Our most recent investment in the chickens has been a new coop! A few weeks back a couple of our hens disappeared and we immediately launched a bit of an investigation into it, suspecting coyotes or maybe even a dog, but while out checking on some Christmas lights I heard the very distinct sound of an owl hooting in the big pine tree at the west end of the house. That settled the idea of what to do with some scraps of wood Jordan has been getting from some of the neighbors here while working for them. So Jordan and I set ourselves right to work against a frame that we had started for a larger coop that we don’t yet have supplies enough to finish. What we ended up with is a lean-to against that frame which is intended to eventually serve as the yard to a much larger chicken coop.
The only part I did not use scrap for was the door, since I really don’t want to be replacing the door very soon.
Inside I have our newest feeder that I bought through Amazon.com which is designed to hold some 30 pounds of feed for the hens! This feeder really helps with the other sky bound predators that taunt our chickens, which are the local doves!
As you can see in this picture, the new feeder is pretty large. It is also inside the netting of the coop, which prevents the doves from getting to it, making our feed supplies last a great deal longer than they were when the feed was outside! Given a 50 pound bag of feed costs $20 at out local feed supply store, this is proving a tremendous saving for us! The feed had one problem that I was worried about though, which is to do with the metering adjustment pictured below.
The wire bit just pushed through the hole at the desired level, and nothing was there to stop it popping back out. Given the kids we have bringing large feed bags out to feed the chickens, I was not about to leave that design as is, and have the bottom literally fall out on 30#’s of food and let it fall to the floor. So I put it in, and got a pair of pliers and put some welly behind it until the hook was bent enough that it was difficult to push through the hole, making it impossible to accidentally get knocked loose. With some effort I can still adjust the metering, however I just don’t see the need to!
The old watering fount has been put into the shed as well, and elevated out of the hay so the water doesn’t get easily contaminated with so much hay that it is impossible for the birds to get to it!
The coop is built in an area in the yard between the old horse washing station, and the old swimming pool that the goats now inhabit. This provides the coop with easy access to water for the fount, and electricity for the lighting.
The lamp hanging from the ceiling provides enough light to keep the chickens active for the advised 17 hours a day right through winter, although we have to work it manually until there is enough money to get a timer with a photosensitive eye built into it.
When it comes to the latches on the door, I think two on the outside will prevent any unwanted intrusions by a fortunate animal who accidentally happens to get one undone. Only one latch is inside since one of us will be in the coop any time that latch is being used. They are cheap, easy to maintain, and look the part on such a homemade coop.
The diagonal piece is to hold the hanging side of the door level with the hinged side, especially as the door ages. Yes, there should be two of them on this door, however I have been building on a tight budget, and as of yet I do not have more than handsaws (no power saws at all!) to do my cutting with. Hand saws are just not as accurate in my hand as a good miter saw could be, so I will save the construction on that second diagonal until I have the ability to really cut it accurately! The door won’t hold a bull in, but then, it doesn’t have to. If you think about it, it won’t even have to hold the wind in as it is covered in chicken wire so we can see who we are going to run into when we open it. I have again opted for the step in door as it makes it that much more difficult for the chickens to escape while the door is open for one of us to pass through.
The Old Coop
The older coop is now serving as a home for a couple of Pheasants, and our flock of Rhode Island Reds. We are hoping to get some breeding done in there before the hens get put back in with the other hens. So far, all of the chicks we have hatched have been Production Reds that were brooded on by one of our white Ameraucana hens.
We did try to put some Production Reds into the new coop with the main flock the other day, and I do not recommend doing this! I think that in order to successfully accomplish integration, we need to put a cage for them close to the netting on the chicken coop so the birds can all see each other for a couple of days or even weeks first, and then integrate them at night so maybe the birds won’t notice the absence of the netting dividing them. Putting them straight in resulted in one of the Production Reds being pecked so badly that her left leg no longer works! She is now being cleaned and nursed to see what happens with the leg, but quite frankly, I think her head is going to have to come off as we had a Turkey with a leg injury not too long ago, and that bird just up and died one night. It is not like they have three more legs to compensate for the gimp leg. Once one leg is badly injured, they are pretty well doomed, and the other chickens will peck them to death. If you are seriously considering a flock of chickens, beware that you will come to the point when you will have to differentiate between pets and food, and the chickens are food. If you can manage a way of keeping such a injured bird, then well done on you for keeping your conscious clear. I would like to keep mine pretty clear too, but I have got a pragmatic situation to consider, which is the flock over the individual birds.
Our goal is to keep a large enough flock to provide eggs for ourselves, for us to sell, and to eventually provide meat for our family. In the long run we want to be able to say we truly eat almost everything off our own land. We want to have our own chickens, beef, milk, and vegetables and some fruit from off our own land. We aim to achieve self sufficiency as soon as the end of 2013. I think that will be possible so long as we can get 2012 past us with all goals accomplished! Fingers crossed and I will keep you up to date as these goals are achieved! The biggest step is getting grass under hoof to provide for most of the animals!
“The Prospering Peasant”
Mr. Kelsey J Bacon
A New Year–2012!
This marks the first post for the New Year for The Prospering Peasant! 2011 fell apart a little for us in that it has been the year spent in the desert, and our first year in the country! We have been settling in, and getting some of our personal affairs in order such as setting up house and finding our feet once again as people. When I moved to the UK almost a decade ago, I felt like I had been demoted from an adult to a child because I had to learn everything all over again. Returning to America after so long away has been like doing it again, though not quite as severe. But things have moved on here from the way they were when I left, and the progress is apparent! Returning with a family who have been demoted from their stations in life has been taming time to get used to as well. But they have been moving along nicely, so in the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, I wanted to recommit us to this site, and to doing the work needed to establish it!
The chickens have been doing nicely here, and are now producing more eggs than we could possibly need. Recently we had a couple of the birds vanish, and we have spotted an owl in a tree on the west side of the house, so we built a new coop to keep the hens in in order to keep them safe. This also means we know just where the eggs are being laid, which makes collection time easier and more profitable. The birds are not free ranging anymore, but they are also not sharing their food with the doves anymore either, making the cost of feed more reasonable as well! You’d think the feed would be more costly since the birds rely on it alone now, rather than foraging, however, I just don’t think there is that much to sustain them here in the desert. If, and when we move house, which we would like very much to do, then hopefully they will forage for more, and we can keep a proper hen house for them which will not be inviting to the local small birds.
The horses are fine, and providing the needed escape and entertainment for our oldest son! We were so sad at the beginning of November to have to let our male go, as he had to be put down because of his cancer. He was a horse that my grandparents had owned for a little more than the time I had been in England, and if he was not, then he was at least similar to a Gypsy Vanner. He was a beautiful horse!
I have long considered if I wanted to really reveal too much personal information on this site, or just go by the nom de plume, “The Prospering Peasant.” I’d like to come out of hiding as a part of the New Year! My name is Kelsey Bacon, probably one of the last men in the world to wear the name Kelsey. My wife is Katrina, and our sons are Jordan and Dylan, also likely the last man children to wear their names! Our three year old is Kirynie. We are mixed as a family, me being American, my wife and step-sons are British, and Kiry is dual.
Our intent is to make this a site about living with modern technologies and learning the older crafts and skills, the lost techniques that have helped our species survive for thousands of years, and become what we are today. For Jordan, that involves his horsemanship, for Katrina there is the art of sewing and crochet as well as about a billion other things that she involves herself with! Dylan is an avid reader, and I love the Chickens, the goats, and the horses, and want to build this group on their skills and knowledge, and what we learn from others into a business, hobby, and even a useful reference for anyone else looking to self sustain. I am not Apocalyptic in my thinking. But at the same time, I do believe that there are just causes for learning to care for ourselves in a society that is in constant peril of rising costs, or wars, or oil volatility, or whatever may prevent a person from being able to get the goods needed to keep their family healthy and safe. I am an advocate for taking life slow and simple, and stopping not only to smell the roses, but to grow them as well. From this standpoint we start out a new year.
One of our goals this year is to get away from the desert to a place where grass grows under hoof for the horses, so we can get a cow for milk or beef or both, and where we have a viable garden in rich soil. From there we plan to build our lives, and make the earth work for us. The goal is southern Idaho.
Join us along the way!