MOTH's pseudonym amongst our friends is Mr. McGregor. As you may recall he was the farmer from the Tales of Peter Rabbit & it was his garden that Peter sneaks into & eats as many vegetables as he can before Mr. McGregor spots him and gives chase. Peter does manage to escape, but not before losing his jacket and his shoes, which Mr. McGregor dresses his new scarecrow in & Mrs. McGregor threatens to put Peter 'in a pie'. Over the years, my Mr. McGregor has been the bearer of much fruit & vegies from his plot to our friends & neighbours, so the name is more a term of endearment I guess, although MOTH can be very ferocious when called upon, rather like the character in Miss Potter's books.
Well, much to my amazement, my Mr. McG. announced over dinner one night last week that we are getting some chooks! But this time I was prepared, & within a couple of seconds I was able toss my design file down in front of him & say 'Have I got a chook house for you!' Many years ago I'd clipped an article about Bunny William's Connecticut farmhouse & the amazing 'pavilion' that houses her hens. Her chookies + her partner John's doves are 'elegantly quartered in a pavilion & circular run she copied from an old English aviary'.
I won't bore you with MOTH's 'colourful' response, but in summation, I've got buckley's chance of having a coop this elegant for any chooks that may become ours - but its always worth a try! It will be lovely to have some chookies again & I've done some research & found a few other building ideas that MOTH could adapt in creating something befitting the Hedge chookies. Only elegant & stylish birds need apply!
PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE IN THE POLL - I NEED ALL THE AMMUNITION I CAN GET TO PRESENT TO MOTH!
What about the cute Gypsy Caravan look complete with window boxes?
This one is very mid-West Farmhouse chic.
Or this very stylish Rhode Island cottage creation.
Or this cute Country Store look-alike.
We could go European with this Swiss Chalet reproduction.
Do you believe this Medieval Castle coop!
The country style Barn is ever so gorgeous.
Or what about the Bohemian look complete with artisanal mosaics.
.jpg)
j'aimerai une petite cabane comme celà!!!!
ReplyDeletebonne nuit
manon
Ohhh Millie~ a few guinea hens??? How wonderful- fresh eggs!
ReplyDeleteI vote for the Rhode Island cottage "shed"- maybe with a window or two and yes... window boxes! Mr. Moth wouldn't want his hens in anything less- would he?
D~
I like your original design very much however failing that Rhode Island cottage is working for me :)
ReplyDeleteMillie...I vote for the Country Store look-alike. I look forward to all the recipes you'll be posting once the hens start laying.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you posted a picture otherwise I'd have no idea what a chook was! :)
♥Rosemary
First: Congrats on being prepared. All Scouts are proud of you.
ReplyDeleteSecond: I have your blog open twice that I might look and write at the same time.
Third:
GYPSY wagon looks cute but any MOTH would reject at all that detail.
MID west farmhouse: Door at only one end? You can bet the chooks will lay at the Other End. are YOU walking the length?
RHODE island doesn't seem chic (sorry re pun) enough for Millie's chooks.
COUNTRY store looks charming - do you have grandchildren? Might You?
CHALET may also have access problems for people..ie you.
THE LAST 3 - I can't see you getting any of them...
so I guess my vote goes to country store...I am thinking ahead in case the chook experiment is a failure...you could nab it as a 'studio'?
Jane @ Life&Times
Oh I love chooks! My vote isfor the Country Store, followed closely by the Rhode Island cottage :) Good luck!
ReplyDeleteaaarghhhh..i want i want ! would match my house perfectly lol. i do recall finding a pretty pink chook house on the net in the UK which i would have loved until we discovered our kelpie had a prediliction for chickens (live ones, eek). Mel xxx
ReplyDeleteI love all those chook houses. Good luck deciding on one - we're still debating over ours 18 months after getting our girls!
ReplyDeleteI think I would vote for the Country Store, Millie...imagine all those fresh eggs. That's one thing I miss coming from the country...the freshest eggs...but can't complain living near the sea, especially in these warm days. Hope you're able to get some relief in this heat...Dzintra XX
ReplyDeleteI remember listening to a radio talk back show, when I was driving home from Adelaide one afternoon and one of the radio producer's was after a chook house. The recommendation was to get a secondhand cubbyhouse as often people are looking to offload them and then they are easy to pretty up and decorate as you wish!
ReplyDeleteThat is so funny, as I also keep this Bunny Williams design around as an inspiration! I do now have chickens (chooks I see you call them, why is that? I am an american, so never heard this term) that I got last year and I built their home myself. I plan, someday, to have such a set up as Bunny did and I want doves too! Good luck I LOVE my 'chooks' and can't imagine not having their wonderful fresh eggs, they are great for making fertilizer for the garden and they eat up so much spoiled food from the kitchen! Have fun!
ReplyDeleteDear Millie,
ReplyDeleteHave just seen this archived post and loved it! I've wanted chooks for a long, long time. (Apparently, they're great for the garden.) I wanted the kind that lay those Tiffany-blue coloured eggs - have you seen those? The eggs are like little Fabergé eggs - only sans the jewels.
But more than that I wanted a - wait for it - 'Chanel Catwalk Chook House'! Have you ever heard of anything so pretentious! But can you imagine it? A tiny Chanel boutique chook house painted in black and white with a door in the middle, a few steps (or a catwalk) going down to the coop, two cut-out windows with black-and-white awnings on top, and a black and white CC sign (for Chanel cooks, of course) above the door.
You'd really have to have black and white chickens to match though, and at that point it all got too silly. So we gave up on the idea of our haute couture house / 'haute chook house'.
But I love your inspiring images. Hope it comes to fruition soon!
Janelle