Our reproduction chicken coop is based on an original coop built in Missouri in the mid-1800s. The sloped gabled-ends provide a perfect place for the chickens to roost, and the doors underneath make it easy to clean out the building.
The horizontal board running below the fence pickets is a typical feature of picket fences in the nineteenth century. Picket fences were not just for decoration - they kept small animals in, or out, of places they should or should not be. Only a system like this could hope to keep chickens, geese, piglets, and other determined, small animals where they belonged.
Like most of the animals on site, our Dominique chickens are of a historic breed appropriate for the 1860s.
The Dominique is the best fowl of common stock that we have, and is the only common fowl in the country that has enough distinct characteristics to entitle it to a name. These fowl are full medium in size, being but a little less in weight than the Dorking, have full breasts, roundish plumb bodies, double or single combs, and yellow legs. Their main plumage has a light gray ground color, while each feather is barred crosswise with a darker shade. They are frequently known by the name of "hawk-colored fowls." They are hardy, easily raised, retain their peculiarities with great tenacity, have yellow skins, a color preferred by many for a market fowl; and taking these fowls all in all, they are one of the best varieties for common use.
United States Department of Agriculture annual report for 1862
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