Our dream of a chicken coop part 1
My oldest son, John Luke has been dreaming of farming since he could push tractors around as a toddler. He is now 9 and has been begging to get chickens for a while, but I’ll be honest it all seemed so overwhelming, I kept putting the idea off and telling him “one day”. The thought of something else to take care of and feed seemed like a chore, although I loved the idea of it. John Luke is pretty persistent, so he kept persuading us on the idea of chicken farming. We started researching coops online, and found several sources, but the reviews were not very good, so we searched Facebook Marketplace and found this coop less than an hour away from a Pastor family that was moving congregations. It had to be moved within a few days before their house was scheduled to close. It was perfect timing and we fell in love with this cute little coop. We literally found it the same day we made the decision to start on the the journey to become hobby chicken farmers. It was meant to be!
After finding this coop on FB marketplace, I messaged the owner and asked if it was still available. He replied yes, but he could not hold it and whoever got there first, it was theirs to purchase. It had to be moved before his closing date in a few days, so we took that to mean others had inquired about it. We loaded up our trailer and drove to Greenville, TN to take a look. Immediately, after seeing it, I was sold on the idea, and had visions to paint it all white and add accessories.
The coop was built by the pastor family we were purchasing it from. They were moving to Chattanooga and said they would build a new one when they got settled into their new home. This coop was steady and HEAVY! There was no doubt we felt this one would fare better than some of the ones we had read about online with poor reviews. I was amazed we found such a good coop the same day we started searching, the family needed it moved that weekend, and I felt like it was a sign that we had started this journey at just the right time. God’s timing! After more than a year of weighing the pros and cons, it all fell into place so easily. I just felt a peace about it that God was working out the details. I started to become really excited about getting the coop fixed up and finding some chickens to call our own!
We bought some white barn paint and got started giving this baby some new life! Although, I did love the red and white combination, it didn’t match the ideas I had swirling around in my head of an all white coop. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do to accessorize it, but new it needed to be all white, and it needed a refresh anyway!
The kids joined in the fun to help get the painting complete, but I still had to go to Hobby Lobby and search Amazon for accessories and lights, more importantly we needed to find some chickens. We were well on our way to becoming chicken farmers!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Foster Family Chicken Coop makeover!
