Urban Chickens Build – 6

The final installment, the completion of the Chicken Cube, with ramp, some final security measures, ecoroof, and rain chain downspout. The ecoroof plants were leftovers from the Ecoroof Vendor Fair and had a diverse variety of sedums along with some native and other perennials, grasses, and herbs.



The front side, with all the hardware cloth installed and the new ramp.



And the back side, planted and rain chain installed.



A closeup of the ecoroof, newly planted.

The roof plantings include (amongst some others):

:: Sedum oreganum
:: Sedum spathifolium ‘Purpureum’
:: Sedum spathifolium ‘Cape Blanco’
:: Sedum album ‘Coral Carpet’
:: Oreganum
:: Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’
:: Dianthus
:: Festuca glauca ‘Elijah’s Blue’
:: Allium
:: Lewisia columbiana

We threw in some Ajuga and a few other perennial groundcovers up there to see how they’d do, and expect to try a few others as the initial mix sorts itself out.

And the patient residents waiting to move in. We did have a scare with one of the little ones getting pounced on by the dog after jumping the fence of our temporary run… all the chicks are doing well – and have now christened the interior with their own style. Welcome Katherine, Billy, Dinah, and Abby.


:: (c) all images copyright Jason King

12 thoughts on “Urban Chickens Build – 6

  1. Just missing some construction action shots! So like an landscape architect to forget the people…at least you got the chickens.

    Are you giving Urban Chicken Coup tours in Portland now?

  2. haha.
    well SuSu and my sister Suzanne who helped didn’t want any shots of themselves up on the blog – in fact running away when I aimed a camera in their general direction. Aside from that it was pretty much me and the dog, and she’s a really bad photographer (and helper if we’re really being honest 🙂

    There is the upcoming Tour de Coops put on by Growing Gardens – we were late for entering this year, but hoping to get on for next year!

  3. FYI, http://www.citycaucus.com, a sometimes on the mark, often sour, whiny and needlessly ad-hominem blog run by political staffers from the previous right-wing Vancouver city council, snapped up the third photo on this post and are using it (without attribution/credit) to oppose emergency homeless shelters (that were admittedly poorly planned and implemented), to ridicule a recent council decision to explore allowing chickens in the city, and to take an unrelated stab at efforts to improve cycling facilities on one of three bridges into downtown. Thought you might be curious as to where your (great) work is ending up. Check out http://www.citycaucus.com/2009/07/prototype-greenest-city-heat-shelter-announced-by-mayor for the post.

  4. thanks for the heads up Desmond… not a terribly funny political satire by Mr. Klassen to say the least. I’d at least be less offended if it were somewhat witty.

    I’ve asked them to remove the image – so we’ll see…

  5. Fantastic green coop! I was just in Portland on a urban stormwater tour – my wife & I would have loved to see the green roof chicken house! How many hens will you be accommodating? We have a movable chicken tractor that handles 8 hens pretty well, but we let them have the run of the yard most days.

    I love your blog – keep up the great work!

  6. Hi Jason,

    This is a beautiful coop!

    Do you still have the coop? If so, now that it’s been a few years, would you change anything about it? I’m thinking about building something similar, but would probably want to have one wall on a hinge to be able to clean it out a easily.

    Also, do you happen to still have the sketchup files?

    -c

    1. Caleb.
      I don’t have the coop anymore – it stayed in Portland when we moved to Seattle, but it is still kicking around somewhere. I did make a few modifications – such as moving the nest box outside, because it was a difficult and dirty spot inside the coop. The wall with the window is hinged – the entire wall lifts up horizontally and can be propped up for cleaning – perhaps would have been easier as a side swing but it worked pretty good for cleaning. I moved it and all the modular pieces came apart as planned so that worked well (with the exception of the green roof, which was way too heavy to move so had to be scooped off and replanted).

      I don’t have the Sketchup Files anymore – or more correctly, i haven’t been able to find them – but you can probably piece together the key points from reading through all the Urban Chickens Build posts… good luck!

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