Thanks for the replies! Urban Farmer Husband is now even more enthused about keeping chooks, especially after offers of a chicken research trip to Sydney, free wire, and reading about the 12 year old hen who lay till the day she died. HazMo’s Mama has kindly let me a book, The Contented Chook, written by ABC Australia Gardening Magazine (see her response in Should I get chickens post).
Published by ABC books.
This book is a visual feast of hen house options and ‘inspirational ideas for keeping your hens happy’.
There are even a few pages of suggested names to call your chooks, such as Eggatha, Jujube, Buck-Buck, Evangaline, Caw-delia, etc which implies that naming chickens is more playful and light-hearted than naming the pet dog. Think of favourite childhood lollies, filmstars, rock gods, or you could wait and get to know their personalities and go from there? Ja’mie?
Deciding on a chook house touches on a favourite childhood pastime of mine, building cubby houses. It appears to also touch on unfulfilled yearnings. Starting at the big picture end of things, this Chook-Out photo below makes me want, not a ‘sea-change’ or a ‘tree-change’, but an ‘environmentally sustainable veggie-chook-change’.
The Reis family’s Chook-Out
Photo credit: The Contented Chook ABC
Below is a teasing reminder of the beach shack I’d like to have. Even a touch of shabby chic.
The Cronin Family – Chook Palace
Photo credit: ABC The Contented Chook
And below, a cross between having one last doll’s house and living the gypsy life.
The Maggs family – Chicken Wagon
Photo credit: ABC The Contented Chook
We will probably start with a fox-proof shed (from a hardware store) as recommended by Lee-Anne, thanks. As for whimsical? Husband bought a windmill on impulse recently and our daughters banned him from putting it in the front garden (so easy to embarrass the young), so will keep you posted where that ends up.
Which chook palace do you prefer? 🙂
Susan Lattwein 
So many beautiful styles to choose from in The Contented Chook. You are fortunate that Urban Farmer is handy and creative! Our own coop isn’t Chez Elegant in the least…the girls are prolific foragers and have turned everything into a bomb site 🙂
I think you have found a name for your hen house! Get it? Chez El-egg-ant 🙂 Perhaps the photos in The Contented Chook are like Home Beautiful magazine, where hen owners spent hours making it all look beautiful and enviable. I’m still romanticing about chooks, reality hasn’t set in yet. What put me off for years was reading Jackie French’s instructions on how to help a chook that has an egg stuck in it’s cloaca. Was worried it might be a regular event!
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