Chicken Coop Is Finished

This movable chicken coop is designed for 4-6 laying hens, functional  in a small footprint.

Raising your own backyard chickens for fresh eggs is one of the hottest trends around.  Bryan worked an hour or two at a time through the winter building this chicken coop to house 4-6 laying hens.  Shed lot prices for a coop like this start at $1,000; we saved $800 building it ourselves and used recycled materials where possible.  

It's portable using 9-inch lawnmower wheels and can be wheeled around the yard almost as easily as pushing a wheel barrow; we will move the "chicken tractor" every couple of days to protect the lawn.  It's compact, but not too confining, as the bottomless downstairs allows chickens to scratch the ground and forage for food.  It's a snap to maintain with access panels on three sides for gathering eggs and cleaning, and the multilevel design allows for flow-through ventilation keeping chickens healthy.  

When planned well, chickens can fertilize the vegetable garden, providing nutrients and organic matter that are used up by the cultivation process.  As we have time, future blog posts this year will feature the raising of our first flock of Rhode Island Reds; day-old chicks are expected in March!

The frame takes shape inside the barn.

Side walls with access panels and a clestory window.

Ramp on floor to the left, roost (in back), and nesting boxes are installed.

Main coop is nearly finished with a metal roof
to keep chickens snug and dry.

The coop will sit on this "tractor" with wheels. 

Finally finished and waiting for our chickens.

March 28, 2011

While our neighboring state to the north rolls its collective eyes at winter precipitation advisories, we have steely grey skies with highs in the 40's and 50's F.  Too cold for beans...  even peas will just sit and wait this out; but spinach takes it like the Energizer bunny and keeps on growing.  In two weeks we hope to be harvesting sweet green leaves loaded with vitamins.  While we're thinking about it, time to drag out the Black Hen composted chicken manure (people with sensitive noses be advised, this stuff is really smelly) and sprinkle a helping down the rows for an extra boost of very natural nitrogen.

Our velvety green carpet of red clover has grown knee-high during the last month, but I've been plotting how to kill it:  we're several weeks away from corn planting, and it's time for our green manure to work its magic, turning sterile subdivision soil into a humusy, fertile compound.  Mowing it may kill the lawnmower.  Weed whacker?  I'll be vibrating all night.  Neighbors might act jittery if I head out there with a scythe in hand...  Looks like a tiller wins out as the power tool of necessity, though it will take several passes to completely lay clover to rest.  Our rain gauge measured 2.1 inches collectively over the weekend, and soil is much too wet to till.  Will have to wait for a drier weekend.

Though it is too soggy for outdoor chores, bell pepper seedlings under fluorescent lights indoors have been drying out every day, a sign that they need to be transplanted.  Foam cups make inexpensive pots, not organic I know, but recyclable.  Anything may be used.  It's the vigorous root systems this extra growing space encourages that helps transplants take off after they are moved to the garden.  We've made reflectors out of cardboard sheets covered in aluminum foil to help keep light focused and strong for stocky plants.  In a couple months these tiny seedlings will become major architectural landscape elements in the yard.