Last week, I mentioned my friend Brad Bork, who lives in North Spokane, and his beautiful new chicken coop. As promised, here's an e-mail interview I had with Brad about why he and his family (two parents and two school-aged kids) started keeping hens and how he built the coop. His chicks are still young and not laying eggs yet, but I think you'll learn a lot from Brad about how to get started.

And don't forget! The Slow Food Spokane River urban chicken coop tour is being held this Saturday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Click that link for more details.

Why did you decide to keep chickens?

We had several reasons for keeping chickens. The first is obvious: eggs. We're always buying the free-range, organic blah blah blah. What is amazing about store-bought eggs is how old they are. The number on the side of the carton tells you the day they were collected. Like '186' means the 186th day of the year. So, it is amazing to see the age of store-bought eggs. It'll be nice to have fresh eggs. Now, warm eggs might be cutting it too close.

Another reason was to have unique pets. They are very curious animals and they have a strong sense of 'Mama,' which makes them fun, too. We let them out of the coop in the evenings to let them scratch around, find bugs, and to let the dog and the chickens get acquainted. Which gets to my third reason, I personally needed a new hobby around the house. My last hobby, brewing beer, was a lot fun. It took up the right amount of time, was productive, and I enjoyed the beer and sharing it. The problem was I gained about 25 pounds drinking really good beer ... maybe too often. So, here is my new hobby. They're a lot more entertaining than a glass of beer.

How did you come up with the design for your coop?

I spent a lot of time looking at pictures on the Internet for the right design for us. It was important that it looked good because of where it sits on our property. Passing neighbors can see the spot, so we didn't want a low-rent looking coop. In fact, we didn't want it to look much like a coop at all.

Are there any backyard chicken and/or coop resources you'd recommend to folks?

My main resource for the chickens and coop was Backyard Chickens.

Tell me about the coop. How big is it? What are the features? Why did you think it was important to include the features you did?

Knowing we were only going to have three chickens, it allowed me to know what the chickens needed to be happy and also what would work aesthetically for us. After finding a coop that we liked, it was all a matter of engineering in my head. I didn't buy plans, which you can do, but rather took the shell of a coop I liked and built it in my head several times. I'd look at pictures over and over and figure out how to pull it off.

I probably planned for 6 weeks before breaking ground. The overall run is 4' x 8' and the coop is 3' x 4' elevated over the run. It is wired with power and is insulated for the cold winter nights. It also has running water. Well, it has drip irrigation that runs through the structure to water the flower boxes and hanging plants and also fills the chicken's water. It has windows for the chickens to peer out and a window that swings open as a vent for the hot summer nights.

Tell me about your chickens.

We have three chickens: Fluffy, Cheepy, and Bernadette.

Fluffy is an Araucana which is supposed to lay dull-blue and dull-green eggs. Fluffy was the initial family favorite because she was biggest. So, she was handled regularly and was first to get comfortable around the kids.

Bernadette is a Barred Rock. She was the runt and was quickly adopted by our 5-year-old daughter as her favorite. Both Fluffy and Bernadette are very personable. They often come out of the coop together, play with each other, try to steal one another's bugs that are found. They're a lot of fun to watch.

And finally Cheepy. Cheepy is a Rhode Island Red and she was probably held the least and it shows. Although, her personality is defined. She is the mother hen for sure. She rarely comes out of the coop except to eat. She's not as curious as the other two. But what's funny about Cheepy is she is now the biggest and she runs the roost. She is constantly concerned about what the other two chickens are doing. She's always worried and if she can't see them, she has a very worried chirp about her. What's funny is they all worry about one another. If one is out of the coop and run the others always show some concern. It's quite comical.

One dynamic that didn't occur to me about chickens until later is that I'm now attached to these animals like pets. But chicken is one of my food staples, so I'm having a hard time separating the two. Imagine playing with your dog for a little bit and then going and throwing dog steaks on the grill. There is a small disconnect that happens in my brain now.

How is the family liking the chickens and the coop?

So far, the family really enjoys the chickens. I like to watch them because they really are unique.

We're patiently awaiting our first eggs. I'm sure that will add to the pleasure.

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