Chicken Feeders, Nesting Boxes and Outdoor Runs

I thought I would take some pictures of my red-neck/simple set-ups for the animals.  Below you can see a portable outdoor run made from a dog kennel we found on kijiji.  I wanted  a safe place for the chicks to go outside without being bothered by the other chickens and ducks.  Their mothers were very protective and weren't letting them out at all through the main door.  I can't say I blame them it's like rush hour in there when all the animals are being let out.

 It was cheaper than building anything out of wood and hardware cloth.  I added a small tarp for shade and some chicken wire to the bottom around most of it to keep the chicks contained to some extent.  They are still able to sneak out through some holes but they can also get back in when no one else can - a very handy place to run if they feel threatened.  It looks a little messy so it won't stay there permanently. 

This is the inside of the same pen.  The chicks were too small to fly up to the window sill so I built them a ladder out of an old piece of barn board and some shims for the "steps".  It works pretty well.  

Here's a close up view of the chicken feeder I was writing about the other day.  It's so simple and I am more than pleased with it.  We ended up building an extra one for outside because getting into the coop and filling it up was risking your life some days!  The chickens were so hungry they would peck and scratch your feet trying to get at the feed bucket.  Adding another feeder outside means we can fill it up before we let them out and refill the inside one while they're busy eating we fill the inside one and shut the door.

One 10 foot eaves trough and two ends plus 4 feet of 2x4 and a few screws: total cost brand new is under $20.00 and it's better and more efficient than any plastic or metal feeder I've ever bought!

One other great idea is using these storage buckets as nesting boxes.  We already have almost 20 nesting boxes in their coops but as soon as we let them out there are a few chickens that just gotta do it THEIR WAY!  They want to lay in the hallway so I beat them at their game and left nesting boxes there for them too.  It's better than searching high and low for missing eggs.

Since there's always room in a post for a picture of a kitten here's my favorite one this week. She's sleeping on the window sill.  We have 8 little fur-balls growing up right in front of the kitchen window this year.  There were two litters about three weeks apart.  All of them are black with little white hairs.  

Sleep well little kitty!

Our homemade chicken coop

We've been raising meat chickens for a few years now and each year we've learned a few  things to add to our list of disasters and a few to add to our triumphs.  

Let me explain how we started.  A few years ago when we lived in the city we built the worlds most expensive chicken coop.  You can read about it here.  In many ways it was fabulous - for 6 chickens.  When you get a few more - like 50 meat birds - it won't do at all.

Every summer that we've had chickens at the farm they've been in different pens.  We would solve one problem by making a change the next year only to create more problems we didn't anticipate.  The first year we used the only pen we had available in the barn but it was a little small for the 60 chickens that lived in it.  We figured they would be outside most of the time anyway and it WOULD BE FINE.  Leaving the feed in their pen at all times was also a mistake as it caused them to grow too fast.  We didn't get the chicks until September which meant they needed 8 weeks to grow to full size which also meant we were getting into wintery weather by the time they left.  Oh dear - can you say chicken poop?  They were the laziest chickens you ever saw. They hated going outside even though we chased them outside every day.  They just sat and got fat and pooped.  End of story.  By the time they were ready for the butcher we were REALLY happy to get rid of them because the coop was impossible to keep clean. Without enough exercise and with too much food they got so big they had leg problems too so we lost a few birds in the process.

Fast forward to the next spring when we had the great idea to build them a huge pen.  You can read about that here.  It was such a good idea except now we couldn't get them to gain weight because they got TOO MUCH exercise.  They didn't have any leg problems though!.  After a few extra weeks of feed before we brought them to the butcher we ended up with really yummy but rather scrawny birds.  Sigh*  I don't think we got close to breaking even when we sold them that year.

So - lets try that again!!!  We recently purchased an old dog kennel through Kijiji - it's 5x15 feet and made of chain link with a good sturdy door.  We know from our past coops that Overkilled Fort Knox is the way to go. There can be NO WAY for animals to get in or reach in.  

We started by wiring the chain link fencing on far more securely than it was originally - we wanted to keep a dog (and others) OUT!   We used two 4 foot pieces of hardware cloth on the ground and zip ties to connect them together - slightly overlapping the pieces.  This provides a strong bottom so predator animals can't dig under the coop.

Then we wrapped the top edge of the kennel with 3 foot wide hardware cloth - attaching it with zip ties as well.  The bottom section is a full sheet of lattice.  It covers the hardware cloth on the top and is connected with zip ties again to the frame and the hardware cloth that makes up the floor.  The roof is plywood sheets cut to fit so there is a 6 inch overhang ( 4 sheets cut to 6 feet each - the roof is 6 feet wide and 16 feet long)  We cut an old tarp to size and stapled it on top.  We were going to have the tarp overhang and peg it to the ground but it made the interior too dark.  It took some creative cutting to fill in all the little spaces around the door to create a tight fit but with enough space that we could still open the door.

After adding shavings and a waterer we had to solve the problem of feeding 50 starving chickens at once without them killing each other in the process.  They get pretty excited when they're hungry.  We have multiple feeders but they never seemed enough.  I solved the problem by purchasing a new 10 foot eaves trough with ends and screwed some 1 foot pieces of an old 2x4 across the bottom to act as feet - I used four pieces.  When it's situated in the middle of the coop the chickens can access it from both sides and finally there is room for everyone to eat.

The coop is bright and airy and doesn't smell bad at all...of course I am not really an expert on that subject! There is great air flow, plenty of space but not too much space and it's a safe place for them to spend the night.  We also built the coop within sight of the kitchen window so I can keep an eye on them.

In past years we let them free range as far as they wanted to - but sometimes they didn't come back.  Our losses were just too great so this year they are kept in a large fenced area.  They still have access to plants and bugs and sunshine but they don't disappear as someones lunch!  So far this year we haven't lost any birds to predators.

We also situated the coop in the shade of several large trees.  Meatie birds are not that smart and sometimes when it's really hot they will lay in the sun and die of dehydration before they get up and get a drink.

The rake in the picture is my Chicken Encourager - I use it to gently encourage the chickens to leave the coop!

The fencing we used is something we've also used to fence our vegetable garden.  The material is a plastic mesh that comes in 50 foot rolls for less than $15.00.  The posts are a little pricey but since they can be easily moved and re-used we thought it was worth it.  You may be wondering why the fence is so short - it's only two feet tall. The fencing comes in three foot height as well but the due to a problem in the pricing for the fence posts it was more economical to buy the two foot fencing instead.  We've found that our meat birds grow so fast that they don't fly very well.  Occasionally one gets out but they never go far and the fence is more to contain them than to keep them safe from predators. 

This coop is not going to be used in the winter - it's a little too airy for subzero temperatures but it could be modified in a pinch.  Necessity is the Mother of Invention they say!  If you can get a good deal on a kennel and shop around or use what you have already have you can make a similar coop and have the fencing like this for under $450.00.  If all goes well it should pay for itself this summer and last for many years.

The chickens seem to like their new digs and are growing well!  Three tries and I think we got it right!!

Chicks with Momma Hens

By now you must have figured it out - I am a child at heart.  It's the simple things in life that bring a smile to my face and yesterday was a great example.

We've had three broody hens locked in a separate pen sitting on eggs.  I honestly didn't expect much because "everyone" says:  They have bred the broodiness right out of the hatchery hens.  Well - it seems that is not the case.  My son and I have been pecked and squawked at so much this spring that we decided to find the three worst offenders and see if they were serious about sitting.  THEY WERE!

I don't know why this amazes me so much but I am.  We've been checking every day and yesterday there they were.  Two momma's and 5 chicks down on the floor and one more momma still sitting in the nesting box on top of at least 6 more chicks.

The instinct to nurture is still there and considering that the momma hens were raised in a hatchery incubator and have never been "sat on" or taught how to be momma's...well - I just love it!  The chicks are every colour of the chicken rainbow!  Black, yellow and beige - it quite a mix. 

BIWAF - Before I Was A Farmer  I had no idea about how this all worked so let me explain in Magic School Bus language.  Chickens lay an egg an average of 5 or 6 times a week - basically once a day in the early spring/summer and a little less in the late fall/winter.  It has nothing to do with it being cold and everything to do with the hours of daylight available to the hens.  That's why traditionally there was a glut of eggs in the spring and summer and much less in the fall and winter.  The number of eggs can be manipulated by adding lights to the coops to extend the "daylight" and confuse the hens.  It's a long and troublesome conversation to have with chicken owners - some believe the hens should have a rest and therefore no additional lighting.  Some seeing the financial/practical side and leave the lights on because consumers have lost touch with the cycles of life and don't really understand when suddenly there are no eggs to sell them in December.

Chickens may be tricked into laying eggs all winter but somehow they know when it's spring-for-real because they get broody.  Broody - means a generally quiet and contented hen turns into the Terminator and will peck your hands to the point of drawing blood.  They are really great little protectors!  Those meanies are the ones who want to be momma's!

We have a coop of 60-70 chickens with several breeds represented.  We have about 14 nesting boxes for them to share but sharing to chickens is all about seeing how many of them can cram into one 12x12 box at the same time and still be able to lay an egg.  I've found as many as 4 in one box - with many empty boxes available.  Of course there are always some hens that cross their legs and wait till you let them out and no-joke - they come tearing out the door to find their favourite hidey-hole no matter how long you keep them cooped up!

Our egg-layer pen is actually two pens with a little mini-door connecting them.  Most of the year the mini-door is open so they can go back and forth between them but coming sittin' time we allow for one day of egg laying in the nests and then lock the broody hens in and everyone else out.  That means that in our situation the hens are actually sitting on everyone else's eggs - thus the colourful offspring!

The really interesting part is when you have a hen that sits on her own eggs.  She will faithfully lay an egg a day in a nest in some out of the way place in the barn (that usually ends in disaster when  a raccoon finds the nest).  Day one - one egg.  Day two - one egg and so on until she has what she considers enough - usually 10-15 eggs.  The day arrives and she decides - today I will sit.  She will barely leave the nest to eat and drink and 21 days later the little cuties will be peeking out from under momma.  Stop and think about that for a minute.  They all hatch the same day.  That means the egg she laid on day one has been sitting there for 2 weeks before she sat on it and then another 21 day afterwards. Isn't that something!!

Our 50 hatchery chicks who are now a week and a half old were out growing their brooder box so we decided to put them in the pen with the momma's and the babies and see what happened.  We added just one at first to make sure the momma's wouldn't go psycho and kill it.  She just sniffed it and under it's wings it went.  I'm sure she must have thought - MY - WHAT A BIG CHICKIE YOU ARE!!!  All went well but when we added the other 49 chicks the momma's weren't fooled so easily.  They have become two camps in the same pen but seem to be co-existing quite well.

Chicks are so much fun...so let's do the math: 70 layers plus 50 meatie bird chicks plus at least 10 16 new chicks= lots of chickens... and next week the ducklings hatch!  Oh my!

Full house in the barn and Sheep Shearing

We're running out of room!  I am trying to juggle animals in the available cages and pens and I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work out.  

Fifty-two White Rock chicks arrived this week - one died within hours of getting here - poor little guy.  White Rocks are meatie birds...and every year I say I'm going to go with another breed but I don't - so here's to hoping that most of them make it to the butcher this year.  Right now they are in our home-made brooder.  DH and DS overbuilt a brooder box for me a few years ago.  It's as heavy as a box full of cast iron frying pans and looks like a coffin-for-two!  Thankfully it's so well built it doesn't need to be INSIDE another pen.  The problem is it will only last for a week and they will need bigger quarters.

I also have three very faithful hens sitting on eggs.  These are the Red Sex Links that everyone says have the broodiness bred right out of them.  I'm not so sure.  I've had to fight a lot of the hens for eggs in the past two weeks so something is kicking in.  We've never allowed any hens sit before so it will be interesting to see how successful they are.  We have about 70 hens and only one rooster - let's hope he was a busy guy! 

We also have 4 ducks sitting on eggs.  One white Muscovy, 2 black Muscovies and Pom Pom Head our Crested White.  These have all been good momma's in the past - we've just had some setbacks in their nesting boxes and had one family massacre by an angry papa duck.   We just let the ducks nest in their pens last year and those girls sat and sat and sat.  It should only be 4 weeks but I gave them a few extra thinking maybe my numbers were off.  Nothing hatched.  When I explained the situation to a farming friend she asked what they were nesting on.  Apparently a concrete floor with some shavings wasn't optimal because the concrete would wick up any moisture which is necessary for the eggs to hatch.  This year we got creative!  I had some leftover over stacking storage bins

 and used shavings on the bottom and a nice layer of leftover sheep wool that was headed for the compost pile.  Hopefully that provided them with a toasted warm place but we'll wait and see what kind of hatch I get before I get too excited.  P.S.  I didn't stack them but I did place large sheets of wood on an angle against the wall to provide them with some privacy.

In order to prevent another massacre by the papa ducks we need to put the fathers somewhere else as soon as the ducklings are hatched.  The twist is the boys don't get along with each other either so they can't be in the same pen.  They tend to work out their differences ok outside where they pester each other all day long - chasing, honking and beating on each other but in a small pen that behaviour could result in death.  I may need a spreadsheet to figure it out!  Springtime hormones oh MY!

Yesterday - we finally got the sheep sheared.  We had arranged to have it done earlier this week but the animals had been out in the rain and wet sheep are next to impossible to shear.  We kept them indoors for a few days to dry up and all was well.  

Mr. Sheepie looks ridiculous.  I guess all sheep look funny after being shorn but you wouldn't recognize this guy.  He's so tiny.  We've never seen him shorn before - there was more wool on him than flesh.  He looks a lot like a goat - a very tiny skinny goat.

The shearer was going to leave the wool but since I doubt I will have to time to learn how to spin this year I gave her most of it and just kept Mr. Sheepie's.  His was so matted it would probably have been rejected by the wool co-op anyway.  I'm sure there is enough for me to play with as it is.  The colour of his fleece is particularly gorgeous...next year it will be better as he skipped a year getting sheared!

Rebecca Parker - Sheep Shearer - Bethany Ontario middlekingdomfarm@gmail.com or  905 259 1102.

You may have read that my daughter and I took on shearing the sheep last year.  We only needed to do two and it was an adventure that I'm not sure I want to repeat any time soon.  Rebecca was great and we learned a lot of shearing tricks - maybe we'll try the calmest one and let her do the rest next year!

New chicken pen in the Jesus Tomb

Summer is in full swing at the farm and we were in need of some more space for some of the animals so we fixed up what we affectionately call The Jesus Tomb.  When we first arrived at the farm it was the creepy building with about a foot of old cow poop in it - dark and dirty and full of junk.  We ignored it for almost a year barely venturing a peek in the door until one day we decided to have a better look.  We cleaned out the ancient poo and took the wooden covers off the windows and discovered that there might still be some life in the old place. Eventually we decided to use it as our meatie bird pen and after lots of elbow grease and some carpentry work by my kids and myself all we needed was a better door.  Son-in-law Joel to the rescue.  He spent a whole day re-building the frame and installing a new door and finally we were ready.

We moved the 60 meaties we have currently into their new home yesterday.  They seem happy with the extra room to move around.  We built a temporary outdoor run for them this morning because we didn't want them venturing too far and forgetting where home was.  It's a thing of beauty huh?  Old snow fence and a few T-posts and voilà we have a run.  This would of course NOT be strong enough to repel any intruders but with the sheep and the donkey near by we haven't had any problems during the day with free-ranging.

We have been fortunate to have had a stash of leftover wood and random bits and bobs left here by the previous owner.  It's been very handy to have it all around but we're getting near to the end of the pile!

This building must have been a chicken coop in the past as it had a chicken-sized hole in the wall.  The "hatch" was made out of old backdrop sets from a drama company now defunct - thus the fancy paint job!


As we were standing and admiring our work I asked the kids approximately how big they thought the pen was - we decided it was about 18x24. My son added that it was almost as big as our house in town - we laughed - the chickens have it pretty good!

A minute later we hear the clop clop of tiny hooves - ON THE ROOF!  The building is set into a hill and as you can see in the picture above it's only a a foot or so from the ground to the roof. Harriet the baby was happily running across the metal roof with no concern at all for her safety - I could imagine her falling off the roof!  We improvised some rope and all the branches laying around to prevent another incursion.  Hopefully that will do until we can think of something else.  There's one in every crowd herd!


Tomorrow morning the rest of the new chicks arrive - 100 Black Sex-Link egg layers and 120 more White Rock meaties.  It will be full-house for the next few weeks.

Two Handsome Boys Come to the Farm

We've added some new animals to the farm this week and we got rid of one too.  

The new additions are two gorgeous roosters who arrived yesterday.  We answered an ad on kijiji for FREE roosters - always a gamble but this time it worked out really well.  Best buds "Stripey" and "Daisy" as they are currently named have settled into a pen on their own for a few days to give them the idea that this is home.  The previous owners bought them as chicks - and the person they bought them from swore they were hens - whoops - NOT.  So they lived happily in the backyard in town until the inevitable happened - it was crowing time.  The neighbours were starting to complain and alas the roosters needed to go.  


I can see their point!  The barn is a good distance from the house but being warm out we have the windows open and I've been listening to them cockle-doodle-do-it-out in the barn this morning starting bright and early.  Just to bust a myth - roosters crow any time of the day - all day.  I think we may have the farm version of Canadian Idol going on in there as they compete with Solomon the Second for the loudest crow.


I agree with the original owners that one of them is a Wheaten Ameraucana.  That's the one with the furry beard.  The other is up for debate - any ideas?. I think we've decided on Claude and Rupert for their new names - Jean Claude was the name of a poodle in a very funny episode of the Beverley Hill Billies. My daughter was away at school last year and bemoaned the fact that she was not part of the naming of most of the other animals so she choose Rupert. Who am I to argue - I'm just happy she's home for awhile - so Rupert it is!!


In a few days they will be officially introduced to the rest of the flock and allowed to roam the farm. So how does one tell if it's a hen or a rooster as chicks - I've never been able to figure that out reliably but I recently heard that when the chicks feather-out you can check their neck feathers - if they're pointy it's a rooster and if they're rounded it's a hen.  I've been checking out the barnyard and it's true!  Learn something new every day!


The animal we got rid of was a pesky raccoon.  I used to love raccoons. When we lived in the city they didn't do me any harm.  I would see lots of them while driving at dusk and when we went camping.  My favorite memory was leaving a watermelon under the trailer during one camping trip - the next morning the was a fist sized hole in it and all the insides were missing.  Stinkers.  Then we moved to the farm.  


A barn is the perfect habitat for raccoons - warm and dry with access to lots of food.  Raccoons are smart and have very dexterous fingers so they pop off the lids of animal feed bins, sit in them and eat till they nearly explode.  This one was getting into the feed room by climbing down between the walls and the rafters.  A few chickens did a face-off with it and lost as well.  All of a sudden it's not cute because it's getting expensive!  So we built a critter-proof feed room, sealed up every hole we could find and set a trap on the other side of the barn where we thought it was holed up.

The trap is the kind that can be purchased at any co-op or farm store.  We baited ours with a marshmallow tied in cheese cloth.  It took a few nights of stolen bait to realise we had to tie it to the bottom of the trap so the raccoon couldn't just reach in and steal it.  We finally caught the critter - GREAT - now what to do with it.  Do you know there are no instructions with the cage for how to release it!  We drove off to the local conservation area - about 10km away - and let it go without any trouble.  I was wearing a red oven glove in lieu of the "heavy work gloves" that were suggested since I don't own a pair.  I think that was rather appropriate - don't you?

A Chicken Goes on Vacation

This week has been clean up week at Shalom Engedi Farm. We've cleaned and purged loads of stuff that was "kindly" left here for us by the previous owners. Yesterday afternoon we loaded up the van with our last load just as my brother and his wife came to visit for a few minutes. My daughter and my husband left for the dump about 20 minutes later and came back laughing! While they were pulling out a huge dresser- out popped a chicken who had stowed away while we were distracted by our company. 

The chicken seeing her chance for freedom flew out of the back door of the van and so began the merry chase. Everyone at the transfer station was gasping in laughter because no one had ever seen a chicken at the dump in the middle of the city before. With the help of many people my daughter finally caught her. They stuffed her into an empty garbage container for the trip home and so begun and ended our chicken's vacation. 

Animal adventures - get one named after YOU!

We've had some addtions to the farm this week which is always an exciting prospect and usually leads to some kind of delightful-chaos and this time was no exception.

In the interest of flock-diversification which is code for OH-MY-WHAT-PRETTY-CHICKENS I bought 11 new ladies from Farmer Joy who lives about 15 minutes away. There are several Black Sex-links, some Barred Rocks and a few White Rocks - all egg layers. Last year the McRae family gave us their one-remaining-chicken - a Barred Rock we called Mrs. McRae - but she disappeared in a flurry-of-feathers one fine summer evening when she missed roll call and stayed out all night.  They are beautiful birds so I was happy to get another of the same breed.

DH and I went to pick them up and Farmer Joy helped catch them and load them into the cages.  That part went well.

There's a proper way to do things when you introduce new animals to the farm.  Chickens in particular need to be placed in a seperate pen for a few days for a several reasons.  Most importantly you don't want to bring in disease and infect your entire flock so although the chickens looked perfectly happy and healthy it's just a  good idea as a precaution.

They also need to learn where HOME is.  We free-range our chickens and they love to roam but they (mostly) know that when it's getting dark it's time to come home and head for the chicken coop where they are securely locked in from predators at night.

A Red Sex-link

When we got home we lifted the cages out of the van and brought them into the barn but the door to their coop wasn't wide enough to bring the cages all-the-way-in.  Can you see trouble brewing?  I thought I did quite well - 10 out of 11 isn't bad!  One Black Sex-link flew and jumped (would that be flumped?) out of the cage and took off running. Since I am not Farmer Joy she wasn't being very good about coming back.   If you've ever chased a chicken out in the open you will know that it can be an effort in futility so after 15 minutes I gave up and she joined the free rangers.  Hopefully they had a chicken-to-chicken talk with her about where to spend the night!

Visiting Farmer Joy at her farm was a pleasure and she introduced me to what I hope is my next breed of chicken - a Silver Laced Wyndotte - oh-so-gorgeous. She had two hens and a rooster that ran with the chickens I bought from her. I think the incubator will be coming out in the next few days to hatch some of their eggs.  Even a cross breed would be pretty!  (In case you're wondering how that works: when a chicken is bred it's eggs are fertile for approximately two weeks.)

Every chicken deserves a name so the girls were named after some of my  online friends and two sweet little girls - Teagan and Elyse.

For the last two winters we have "babysat" some baby cows for our neighbour.  We don't have to take care of them but they live in our barn and they spend most of their day on the cement-paddock eating hay - at least that's how it's supposed to work.  They arrived on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon they had discovered a weak spot where the gate wasn't as secure as it should have been and decided the grassy paddock was much more to their liking.  Well - it wasn't to MY liking since they were tearing up the grass that my sheep and donkey will be eating next spring. So Luke and I went out to herd them back where they belonged - after a few turns around the field we finally got the gate closed behind them, locked it up tight and thought we were done with it...

Not.  An hour later they were out again.  Ack - sneaky burgers - we missed a smallish hole in the fence.  This time we had a plan that included three people, some sticks to prod them in the right direction and a whole-lotta-rope to close up the hole.  So far - so good!

The cows are really sweet looking.  They have been lowing (as in in the Christmas carol - the cattle are lowing) and missing their mommas.   I would love to be friends but they are very skittish - I guess I would be too if I had been chased around a field by a crazy-lady with a stick.

Eight cute little 1000+ pound cows  who are as yet un-named...JUST-THINK for only $19.95 you can have a cow NAMED-AFTER-YOU.  Your package will include a signed portrait of your cow and one year of regular updates of their health and well being.   You might even be invited to the farm to pet them or chase them out of the grass paddock - if it bears your name I think that should be YOUR responsibility.

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Questions & Answers about Chickens from Sharon

Sharon and I have been emailing each other the past few days and I asked her permission to share our conversation - she said yes :)

Hi, Anita in Canada! Sharon in Nevada here, again. I saw that beautiful picture on your blog and now I have a ton of questions... How did you get started with your laying hens? Did you start with chicks or full-grown hens? And then I've heard that we need at least one rooster if we want eggs... is that true? We used to have chickens when I was a child, but I have forgotten the answers to all of these questions, so I hope you don't mind me pestering you about them.

I love your enthusiasm Sharon! Oh what an adventure you have awaiting you with chickens! So much fun!

We got “18 weekers” the first time we got chickens – that means they are almost ready to lay. They cost more of course but if you calculate the feed required and babysitting of chicks you might find as we did that it was worth it to have some success right off the bat. They were laying eggs regularly after the first week or two. We got ours at the local feed store/coop and honestly unless you can order easily from a hatchery it’s the best way to go. Later on we did buy from people on kijiji/craigs list but we haven’t always bought healthy birds that way and you can risk your whole flock if they bring disease with them. Better safe than sorry until you get the hang of it.

You do NOT need a rooster to make eggs – only to make baby chicks. I didn’t know that either J If you think about the birds and the bees it makes sense. The kids and I watched Magic School bus in hopes of finding out the answer and we DIDN’T – hee hee - so someone had to explain it to me.  Roosters are handy for protection as well but they are unnecessary FOR EGG PRODUCTION and the crow all day long some days not just in the morning. I rather like the sound but the kids have been known to groan and roll over and go back to sleep with visions of shooting the rooster right out the bedroom window J

I think she means this one!

The photo you have on your blog page of the big bowl full of eggs looks like a little piece of heaven to me!

Even though we live on an acre here in Nevada, we are not allowed to have chickens because we are inside the "city" limits. The good news is, we are moving to the "country" soon, where we CAN have chickens, and are kind of excited about setting up a coop. Any hints you can give me? Do you turn them out to scratch? Or is your hen yard big enough that they don't care? If you do turn them out, how do you convince them to come back into the coop? Do they come when called? Or is there a food motivator? (My horse has a food motivator!) Where we'll be going there are coyotes and raccoons, both of which love chickens, but in the wrong sort of way, so I really do want them locked inside their coop at night where it will be safe and they can at least make it to Day Two.

Any hints you can give me would be greatly appreciated. We go through a lot of eggs at our house, and recently the grocery store topped $2 a DOZEN for large eggs. UNREAL! I know there are reciprocal costs involved in growing your own, but still, I am looking forward to it.

Thank you! I hope all is going well in the frozen north. We are finally getting a little bit of snow here (but it is LATE).

~ Sharon in Nevada

 

Our chickens are locked up tight in their coop for the night and let out later in the morning.  We wait till 10am or later in the winter so they lay their eggs in the nesting boxes or else they will lay them all over the farm!  We let ours free range during the day and they look after themselves really well.  They get into the kitty food sometimes – actually they race to the back door to see if there is any left and then fight over it J  Night time is easy – once they know where home is they will go back there every night at dusk.  When you first get them lock them in for a few days so they get the idea that THIS-IS-HOME.  Trying to get them to come in earlier than dusk is a bit of a challenge and shaking a feed bucket works after they learn that the sound means food.  They will learn quickly so having a pail of kitchen scraps and leaving them in the same place – preferable near the coop –will train them quite well.  Problem of course if you free range is they will follow you everywhere – to the mailbox, in the garden, for a walk down the road – unless you can distract them first and then sneak away.

We have coyotes and racoons here too. We have a donkey and some sheep as well and we think just the smell of the donkey has kept the coyotes away from the barn.  We have lost a few to foxes though and several to racoons too.  The key is making their indoor coop predator proof.  You can find lots of info online about how to do that.  We have a big-old-bank-barn so we made an old cow pen into a coop.  It works great and most of the walls and the floor are made of concrete – once they are in there – they are safe.

I can’t honestly say you are going to save money raising chickens – it will depend on the feed situation.  I am still working on a LT solution of growing some of the feed myself but it looks like it will be many years before I get the hang of that! One step at a time!

Eggs for $2.00 is a good deal J  I sell mine for $4.75 a dozen and that just covers the costs.  Of course once you eat a farm fresh free range egg you will never want the grocery store version again!  YUM!

Hi, again!  Thank you so much for writing me back right away.  Yes, it's true:  For the first time in probably six or seven years, I find that I am VERY excited about the future and looking forward to things to come, and I have you to thank for helping me realize that.  That actually makes me feel better about the current "space" that I'm in.

The $2 a dozen price is for store-bought eggs, large size (not XL), and that are most definitely not free range, and I totally understand that part about once you have a "home grown" you won't want to go back.  The same can be said for tomatoes.   I know that there is an expense to feeding them (the chickens, not the tomatoes), but I am also looking forward to my own fresh eggs.

 (I can't wait for fresh tomatoes!!)

Good news about the rooster.  I was not looking forward to the cock-a-doodle-doo's at the crack of dawn and beyond.  I DO remember the annoying crowing that (you're right) seemed to go on at all hours and not just at sun-up.  But then, we had a screwy rooster, and as I recall, he ended up in a pot of dumplings.  Not sure if the excessive crowing had anything to do with that, though, or not, but the end result was the same. Yum!  I LOVE dumplings!

http://www.backyardchickens.com/

Here is a link to a website I used to study-study-study, back in the day.  I guess I need to study some more.  My son, who's been asking to raise chickens since he was 7 years old (he's just turned 15) wants to help build the coop and chicken run, and there are several fun designs in this website.  You can go from beyond simple enclosures, to chicken tractors (a concept that struck me as hilarious), to creating your own chicken princess castle, to an entire western frontier of buildings.  In addition to the plans, most of the coop designs have many, many pictures of step-by-step construction, so you can actually see progressive photographs of how they were built.  I just pulled up the website after eons of not looking, and see that they've expanded to include chicken breeds and many more interesting bits of information.  Feel free to share with whomever.  Oh, and yes, you can use my question in your blog.  :-))  I didn't realize I HAD so many questions until I started writing them down.

The backyard chickens website is definitely the place to check out for more information on raising small flocks of chickens.  There are some very creative people sharing their ideas for chickens tractors and coops that will make you laugh!

Thank you again, Anita, for taking time to write to me.  You are always so refreshing to read, and you make me feel uplifted when you write.  You sound like a very happy person.  I will keep you posted as we progress.  It's still one day at a time, but the target timeframe is early this summer.

Oh, wow!  and oh-em-gee!  all at the same time!!

Thanks more than you know,

~ Sharon  :-))

 

You are MORE-THAN-WELCOME!  Hope that helps!  Congratulations on the upcoming move – I know how the excitement can be.  I am still amazed I live here! 

THERE'S-NO-PLACE-LIKE-HOME!

Bless you as you make your own adventure in country living!

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Shopping 1934 style: catalogue pages from Wards

I received this in an email this morning!  Don't you wish you could shop at these prices!  I would like a few pressure canners for $1.49 and some batteries at 2/.13 cents, 500 chicks for under $50.00 and an icebox please.  What would you buy??

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Death with a purpose

Almost a year ago we butchered the first animal on our farm. It was a sad day for Jacob the Ram and honestly it was for me too. Jacob had been on the farm for about three months to do-the-deed for our ewes - and his owners didn't want to take him home and feed him over the winter so we struck a deal. We would pay for the butchering and they would split the meat with us. Now - meat and Jacob just didn't go well in the same sentence for me at that point. Of course I KNEW what had to be done but the thought of the actual DOING was another story. It hit a home run into the knowing-where-your-food-comes-from field.

The night came when he needed to be delivered to the butchers barn and I was dreading it. The weather was terrible when his owner came to pick him up but I felt like I needed to do my part. I helped load him into the back of the van. Just to draw the picture further that's a passenger van - not a truck - and poor Jacob was squished between the back seat and the hatch so he couldn't run around. (Can't you just imagine a Children's book title to tell these stories: A Sheep in a Jeep - A Ram in a Van) I was troubled but prepared to go with him to drop Jacob off but he said: The roads are terrible - stay home. He didn't have to twist my arm. I waved goodbye and guiltily went back into the house.

About a week later we went to pick up the meat. We met up at the butchers shop and I remember staring down at little brown packages in a big clear plastic bag and trying to figure out where to put this new experience in my mind. It felt weird. That was Jacob. I had known that animal. I had fed him and cleaned up after him and scratched him under his chin. He was probably going to be the father of my baby lambs. All these thoughts rushed through my mind in a mad scramble with no where to go.

The Jacob-meat was in the freezer for almost two months before we got up the courage to eat it. I guess we needed time to adjust to the reality of how the cycles of life really worked. When the kids began to ask if we were having Jacob for dinner I knew we had all crossed over some invisible line into being keepers of animals and not just keepers of pets.

We made another trip this week to bring our 47 "meatie" birds, 7 roosters and 10 ducks to the abattoir. The day started at 4:45 when we crawled out of bed and had a quick cup of tea. Four of us rounded up the animals and shoved them squawking and quacking into specially made crates which we had picked up the night before. They were then loaded onto a trailer and delivered by the three sleepy men to the loading dock of Morrisons in Omemee. Then they went out for breakfast and I went back to bed! I guess this is the part where they aren't the happy chickens and ducks anymore!

Morrisons is the only place around that can process poultry and it's a busy place. Trucks and vans and trailers are lined up waiting their turn to load or unload. We saw one open tailer being loaded with what must have been 100's of birds ready for the freezer. In comparison our piddly 65 didn't seem like much at all in the parking lot although when it came time to deliver them and put the rest in the freezer they seemed like plenty!

This process was another great example of paying for your education with real-life experience. We figure we'll be lucky to break even this time around - here's what I learned.

1. Getting meat chicks in September is later than I want to do this next time.
2. I don't like cornish cross birds. They grow so quickly they can hardly walk by the time they are full grown, they eat a LOT and don't move around that much. They are completely different from our other chickens who wander the farm and range much farther. I'll be looking for a heritage meat bird for the next time.
3. We've tried everything with the waterers - we just couldn't keep them full and finally went with a swimming pool in their pen. A disasterous choice for keeping the pen clean and dry. I'm looking into a drip system for all the birds for next spring.
4. Ducks cost more than twice as much to butcher as chickens because their feathers are waterproof and they take much longer to pluck.
5. We should have let the ducks get bigger before we butchered them - they ended up kinda scrawny and far too expensive for the size!
6. We have to find another source or another way to deal with bedding in their pens - so much got wasted.

That's life at Shalom Engedi Farm and the continuing adventures of a small city girl becoming a small country farmer - who will perhaps one day actually make some money at this venture.