After a few weeks of working on the “secure” area for the chickens, it’s finally done. It is about 30×15 feet in size, so the chickens get a bigger area than our bedroom. They seem to like it well enough.

I built it out of 50% reused materials from around the yard. It took a while to decide where in the yard to put them. I generally like to have the animals closer to the house, that way I can hear if anything is going on. We decided to put the chicken run and house about 250 feet from the back deck. Not as close as I’d ideally like it, but it’s a level spot with a good sun shade ratio.

I started off by pulling 6, 8 foot railroad ties out of the old fence and digging holes a couple feet deep to drop them into. They stand out of the ground about 6′. After packing the decomposed granite (DG) around them really well, they are firmly rooted in the ground. Then I put some 2×4’s around the top of the railroad ties, and one through the center. I treated these with Lifetime Wood Treatment. The 2×4’s really firmed up the whole enclosure. We then pulled the chicken wire tight around the outside and stapled it into place for the time being. I then dug a 1′ deep trench around the entire outside of the enclosure. This trench has the chicken wire down in it with a pipe attached to the bottom and rubble like bricks, cement and rocks piled on top.

After I got the wire and pipe down in the trench and back-filled it with the rubble, I shoveled all the dirt back on top and stamped it down really well. It turned out really well, and doesn’t look bad at all.

Under the gate I put a large 4×12 with chicken wire wrapped around it. It is securely screwed into both posts the gate hooks on. Once the wire was pulled tight and buried, it was time to put the top on. A friend of ours gave us a large quantity of chicken wire that we unwound and strung over the top. Once again, we stapled one side and pulled it over to the other as tight as we could. I have since put 1×4’s that we have been given on all the stapled areas. This will keep any of the wire from slipping. Hopefully, even with the weight of some snow on it.

The gate took a little longer than the rest of the coop. Most of the railroad ties angles are not square and the old Cedar post I found to use for the other side of the gate, well, it wasn’t square either. In any case the gate turned out great. I even put in a mini door for the chickens to use. This keeps the deer out of their scratch and water.

The gate is made out of 2×4’s that I purchased. I used some old larger hinges I found around the yard. I bought some large wood screws with a hex head and drilled them through the hinges into the railroad tie. It’s bomber. The mini door is super great too. It’s like the little door on Willy Wonka. I used the same screws to hold it down, it’d take a large animal to break in. So I hope. For latches I used a self catching latch for the bottom and a slide bolt type latch for the top. I put a string from the bottom gate latch to the top latch that can be easily pulled to unlatch the bottom latch. How about that latching?

Overall the gate swings easily, latches well, the chickens use the mini door, and they are fully secured within. We can now take a couple extra days on our camping trips. I feel fine leaving the chickens within this enclosure. Before, they would fly over the fence and we’d find them in trees at night. Below is a picture of the finished product. If you have any questions or would like to know any details, feel free to contact us.

Tags: chicken, coop, enclosure, fenced, secure

This is a picture of our pet and egg provider Hen-a-C, the Australorp Chicken. We have 2 Australorp hens. They are Great Chickens! Read more about Australorps.

Tags: australorp, chicken, egg, kind, lol, loving

We Weed the Other Half. We did this little experiment to see if the chickens take care of weeds better than we can. All last winter we left the chickens in half the garden. We did this for two reasons, one to keep them fenced in a safe spot when we left for a couple days, and two in order to see if they would fertilize and weed the garden well. From what my wife has said, the weeds on the chickens half of the garden are harder to pull out. I’d have to agree. The root is just really set on the grass and other unwanted greens.

As for the fertilizer, I think spreading the chicken manure out as we clean the coop is just as effective. On a positive note, I haven’t seen many bugs at all in the garden. No cutworms or the like. They do the work in that aspect. Next fall we’ll let them fatten back up in the annual section again as everything begins to die back and go farrow.

Tags: Chickens, Garden, weed

It’s the latter end of March and I have been looking at the small Iris’ and bulbs starting to show all over the yard. The deer have been staying out mostly, we’re thankful for that. Last year the deer really ate up all the small tulip starts, which is to be expected. This year, my wife strung up a higher fence around the front yard to keep them at bay, and it’s worked!

We are also doing an experiment this year in the garden. The chickens were in half of it all winter long. They managed to get every bit of grass and weed that showed up, as well as fertilized in their wake. The other half of the garden, we have been pulling all the grass out by hand. Our experiment is to see if the chickens do a better job at weeding than we do. We’ll see in about 2 months when things begin to really grow.

A good friend of ours likes how chicken’s scratch around, so I took a small clip of Snowball, the chicken, scratching in the garden.

I think our chickens have taken on my personality. They explode out of their night time roost, just like me, to get outside. I can’t handle it either, being inside all day that is. Make sure you at least get a walk in, over to the apple tree for some grubs, or maybe down the river trail for some sun. Whatever it is, get out and get some fresh air.

Our chickens have been in their little house and tarp tent for 2 days now. We’ve had a Blizzard Warning and a Winter Storm Warning since Friday. We went out and shoveled all the snow off the roof of their tent and made a small path for them to go out into the yard a ways, but they don’t follow it. My sister was asking if Chickens are from Africa, because they don’t seem to do to well in the snow.

The Australorp will venture out about 20 feet from the coop and fly into the 6″ to 8″ of snow and just sit there. They look around not sure what to do. I know their feet aren’t touching the ground, they are just floating like ducks. They get up some energy and fly to another spot and do the same thing. Eventually, they make it back to the coop.

The Wyandottes on the other hand won’t leave the coop. They are content to just roost all day. We have a warm watering dish and give them wheat berries and cracked corn for scratch, so they aren’t hungery, but they are figity to say the least. When the snow hardens it will be fun to watch them adventure around the yard. Off to take the compost dish out to them, they like to scratch around in it. Until next post.

Our chickens roam our little place eating all day and scratching away all the duff from under the Lilacs and other bushes. They are a lot of fun. I like how they run especially. It’s funny. Today I found 7 eggs in the coop. Our chickens are now just 6 months old. As far as I can see it is the Australorp hens only.

I haven’t been really taking a good look around the coop in the morning, and darkness hits just as I get home from work. I’ll have to check every day now. Fresh Eggs can’t be beat, plus I’ve been feeding them for 6 months, it’s their turn.

The hen has been laying an egg a day for about 7 days. Hen’s lay an egg a day. When there are “enough” eggs in the brood, she’ll incubate them, but not until then. I take an egg a day, the hen keeps laying an egg a day, we’re all happy.

I am excited to taste the difference in these eggs from other we have been given and buy if necessary. If you feed your chickens more flax seed and other high omega grains, will your eggs be richer in Omega’s? If you give them certain foods, will the egg’s taste different? Over the next few years as we have eggs, we’ll experiment with this. It’ll be fun!

It’s super great to find your first eggs. It’s exciting really! Check out how Chickens Lay an Egg: http://www.afn.org/~poultry/egghen.htm