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Skot McDaniel and Sarah Farrell weren’t looking to build a business; they were just building a chicken coop for their six chickens, ones they raised as babies in their bathroom.
But when the garden design company working on the Novato couple’s edible garden asked them to design a coop for last year’s San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, they couldn’t say no. They formed Wingman Coops.
That’s where Sunset magazine’s editors spotted McDaniel and Farrell’s small henhouse and invited them to showcase it at the 15th annual “Sunset Celebration Weekend” taking place Saturday and Sunday in Menlo Park.
The event, which attracts 20,000 visitors, features a travel stage, a garden and outdoor living stage, two cooking stages with celebrity chefs, wine seminars for an extra fee, food-to-go from “the West’s best food trucks,” the “Ultimate Outdoor Living Room” and a fun “Secondhand Sunset” where items featured in the magazine and plucked from the closets of editors will be available for purchase.
“Sunset’s editors were at the show and had their eyes out for great chicken coops and just loved the coop that Wingman Coops designed,” says event spokesman Dana Smith. “Sunset’s had its own chickens for a number of years and believes that no matter where you live you can have fresh eggs, and that this was a great coop for the backyard.”
McDaniel, a structural engineer, says he and Farrell had simply “fallen in love”
with their chickens, and when they were ready to graduate from the bathroom to the garden, the couple wanted to keep them safely enclosed at certain times.
“They are so much fun to have,” he says. “When we go out in the garden, they all run over clucking — it’s like a little welcoming committee. And when we’re digging and weeding, they’re right there with us.”
The enclosed coops are designed for a small flock, are trouble-free, easy to maintain and safe from predators.
The City Dweller coop, featured at the event, houses six hens, has a wire mesh bottom with a droppings drawer in the lower area and a roost and nest area on the top with easy access for egg removal.
The optional covered enclosure is predator proof, and comes with a shaded area over the coop and a gate.
The cost for the City Dweller coop and enclosure is $3,000 and includes installation and delivery to Marin, Sonoma and most of San Francisco. The coop alone is $2,300. A smaller coop, the City Slicker, is also available.
McDaniel says Wingman’s emphasis isn’t on building coops “but in setting up successful flocks and bird consulting.”
So, for $100, the couple provides an on-site assessment for successful chicken raising with the fee applied to the purchase of a coop. The company also offers three sizes of chicken tractors, or portable covered runs, starting at $750.
For more information on Wingman Coops, call 328-7037 or go to www.wingmancoops.com.
Garden tour
If you’ve been ready for a leisurely garden tour, head north June 3 to five beautiful, healthy gardens in Healdsburg, all designed by members of the Sonoma County Master Gardeners.
The tour emphasizes how site challenges can be transformed into positive garden elements through creative solutions, but there is also expert advice and demonstrations on growing vegetables, composting, garden design, propagation, irrigation, bees and beneficial insects, container gardening, soils and mulches.
Best of all, there is a plant sale of more than 200 varieties of shrubs, perennial, grasses, ground covers and succulents all propagated by Master Gardeners.
PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, de
sign and entertaining topics every Saturday and also on her blog at DesignSwirl.net. She may be contacted at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914, or at pj@pjbremier.com.
IF YOU GO
What: “Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend: Fresh from the West”
Where: Sunset Magazine campus, 80 Willow Drive, Menlo Park
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 2 and 3
Admission: $14 to $16, free for children 12 years and younger.
Information: 800-786-7375; http://sunsetcw.eventbrite.com; www.sunset.com/cw
IF YOU GO
What: Bloomin’ Backyards
Where: Truett Hurst Winery, 5610 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg
When: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. June 3
Tickets: $30 advance, $35 at the door
Information: 707-565-2608 or www.sonomacountymastergardeners.org
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