When you have a bunch of kids around the hen house it’s bound to happen sooner or later.

One night when I came home from picking up my son from gymnastics, I was met by my husband, Marc who was telling me what a “bad Dad” he was. Okay… I did a quick assessment. Things couldn’t have been that bad, my youngest daughter, Emma was sitting in the dining room eating popcorn and daughter number two, Addy was at the sink washing off eggs.

Go on.

Apparently earlier in the evening, Marc and the girls had been putting the chickens away for the night, first they checked for eggs and, as it was starting to get dark, they then put the birds securely into the hen house. Making sure that all outside doors were locked up tight, Emma and Marc then went into the house, drank some water, and Emma proceeded to watch TV while Marc did the dishes.

It wasn’t until a bit later when Emma started wondering why Addy wasn’t watching TV with her that it occurred to Emma to look out the window.

“I saw Addy in the chicken coop with a red face” said Emma as she recounted the story to me.

Yup, that’s right.

My husband had accidentally locked our daughter in the coop. With all those chickens. At night.

Just for your information, if you ever decide to do this to your first born baby girl, this is what you will get:

 

Addy did have a red face because she was CRYING. I ask you – who wouldn’t be crying if left alone locked up with 34 birds – in the dark – where no one can hear you scream? If it sounds like the plot for a horror film, that’s because it is. Do you remember The Birds?  I personally know of one friend who would have just gone and had a heart attack right then and there and gotten it all over with.

Great. Now Addy’s going to have nightmares for the rest of her life about being left behind trapped in hell with a bunch of birds. Most parents mess their kids up by being too lenient, or by not paying enough attention, or by simply not knowing how to do the right thing.

Oh but not us, we mess up our kid by abandoning her with a flock of fowl.

Addy – feel free to send Daddy all your therapy bills when you get older. Sweetheart, on this account, I think “bad Dad” is going to be owing you. Big time.  

                                                                                                        ***

Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Follow her adventures with the flock at www.simplethrift.wordpress.com and contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com 

 

Sitting at the kitchen table recently, watching the flicker of an old-fashioned oil lantern, the winter conditions outside reminded me of how wonderful it is to live out in the sticks.

Wintertime out in the country, unlike any other time of the year, brings to mind how far from the comforts of city life we really are – it feels freeing, in a sense, to sit at the table playing dominoes, no television in the picture, not dependent on any outside forces. Looking out the window, I can actually see the moonlight on the timber set 100 yards away. Man, does it look cold. I can say with some confidence that I will never live within city limits again.

 

The only frustrating thing thus far – we moved in at the beginning of October – has been too many projects for the amount of daylight with which we’ve had to work. Winter can be a difficult time for me, since Monday through Friday during the shorter days of winter I leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark. No daylight hours except for the weekends.

This old farmhouse (somewhere around 175 years old) calls to me, and I rush home at the end of every day, don a headlamp, and head out to walk the dog down through the woods, or to turn sod for next year’s garden. I’ve also worn that headlamp while making some chicken coop repairs and even dispatching an opossum that managed entry into our hen house.

Predator pressure aside, my first project is expanding our poultry-raising efforts. I’ve managed to barter lumber from a neighbor in exchange for a couple weekends worth of drywall help, so building a permanent coop with a rotational grazing model chicken yard (for our laying hens), then building a larger movable chicken tractor for 10 or so meat birds in the spring are at the top of my list. I’ve already budgeted supplies for the NathanWinters' Movable Birdcage, so once deer season ends, I’ll have my work cut out. The project is already sketched out, and war has been declared on the resident coon, opossum and coyote populations. Along those lines, be sure to check out “CopingWith Critters” on Page 13.

Recently, a reader called into question why we have so many bloggers on our site, since many of them enjoy writing about the same things. The answer, quite simply, is that there are multiple ways to skin a cat (or slaughter a pig), and to think we already know the best management practice, the wisest design for a chicken coop, the best way of doing anything, would just be foolish. The many voices in our community are constantly coming up with cool ways of doing things, and if you’d like to contribute, please don’t hesitate to email me (cregan@grit.com). Hearing from our constituents, our readers, really does make our community an incredibly effective way of sharing and gathering information. Hopefully, you’ll find something you can use in this issue of GRIT Country, whether that’s the DIY drip irrigation system for your garden or crucial advice for building a kitchen garden.

Until our paths cross again,
- CDR 

The past week has been a flurry of activity around Terra Dei Farm!  We’re catching up with the modern age with a Facebook business page and Twitter.  I had to type that fast before the shame set in and caused me to chicken out to confessing such frivolity.  But in today’s day and age, it’s good business to network, right?  Show me that networking is good business by following and “Like”-ing us!!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TerraDeiFarmLivestock
Twitter: www.twitter.com/TerraDeiFarm 

Our rabbit babies also safely arrived!  Eight little kits, weird looking as ever:

A few mornings ago we walked out to the barn at 4:45 am to load hogs to take to the locker.  We had a hog loading experience the previous week that went less than optimally (think along the lines of: uncivil swine, yelling, cussing, physical bruising, and the end scenes of the Apocalypse).  So we were braced for another fight.

I took a moment to soak in the early morning sky, which looked something like this:

Ten minutes later we were closing the trailer door.  The hogs had walked right on with minimal complaining on their part and requiring little more than “Please?” on our part.   Go figure. 

Later that morning, after returning from the meat locker run and working outside for awhile, my husband, Matt, came into the house and called for my help.  I walked into the kitchen to the sight of him holding his hand while blood dripped profusely to the floor. 

He has been working on an overhaul of our chicken coop.   (The coop has a long story, which I’ll post with before and after pictures upon the project’s completion.)  Apparently, during work on this project, the utility knife slipped in a tight corner and cut his hand to the bone.  One ER trip later, he is stitched and bandaged up but luckily escaped any serious permanent damage to nerves or ligaments.  We get so used to living in such a rural location that we forget how far we are from most basic amenities – that is, until we have to travel 45 miles to the nearest hospital while trying to control bleeding.

While ER trips are not lessons in frugal farm management, our chicken operation is.  I won’t share any chicken coop pictures until the project is completed (mostly because, I don’t have any.)   I will, however, go ahead and share pictures of our newest bulk chicken feeder.  It doesn’t look like much and is awaiting a new paint job, but it sure has made chicken feeding a lot easier! 

It is an old weanling pig feeder that we salvaged from a former hog raiser.  We got it for free, as it had been mangled after being hit by a tractor (not to mention sitting in disuse for some time).  Yet Matt was able to structurally straighten it out without too much effort.  He also drove posts on both sides and mounted scrap pieces of hog panels, leaving only a small “doorway” for the chickens to enter and exit.  This allows us to turn goats into the chicken run periodically to eat down the tall grass and weeds without them enjoying a chicken feed lunch.  After those small modifications, it is just a matter of dumping a bag or two of feed into the bin and refilling as necessary!  It has also significantly decreased our amount of wasted chicken feed.  

As soon as Matt unveils the extent of his chicken coop renovation plans to me, I’ll post pictures and details.  And I’ll leave you with pictures of the two kittens I received for my birthday last week.  Our old male cat, Cicero, has been in a terrible mood all week as the kittens continue to try nursing from him…

  

Things have been relatively quiet here but busy at the same time, kind of like organized chaos!  This evening the organization may go out the door! We will finally finish the coop and get move the chickens.  I’m excited for them and for me, I get my basement back!  Not that I haven’t enjoyed their stay but they have worn out their welcome! 

 

 

We opted to go with new steel for the roof but luckily the company that sells roofing steel has this nice little pile of seconds that are sold at a discounted price without a warranty.  Considering it is for the coop I wasn’t too concerned about the warranty.  With some help from one of our friends and Chad’s cousin, they put the roof on in no time.  It looks awesome!  It’s also water tight; no leaks appeared during the down pour last evening.  We put in divider walls that are about 3’ high and chicken wire to the top.  This evening we have to put the doors on the inside and the steel on the walls and we will be good to go!  Sorry the pictures are kind of awkward but it was dark.  The broilers will go in the smaller enclosure to the right and the hens will have the entire half to themselves. 

  

We did have a bit of a scare with one of the broilers.  He started limping on one leg and got run over by his hungry roomates.  I moved him to a separate box and then start freaking out after reading the symptoms of Marek’s on the internet.  Unfortunately everyone I called knew very little about it.  So we’ve been taking care of him and I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t Marek’s but instead a wing and leg injury.  The vet’s office was not much help so I’m winging it (no pun intended!).  I did give everyone some oregano after reading the Fresh Eggs Daily blog about nesting box herbs.  I’m adding an herb garden to my list of things to do.  It’s great to know there are alternatives available without having to add a bunch of chemicals to their diet.  Thanks Lisa!

We finally found pigs but only 2 so far.  They will be coming home in 2 weeks.  We were hoping to get more but pigs are very hard to find.  Well, normal pigs are hard to find.  The market is loaded with expensive show pigs for the fairs.  That is great for them but I’m just looking for a nice, normal pig that I can feed, grow, butcher, and eat. I doubt the chickens and bunnies will be concerned about whether or not his hair looks nice or if he has scars from his castration.  Things are still up in the air but if it is this hard to find pigs we may consider raising our own.  We have talked to several people that are running into the same problem however they don’t want to raise them. 

There have been no signs of bunnies arriving so I’m thinking that we may have separated them in time.  I’ve been reading up though just in case.  Since this would be her first litter I know she will be stressed and I want to make sure if its going to happen that we are able to do what we can for Thumper and the little ones. 

Turkey hunting has been unsuccessful thus far.  Eliza shot at 2 on Junior Hunt Day but missed.  I'm not sure who was more nervous her, Chad, or Chad's brother Chase.  I really would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the blind!  I went out one day and had no luck.  It sounded like they were right below me but never came up to where I was.  Chad and Eliza went out again Saturday and heard several but were apparently the only 2 that believed in walking because there were 4 wheelers running around everywhere.  We'll see what happens this Saturday. She definitely has turkey fever!  Our house is filled with the sound of her practicing with the turkey call.   Aurora and Jorja are biting at the bit to go fishing.  Chad hears turkeys from side and fish from the other!

 

Chad and I were able to attend the Soil Conservation District annual dinner this week.  They had a slide presentation of what all the SCD has done and is responsible for.  I would imagine that there are plenty of people in our area as well as our many tourists that have no idea what goes on to help maintain and save our land and water.  The SCD handles everything from building sites to flood control to farming.  They showed pictures of a flood in our county seat that caused a lot of damage.  As a result flood control dams were constructed and there hasn’t been an issue since.  The thing I see popping up on more farms are the creek buffer zones.  Fencing is placed on either side and then trees are planted inside.  This keeps the cattle out of the running water.  It enhances the image and contributes to a cleaner water supply.  I’ll grab a picture next time I go up to my parents house.

I can’t wait to report on how the housing is working out and what’s happening with the pigs.  Hopefully the weather will start cooperating so that we can get even more things going.  Oh and one last, very important thing.  I want to wish our youngest , Jorja, a very happy 5^th birthday tomorrow!  She definitely helps to keep things very interesting to say the least.  Until next time!!

About 2 weeks have passed since I originally penned the opening blog so it’s only fitting that I catch everyone up!  Mother Nature can’t seem to make her mind up considering that I got sunburnt one day and pretty much froze to death last evening putting boards on the chicken coop.  She did offer a surprise for the girls this year though; they actually got a spring break.  Normally we have so many snow days that the teachers are contemplating working on lesson plans for the 4^th of July.  It’s all cyclical, we’ll probably end up with snow as high as the phone wires again next year.   Now for some updates.

 

The Chickens  

They are growing like crazy. I looked at their first pictures last night and couldn’t believe how much they have grown.  Their feathers are coming quickly right along with their urge to fly.  We had to build screens to cover their cages since one of the Speckled Sussex decided to fly up on the edge of the brooder.  Chad is convinced it was his favorite that he has named Harv.  Since they were straight run I asked him if it turns out to be a hen are we going to have to call her Harvina!!  I’m not sure he appreciated my humor!   We did have a few little poop incidents - diarrhea and some pasty butts.  Luckily the gentleman that I got them from is a great resource.  After adding in some baby grit and going to a medicated feed, things seem clearing up.  We had already been adding the electrolytes to their water and he said that helped out tremendously.  The chicks do have a treat that they absolutely love and that is their Baby Cake from Farmers’ Helper.  They go absolutely wild over it.

 

The broilers are doing well too.  I would pretty much compare putting their feed in the brooder to taking a case of chocolate bars in to Jorja’s Pre-K class at snack time.   They are also quite the creatures of habit.  I normally go to the right side of the brooder to put everything in.  One morning I walked down the steps and could see them peering out through the crack in the side so I snuck around to the other side.  I stood there and laughed because they stood there like “wait, where did she go, you have to be kidding me we are hungry.”

The Rabbits  

Oh yes, we have rabbits, three of them to be exact.  After a wink to the girls, a friend of ours bid on them and then each girl had a bunny in their arms.  For future sales I think we are going to have to keep Aaron and the girls separated or we will end up bringing home the goats the girls have been eyeing!  They are doing a great job taking care of Thumper (Eliza), Oscar (Aurora), & Abe Lincoln (Jorja)!  Aurora seems to be the rabbit girl though.  She just has a way with them.  Everyone’s comment though has been that we will end up with babies so I did some online research and we have 2 males and a female.  I’m pretty sure we didn’t separate them in time so I guess we will see what happens at the end of the month!

 

The Coop  

The coop, or The Mansion, is coming along great.  One more day of work on it and we will be able to start the inside.  It’s a 12’ x 12’ addition onto the shed that we raised our calves in.  I think it will be a good start but we may end up taking over the shed too.  The other addition is for the pigs anyway!  We’ve used rough cut hemlock and pine and have been able to recycle a good many of the nails.  It amazes me how Chad can straighten a nail.  I wonder how many pounds of nails are thrown away each year that could be used for something.  We are also going to be able to reuse some old windows and a door.  It has been a lot of work and splinters but all well worth it.  Chad’s cousin has been a great help too and has taught us along the way. There will definitely be an upcoming post solely about building this coop!

 

Well I think that’s about everything that has been happening around here.   We are on the lookout for pigs now and who knows what else!  Until next time!

 

You can make a chicken coop from just about anything.  I've seen rabbit hutches, tool sheds, and portions of barns converted into chicken coops.  If you're lucky enough to start from scratch, or your able to remodel an existing structure, there's a few things we've learned you might want to take into consideration.

 

The photo above of the little red shed was the existing chicken coop and tiny outdoor run when we purchased our farm house.  We knew we wanted to build a new, larger coop and run, and had hoped to do so prior to bringing chickens home.  It didn't happen as planned and I am now very thankful.  We learned a lot while using this small coop that wouldn't have have crossed our minds if we hadn't.  The girls and handsome Mr. Clyde lived there for about 3 months before the new coop was built.

As a start, regarding the size of your coop, the general number seems to be 3 feet to every chicken. (Our coop is 8 foot by 10 foot and around 8 foot tall.) Remember to also keep in mind you want a roost area, feeding area and egg laying area.  Think through the feeding area, because if it's too close to the roost area you'll end up with feeders full of manure. 

You also want to make sure the coop is safe from predators.  Even if your chickens free-range during the day, they need a safe haven to sleep in.  Make sure nothing can get underneath the coop or through the door or windows.  We use two types of locks on all our doors (hoping if they can get one open they can't get the other) and every window has a barrel-lock on the inside.  We also added a tough wire to all the windows so they can remain open during the hot summer.

 

Here's a few more things we've learned. 

Lesson One:  You want to make sure you can get in the coop to clean it.  Whether you want a portable house or a large coop as we have, make sure there is access to the indoor and outdoor areas.  You can see from the photo above we chose a shed-style coop that my husband designed and built.  We had to build an outdoor run because of loose dogs in the neighborhood.  We started with a small solar panel for a light, but ended up running electricity to it as well (see lesson 10).

 

The photo above shows the outdoor run.  It features a "people" door as well as a chicken tractor door.  The idea of the smaller door is you can pull the chicken tractor up to it and load them in.  What I would change about this are 2 things:  The people door isn't quite tall enough, so you have to duck (after hitting your head once you remember to do so), and the chicken tractor door opens out not in.

We built sloped roofs for the snow we get in the Northeast.  We also chose metal roofing to go with the rest of the outbuildings on the property. 

 

Lesson Two:  If you have an outdoor run, you want the chickens door to open out from the run.  In the first coop, we had to wade through the mob of chickens, all yelling to be let out, to open the door because it opened in.  I love this.  We put a latch on the door in addition to a clip to keep smart racoons and other critters out at night. 

Lesson Three:  If you have an outdoor run offer lots of roosting space.  They absolutely love it.

 

Jay made the handy little ramp, including the wood strips so they could get traction on their way down.

 

All chickens love a spot to dust bath and a large litter pan filled with play sand and some wood ash is like a day at the spa!

Let's go inside.

 

You can see in the photo above, the small solar light.  Jay designed and built the nesting boxes with a small perch in the front. (those are golf balls inside, it really does encourage the egg laying in the box!)

Lesson Four:  You should have one nesting box for every four to five chickens.  Also, the nesting boxes don't have to be large, although Jay wanted the girls to have plenty of room so he built ours a little bigger than necessary.  Generally, 12x12x12 is plenty of space.  We put straw in ours and the girls enjoy rearranging it while waiting to lay their egg. 

Our nesting boxes are purposely positioned below the window, because you want a dark, quiet area for them.  We also added a slant roof to the top hoping to deter the girls from roosting on it.  Although it hasn't stopped them completely it does make it more difficult.

You can also see, in the photos above and below, we used all available space.  We put the nesting boxes up high enough to have storage space underneath for small cans of their feed.  Also, the door to the outdoor run is tucked underneath.

We use the deep litter method, however, I still rake the manure in the mornings after a night's roost.  I purchased the rake from our local hardware store and had Jay put 2 nails in the wall to hold it.  It works perfectly for letting the litter fall thru but holds the manure to throw in the compost bin.

 

 

We built lots of roosting space as well as 2 roosting shelves.  We found from the first coop the girls love the shelves and fight over them every night.  Jay wanted them to be happy, so he put 2 in the new coop.  Make sure you use something such as a 2x4 for the roost so they are comfortable wrapping their feet around it.

Lesson Five:  We put four windows in our coop for plenty of ventilation.  We have 2 small windows on the North and South sides of the coop that are up high enough it won't be breezy on them as they roost.  One is kept open all the time for constant ventilation to prevent the ammonia build-up.  We open both when we want a breeze or cross ventilation.  All the windows were found windows that Jay made work.  He attached hinges to them so they could open/close, and he put cleats by each and a string on each so we can open them as little or as much as we want to.  The photos below show this in more detail.

Also to note, if you're going to have windows open you probably want to put wire on them to keep other birds and critters out.  We used a pretty rugged square wire on ours.  We also used barrel-locks on all the windows so they can close tight in the winter.

 

  

Lesson Six:  If you live in an area with freezing temp.'s through a good portion of the winter, you may want to look into purchasing a heater for the water (in the photo above to the left).  After a few mornings of trying to get the water unthawed you'll be thankful.

Lesson Seven:  Chickens are messy and they love to scratch.  Because of this, if you don't want their feed all over the place put their feeders up.  Jay built wooden platforms for them, but we've also used strings attached to the ceiling as in the photo above.  Just make sure it's easy to remove for filling and cleaning.  Also, try to have more than one feeder.  The girls tend to gang up on one or two chickens and prevent them from feeding.  With an additional feeder, everyone can eat.

Many people have asked me about the cold temp.'s in our area and how to keep the coop warm.  The simple truth is, if you have a small coop and enough chickens to fill it, their body heat alone will keep them warm.  They deal with the cold better than the heat. 

Our coop is large and tall for the amount of birds we have, so although it stays warmer inside than outside, it still seems chilly.  We did 2 things:  we insulated the coop (walls, ceiling, door and floor) and we purchased 2 flat panel heaters and a thermostatic outlet.  (The insulation helps in the summer as well so the coop can stay a little cooler, especially with the box fans going.)

The heaters we've been happy with were purchased from Melanie at ShopTheCoop.com (we purchased our original heaters from a different online heater company and they were awful).  She also sells the thermostatic outlet, which allows the heaters to be turned on all the time, but only actually come on when the temperature drops below a certain degree and turns off again once it reaches the higher temperature it's set to.  Yes, it definitely raises our electric bill, but we only turn them on during the coldest parts of the winter.

If you're going to use heaters, flat panel is the way to go because they're safe and fairly cool to the touch.  With the amount of dust found in the coop you want to make sure a heater won't get clogged up with it.

 

Lesson Eight:  Do you have an area to keep chickens who need to be separated from the rest?  We realized we didn't want sick chickens in the same coop, and haven't yet built a small hutch-style coop for that purpose.  That's to come.  Currently, they get quarrantined in the craft room in a dog crate.

We did realize, when Mama Claire hatched 2 eggs and again when we adopted the new chicks, we needed an area for chicks where the big girls couldn't pick at them until they could defend themselves.  Enter my handyman again to construct a temporary coop within the coop. 

The photo above to the left is the box method we started with.  With five chicks, they outgrew it quickly.  We wanted to keep them with the other chickens so there would be no need for introductions later when they were released to the rest of the coop.  So my very handy husband constructed a removable coop within the coop.  He boxed in one corner of the coop and made the walls portable so we can take them down and put them up when needed.  Brilliant!!  It has worked out great.

Lesson Nine:  You can also see from the photos above, we started out with a shelving area in part of the coop to keep litter, straw and extra feed.  We realized how bad an idea this was when we had a mite infestation this past summer and had to toss it all out.  I would suggest only storing tightly sealed items (such as the small trash cans of food) just in case of a lice, mite, or any other infestation.

Lesson Ten:  Electricity, to us, has been one of the most important things.  We didn't really think much about it initially, and I'm sure Jay was wishing the decision was to not power it, but in the end we are both so thankful we did.  He had to dig a trench and run the wire (he is trained to do this - hire an electrician if you are not), while the girls and Clyde supervised, but it has allowed us to run the electric heater for the water, the flat panel heaters, and a box fan (we put in the windows) in the summer.  The girls get up on the roosts, spread out their wings, and take in that wonderful breeze.  Their happiness is thanks enough.

Lesson Eleven:  Where there are chickens there will be a lot of dust.  This is inevitable.  I've seen wonderful coop designs with chandeliers, curtains, painted walls, etc.  Remember, chickens poop where they want and create dust constantly.

Lesson Twelve:  If there is a 1 1/2" or larger ledge, a chicken will find it and roost on it.  When you build your coop look around and think about this.  We have a small windowsill all the way up at the top of the coop where our ventilation window is.  They found it and there was no keeping them off of it.  We are unable to get up there to clean off the manure, so we had to create obstacles to keep them off.

Lesson Thirteen:  If there's a wire or something sticking out, a chicken will get hurt on it.  Also, if there's something to peck at (exposed insulation, etc), they will.  Again, take a look around your coop and think of it from a chicken's perspective.

Additional information is with regard to the flooring of the coop, which really depends on your preference.  Our first little coop had a dirt floor.  My concern was that something would be able to dig underneath the coop and get at them.  We now have a wood insulated floor.  Cement is a good choice as well.

My hope is that you come away with an idea or two, or perhaps you can share an idea with us.  If so, please leave a comment, we'd love to hear from you.