inside to work on the chicken house and the Palais d'Hiver a poulet!
(That is the chicken winter palace.)
Preview.......the newly painted exterior of the Winter Palace, in Globe Amaranth,  and huz working on the chicken water.