Texas man houses chickens in scale replica of Astrodome

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A Texas man's handiwork is going viral after he built a scale model of the Astrodome to serve as a coop for his chickens.

Darren Johnson, a Houston native living in North Texas, said it took him about 100 hours to build the exact 1:60 scale replica of the Astrodome.

He said the structure was originally going to be a greenhouse for his wife's plants, but they decided to make it a chicken coop when their flock grew too large for their former accommodations.

Johnson shared photos of his miniature Astrodome, which includes details such as an Astros logo, a U.S. flag and the numbers of retired jerseys, on Facebook, where they quickly spread and ended up shared by MLB.com.

"If anything comes out of this, it shows my kids that I'm not the only one obsessed with a stadium that's been closed for 20 years," Johnson told KTRK-TV.

Johnson said his chickens, which are all named after Astros players, seem happy with their home.

"We don't have to tell them to get in, they get in there every night," Johnson said.