David Adair’s chickens likely won’t be flying their coop.
If one can call their $3,000 custom-made, cedar-sided, insulated henhouse a coop, that is.
Indeed, the Adairs have considered dubbing it the Chicken Palace. Or maybe the Little Spruce Coop. Or even the Blackfish Chicken Shack.
“It’s located in our front yard so we wanted to make sure it was esthetically pleasing as well functional for the chickens themselves,” said Adair, owner of Blackfish Homes in North Vancouver. “They seem pretty happy in there.”
It’s not surprising.
The five-foot-high coop, in the front yard at Westview and Larsen Street in North Vancouver, is like a luxury laneway house for chickens.
Elevated 18 inches above the gravel drive, the 4.5-foot by 5.5-foot coop is constructed of cedar planks and is topped by a green roof — a wooden garden bed stuffed with pots of dill, lettuce, bok choy and flowers — to help keep the inside of the coop cooler in summer and warmer in winter and prevent the chickens, dogs and raccoons from eating the spoils.
A black, powder-coated aluminum frame surrounds the chicken run outside with a another garden bed at the foot for more plants or vines that will come after Adair adds a Plexiglas shield to prevent the hens from pecking at it.
A ladder allows the chickens to get from the run outside to the door leading into the henhouse, which has fully insulated, painted pine walls, a straw-covered floor, three laying boxes and roosting bars.
A cage underneath the bars prevents the chicken poo from falling on the ground, keeping the coop fairly clean. And the space under the main living quarters allows the chickens to get some fresh air, along with food and water, when it’s raining or cold outside.
There’s even maid service of sorts: A big door in the back allows the Adairs to get into the coop and tidy up, while a side door allows their three-year-old son to pop in and collect the eggs.
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By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun
June 9, 2014
