Comments on: Chickenhouse inspection

By: Chickenhouse progress | Tiny Farm Blog

Chickenhouse progress | Tiny Farm Blog — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:17:39 +0000

[...] on the Chickenhouse has been moving along. It’s not a huge job, but all of the little bits and pieces take time, [...]

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:25:35 +0000

Mrs K: Yeah, a little backstory is good. And it’s amazing how much old stuff, especially 50yrs+ mechanical gear, can be just dragged out, dusted off, and put back to work! A couple of years ago, we used an old, manual cider press that’s been sitting in the barn literally for decades. The juice ran out through a wooden chute! Not too sanitary-sounding for…today, and a lot of grunt work per gallon, but we just pulled it out, hosed it down, applied a little grease, and off we went…!

ns, Meg: I like that idea. I’ve wanted to try mobile pens as well, where you just move the whole enclosure with coop from one spot to another around a field. For this first run, I think we’re gonna go with Bob’s approach and keep it simple, with nice big yards (one each for layers and meat birds), and give ‘em a fair share of weeds and veggie scraps from the garden. There’s quite a big section available outside the chickenhouse, so hopefully single big runs will do OK. But we’ll see!

cathy: To keep things simple, we’re going for 50 White Rock cockerels for meat (April), and 25 ready-to-lay Shaver Red Sex-Link (June)… It seems like a pretty standard choice. No-one I’ve talked to so far recommends any of the dual-purpose for meat…

UPDATE: We’ve scratched the White Rock Cornish X in favor of a heavy dual purpose cross. The White Rocks seem way too engineered and specialized, I’d rather more naturally-behaving, hardy, roaming, hunting and pecking chickens…which it seems the White Rocks are not…

By: Mrs K

Mrs K — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:04:24 +0000

I love the pictures and reading about the barn. It’s wonderful to have buildings on your property that have a history and stories to tell! :)

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:44:21 +0000

That is a great chicken house! Can’t wait to see it all full of hens.

I second NS, from above–if you can, make multiple yards that you can let the chickens access in rotation. That way at least one area remains unused and can grow back, so the birds have something to eat.

By: Clare

Clare — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:01:38 +0000

Those horse harnesses have quite an antique value. You can clean them up and use them yourself if you plan to use horses around the farm, or you can do some research and sell them. You might be able to purchase the necessary supplies to refurbish the coop if you do that! Good luck!

By: ns

ns — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:07:32 +0000

Here’s a suggestion based on my experience with the 35 layers that we got last year. We did something similar where we turned a shed into a house. When you are making the fenced in area outside, divide it into three areas so that they can be rotated around. This(in theory) will prevent them from killing the grass and they will always have new grass to eat which will keep them happy and you won’t just have a big mud pit. We are in the process of renovating our chicken area to do this.

By: cathy

cathy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:52:41 +0000

that is a great looking chicken house ….looks like lots of potential….
will you be getting “ready to lay ” pullets or will you raise egg layer chicks