Chickens, chickens everywhere...

I was surprised when my friend Katie got chickens last year. She is a city girl and grew up in NE Portland. A couple coworkers have chickens as well. Apparently it is very common now and there are chickens in many urban backyards. I got a book on it and it turned out the writer was from Portland as well. Maybe it is just that Portlanders are suddenly obsessed with chickens.

Sahara loves the idea of Katie's chickens and bravely held out her little hands to hold one when we last went to visit. Holding it for about a minute was enough, and after that she was done with the whole business... at least for that visit.

I had wanted a chicken as far back as 3 years ago when I was in the Master Gardener program in the Bay Area. My instructor had a bunch in her yard which ate the slugs, snails, weed seeds and seedlings - Perfect!

However there was the roadblock of how to get a coop. Yes, people make them, but I would rather be enjoying them than trying to saw and nail and such around my little girl, or worse with her in the Ergo carrier on my back. I need something out of the box, with under 2 hours of assembly. Katie's husband Jeff slaved over a deluxe chicken coop for an entire weekend, and the end result was a darling "playhouse" for her chickens. She had 3 hens, but suddenly now she has a bunch of chicks of amazingly varied types. I'll probably write more on chicken types later, as she has gotten me obsessed with that as well. I know if we get some, we will stick with just a couple, and how can I choose out of so many varieties? A parakeet, cat and dog are really enough animals for us, but 2 new chickens couldn't hurt. :)

So now I found the "perfect" chicken coop, except for the price: The Omlet Eglu! It is plastic, cleanable, small and portable, oh and comes in 6 colors! I love it, I want it. Too bad it is so outrageously expensive. Free shipping is great, but $740 for a plastic house for chickens??? At $200 I would order it now, at $300 I would order it tomorrow after thinking about it, but $700?

I really can't justify that... sigh. The search for the truely perfect coop continues.