Garden design – building a home for the Bubble Garden chicken

The new front garden seen from the trampoline and the planned chicken coop

So the four year old is planning on naming his chicken ‘Marshmallow’. This is a huge improvement, since for weeks he was dead set on ‘Tom Holland’ – a result of his oldest sister’s obsession with Marvel’s Spiderman. To say she’s relieved that he’s given that name up is an understatement.

We’re going to have five chickens, no rooster – and now the work of building a coop and an enclosure has begun. Our closest neighbor has chickens, including a rooster – and if we would like we can integrate ours and his down the line. But the plan is for ours to be kept isolated for the time being – since South Sweden right now is battling scattered outbreaks of bird flu (like many parts of Europe). We’re getting the chickens from a friend, and the coop is being built so that we can keep the birds according to current flu-guidelines. A rooster was never on the table – keeping one that close to our neighbor’s rooster would have led to a constant crowing competition – not something we’d love having just outside bedroom windows. If we’d like babies down the line, the rooster next door will be happy to do what it takes.

There’s a hidden ‘nook’ of lawn behind the trampoline – where we’re building a home for our chicken. With the blessing of our neighbor – who doesn’t mind since he’s got a garden full of chicken already.

The chicken coop is part of the design of the new front garden – although it will be hidden from view. It’s an unused space right now – overlooked by many windows. It’s the perfect way to use this forgotten patch of garden.

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See the trampoline down the end of the new front garden? The coop will be hidden to the right of it, in a corner currently used for nothing.

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This is what we’re keeping in mind as we’re starting to build:

• Current laws. Sweden has really rigorous laws when it comes to animal welfare, compared to many other European countries it’s much more regulated, and so we’re building the coop with those laws in mind – five chicken needs a certain number of square meters.
• The bird flu. The virus means an additional set of rules imposed by the government – the birds need be fed under a roof for example, and at the moment chickens can’t be kept free-ranging, but must be in a fenced coop – with a roof over the entire thing.
• Rats. We’re next door to a beautiful stable – for which we’re very grateful since it increases the biodiversity in our garden – and due to the stable rats are common here, that’s just a fact. Our cat is a master hunter – he even takes the largest of rats – and with his help we never see them around the house alive (he drops a dead one on our doorstep at least once a week). But they did breake into our warm compost this winter – and therefore we’re going to add a floor of metal netting underneath the chicken coop we’re building – to make sure rats don’t break in and make a mess in the coop.
• And then there’s that window that complicates things. There is a window high up on the wall where we’re going to keep the chickens – and we’re going to have to make sure we can reach that by ladder should it need repairing. We’re not quite sure how to do that. Most likely we’re going to have to design the roof of the enclosure so it can be easily removed in one section – allowing us to place the ladder inside.

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Only the prospect of playing in the sprinklers could lure the four year old away from building.

It’s been hot this past week – over 20 degrees in the shade. Such temperatures make the front garden a place you only visit briefly before you go ‘no, can’t be here right now’. The air stands still between the house and the surrounding hedges, and it’s fully exposed to sun all day long.

Plants in the new front garden have been chosen accordingly – with a focus of heat loving and drought resistant perennials – we’ll publish the list sometime soon. Four of the raised beds will be used for vegetables – and they will need some serious watering through the summer.

The chicken coop will be finished in a few weeks, and we plan to have the chickens before midsummer.