Wherever there are chickens, there are chicken coops. 

Where there are chicken coops, there are likely to be creative, playful, and resourceful homeowners.

Local experts said that due to various reasons, including the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, family chickens have become more and more popular.

Karen Krumenacher, owner of Pewaukee's Royal Roost, said that this hobby has grown in the past few years because homeowners want to improve their yards and because more municipalities allow chickens. Sell ​​chicken feed and grow chicken-friendly.

"We have made great strides in raising chickens," she said. "...In the past three years, the number of chicken coops has definitely increased. 

"These days have also been a really busy time for the virus. Everyone has been locked up. The eggs I sold are off the shelves, and people contact me to buy hens that have already laid because they want to start raising chickens."

Cooperatives have also become more and more creative.

Greg Serres, owner of Merton Feed Company, a Merton company that provides products to cities and large farms, said he has seen an increase in the sales of chicks and feed.

He said: “Because people want to be more self-sufficient, the chicken industry has been growing steadily for the past eight years,” but because of the virus, people’s interest in the last month has become stronger.

"As the virus occurs, people have to go home and they know (if they have chickens) that they will have a constant source of food," he said.

Krumenacher said that the homeowners also want to raise chickens because “they are fun and friendly pets with personalities. They are easy to maintain and low cost, and they provide more nutritious eggs.

"They also provide natural pest control. They eat mosquitoes and ticks, as well as any kind of large bugs on the ground. When I kill any annual plant, they will eat them, as well as the food scraps I throw away. . They are my compost bin. Eating all these natural things makes my yoke more orange than yellow," she said.

Krumenacher said that she built her first chicken house and raised four chickens more than 20 years ago. After a while, she enlarged the chicken coop, and then added two chicken coops and a duck coop.

"We moved from Milwaukee to Pewaukee and we have some planting area. Something bursts into my heart. I want more homesteads and a sustainable backyard life.

"Now we have two bantam coops. They are smaller chickens. Our large coop is equipped with standard tiers. We have about 20 chickens and 4 ducks that lay eggs."

She described her first chicken coop as looking like a gorgeous shed.

"It's about 20 x 20 and there are chickens running. It is reddish brown with a brown tint, and it has window frames that I planted in the summer.

"Others we also designed and built. One looks like a small villa. It's really small and has a cedar milkshake. The other looks like a glorious outhouse. It's smaller and has a metal roof on it. The siding is cedar wood. It's so cute. There is a little chicken behind."

She said that her chicken coop also has working windows, Christmas lights, wreaths and witty signs.

"Window is the key to ventilation. I have lights on in my chicken coop all year round....When I close the door of the chicken coop, it looks good. Aesthetics decides everything." 

New wreaths are added every season, and the signs "That crazy chicken lady lives here" and "Life with chickens are better" are written on her chicken coop. 

When she chooses chickens for her coop, she looks for chickens with good egg production and friendly personality.

Krumenacher's love for chickens prompted her to start a business seven years ago.

She explained that when she added the first chicken coop, she didn't do much research, but over time, she learned the best practices for raising chickens and thought she could pass this information on to others.

About four years ago, Karrri Lockwood built a chicken coop in her home in Racine County.

"My chicken coop has a Dutch door, a pitched roof, and a sign that says "The last one is a rotten egg". 

"This is what I have always wanted to do, and it is what I have always been attracted to. I grew up with chickens, turkeys and peacocks. My grandfather has an ostrich farm."

Lockwood said that she and her husband built their own chicken coops instead of buying prefabricated chicken coops, but it may cost more to build the chicken coops themselves because they make the chickens stronger and more comfortable.

"We made the frame, added insulation, and covered it with loose tongues and grooved siding. It's really safe," she said. "It has windows that can be opened on three sides, and there is a large flock of chickens. The fence is very strong, so other animals can't get in.

"It's about 8 x 10 feet, tan with white and dark brown trims. It took about a month to build it after working together for a few hours a day. It was across from the garage because we wanted it to be protected from wind Impact."

In order to make their chickens feel comfortable, they also put insulation materials and plastic sheets on the windows in winter. If the temperature drops sharply, they will connect an extension cord from the garage to the chicken coop with a heater so that the water pan will not freeze.

She said that the construction of the chicken coop is worth the effort. 

"It adds a lot of fun. We let the chickens free range and they run around in the yard. I have trained them so they will run when I walk outside, and they will run if I make a sound. Really fly to me. This is the funniest thing.

"They actually bring you more happiness than people think. They are super interactive and curious. If you work in the yard, they will run to you and sit next to you."

"It's fascinating. When I say I have chickens, many people are very interested. When my nieces come over, they are attracted to the chicken coop. They like to find eggs and snack on the chickens," she said.

Lockwood said that when she decorated her chicken coop, she added a metal chicken to the top of the Dutch door and surrounded it with flowers.

"We really use flowers to make it cute. Usually, we have coleus and other flowers outside of it, and we have a small garden.

In her chicken coop, she has two Buff Orpingtons, one Cream Legbar, two Snowy Easter Eggers and one Silver Easter Egger.

"The main reason we got Easter Eggers and Cream Leg Bar is that they produce turquoise and blue/green eggs. They are beautiful. As we all know, the Orpington family is very friendly and they are all good laying hens."

Another advantage is that the eggs she gets from her chickens taste better.

"I always give them to family and friends. We also eat them. It's also fun because they don't always lay eggs of the same color. Sometimes they have patterns or spots on them. When you go to get eggs, you always I don’t know what you will find."

Betty Adelman is the owner of the Heritage Flower Farm in Mukwonago. About 15 years ago, she created her first chicken coop in an old outbuilding and called it the summer chicken coop . Later, she turned part of the garage into a second chicken coop and called it a winter chicken coop. In her business, she sells heirloom plants.

She said: "I have electricity in the chicken coop in winter and the least heating. When the chickens are inside, they can't go out." Unless the weather is good, I open the free-range door for them. "I move twice a year. Just two weeks ago, I moved them to the summer chicken coop, where they can walk outside. There are fences inside and they can come and go as they please."

Adelman said that the summer chicken house is quite large, and she believes it used to be a corn bed. "We repaired the building, added a chicken door and a ramp to let them walk down." She also added a fence and placed it deep underground to prevent small animals from entering. The fence is also added at the top to protect her chickens from eagles.

She raises 10 chickens on her 7 acres of land. She said that it is easy to take care of them because all you have to do is feed them, collect their eggs and clean the chicken coop.

What they left behind is also beneficial.

"Cleaning the chicken coop can also provide you with very good fertilizer. I took it all up and shoveled it on top of garlic, asparagus and rhubarb because they have a high nitrogen content.

"All my chickens are different, but the eggs they lay are all green or brown....I use eggs and occasionally sell them to customers, but most of them I give them to the pantry." 

Hattie Purtell has a plant-covered chicken coop called Green Fire Woods on her 5-acre site in Milwaukee. 

“When I added the chicken coop about eight years ago, I did it because I wanted eggs for myself and wanted my garden to use chicken manure,” she said.

But now, she realized that it also improved the appearance of her green space and became a place to relax.

"I relax there and watch the chickens every day. When the weather is good, I will let them out when we are outside," she said.

The chickens in her coop are Buff Orpingtons, a Swedish hen and a bantam.

She said that the chicken coop was made of recycled wood. It was big enough to walk around and had a large fence space for chickens to go out. The inside was also covered with wires so that the eagle could not catch the chickens.

"We designed it, but we had a carpenter come out to build it. There are wind chimes, sedum and some grass on the green roof." She also hid a sprinkler on the roof so that it can be watered when needed. 

In order to make the chicken coop look attractive, Purtell also planted a variety of native plants around it.

In addition to those who have chicken coops, there are some owners who use chicken coops for other purposes.

When Nancy Going bought a farmhouse with outbuildings in Cedarburg in 1891, it had a chicken coop, so she decided to turn it into a space where she could work and hold events.

 "When we moved here, the house was in good condition and the barn needed some work, but the chicken coop collapsed and was overgrown with thorny vines. It was like the Sleeping Beauty's castle, but there were rubbish everywhere. It has two parts. One part is where chickens were once raised, and the other part is where we think there are vegetable stalls. 

"We are not sure whether it should be demolished or repaired. I like it, so we decided to repair it, but make sure we retain its charm," she said.

In the process, she and her husband did a lot of cleaning and clean-up work, demolished an inner wall, but kept the old wood for repair, demolished the ceiling of an area, exposed the rafters, and replaced the windows.

"We took out the nest box and used it as an ornament on one of the walls.... I decorated everything with old carpets, antique chicken feeders, pig troughs and interesting little things."

Once the structure was intact, they painted it dark green with light green trim, purple doors and mullion widows.

"Now I use the back to make jewellery, and the front is used for summer parties, art exhibitions and workshops." (You can see her chicken coop on the bridge studio tour from October 9th to 11th this year. 

In order to strengthen the building, she also added many flowers.

"I am also an avid gardener, so there are gardens everywhere around it. I have all kinds of flowers: hydrangeas, cones, irises, daisies, black-eyed susan, climbing roses, ferns, daffodils , Butterfly bushes, catnip, succulents and toad lilies, which look like small orchids. I also have phlox, pink Japanese anemone, aster, grass and service berry trees."

Related: The rules for raising chickens in Milwaukee: give them space, don't slaughter them

Homeowners who want to try to raise chickens can temporarily raise chickens through the Royal Habitat in Pewaukee. Karen Krumenacher's company rented a small chicken house with four hens and all the components needed to maintain them for three to four months.

She also added some plans for children who might be bored by staying at home.

For one, she rented out a brooding hen and a brood of up to six eggs. The hen will sit on the egg for 10 to 14 days, after which the egg can be checked for any chicks growing in it. Eggs with chicks in them will hatch in 18 to 21 days. In this plan, the chicks are raised for six to eight weeks and all the supplies needed are included.

 "This is really a sight worth seeing, because you will see the hen becoming a mother from the beginning, and you will see her teaching the chicks to drink and eat," she said. 

In another project, she rented a brooder and four to six chicks, which contained all the necessary supplies.

"All the whole family needs to do is to hold, hug and play with the chicks, make sure they are warm, and always have food and water available. A lot of holding hands and interaction is your way to get very friendly adult chickens." Here, the chicks are Feed for six to eight weeks.

You can contact Royal Habitat at (262) 574-1096 and myroyalroost.com.

Want to learn more about this growth trend? Here are some books that can provide you with information and inspiration.