PORT ANGELES — Cindy Stallknecht saw a need and built a town.
Stallknecht, 55, is the creator and proprietor of “Coopville,” a collection of buildings designed around and for her poultry. Located behind her home in rural Port Angeles, the tiny structures serve as coops, feeders, chicken waterers, food storage units and come complete with a dust house.
Total population: six egg-laying hens.
She assembled the chicken-sized buildings from salvaged material and enclosed it all in a net-covered enclosure to discourage predators.
Stallknecht said the town started as a matter of poultry hygiene. Chickens don’t take baths in water, but instead use dust as a way to clean their feathers and keep parasites away.
And they find dust wherever they can find it, including the yards of other people living nearby.
“I just wanted them to stay home, not go over to the neighbor’s house to dust,” she said.
A dust house was high on the agenda, but first she erected a “church” to serve as a daytime roost.
“When people started towns, [a church] was usually the first thing they built,” Stallknecht said.
Next came the dust house and from there, Coopville kept going with Stallknecht figuring out construction techniques on the fly.
“I’m just building. I really have no clue,” she laughed.
Despite their elaborate facilities and spacious enclosed roaming area, Coopville is only a day-use area. The hens are led across Stallknecht’s back yard to a separate coop to lay eggs and to roost at night. The routine is repeated daily.
“They’re working ladies, and then they come to town,” she said.
Stallknecht acknowledged that the whimsical nature of her chicken community would end up drawing snickers from her friends and neighbors, but she remains unperturbed and the chickens seem happy enough.
“I didn’t want to be the crazy chicken lady,” she said with a grin. “It just happened.”
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Staff photographer Keith Thorpe can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 59050, or at kthorpe@peninsuladailynews.com.
A sign welcomes visitors to Coopville, a small town built for chickens. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
