The coop in progress

It seems to have taken forever, a thousand trips to Home Depot and some extra help from my friend John to get to this point.  Shingles still need to be laid when it stops raining, trimming still needs to happen.  Hardware cloth for the ventilation for the top was donated by another friend George and still needs to be stapled in.  Then the fun of digging the fencing.  It's going to be 6' tall and about 10' out from the coop then run down to my vinyl fence.  The fencing will need to be dug into the ground and skirted out so predators (my dogs) can't dig down.

The exterior yellow box is a nest box.  I plan on a yellow flower box below the window.

The door was made by my friend John and I love it.  It has a little window and the chicken door is built in it as well.  I want the fence to run from the right side of the coop out to give my family a little more usable yard space.  We live on a small lot and maximizing every foot is needed.

My life right now feels like my garage.  So much going on, bees, chickens, kids and life.  Crazy but full of excitement, learning and fun.

The bee and chicken combo worked so well at OCG that I have built (almost done) a chicken coop for our house.  SHB stand no chance against the chicken.  Great compost, entertainment and eggs are all extras for me.  I can't await their arrival the first week of May.

How did my yard far this winter?

CSX came out of winter with lots going for it!  Two deeps and a medium mostly full of brood and mixed stores. This hive picked up SHB from the DHS gardens and I have mostly got them under control but I will wait another week or so before adding another medium.

Package #1 had a deep and medium completely full so I added another medium.

Package #2 has 4 mediums.  Two weeks ago I added another medium since they looked very congested.

CSX split had 3 mediums on it.  There was quite a bit of extra room but not to much, so I reverse the boxes to put the queen on bottom and give her room to go up.

Demeter Split and Demeter both didn't come out of winter as strong as I would have liked.  Both of these hives seem to be slowly starting this spring.  I reverse the boxes on Demeter and DS and removed the bottom Deep on DS that was almost completely empty.  Hope they kick it in!