See my Serama Coop here
It's been a while since I posted. I relocated from NH to TN and of course, so did the chickens. I won't bore you with the tale of our 4 day journey south with a camper full of chickens. Or with the 3 hour wait for a tow truck on a rainy Sunday morning on a highway outside Bowling Green, Kentucky, with a blown transmission and a camper full of chickens, two dogs and a cat.
I decided that as I was starting from scratch I would build my dream coops with a herb garden in the middle. It's a work in progress and will take me a couple of years to get it done. Here's some pics of the work in progress.
I've positioned my Serama coop, the greenhouse and the regular chickens coop in formation so that I can enclose the whole section of yard with pallets and put a gate on. I used concrete blocks to make the beds and planters because the soil is terrible and it was cheaper to make beds and add good soil, than to condition the whole area.
Stan over at @Chickenpartner on FB made the coops for me. You order what you want, he builds them and he will come and construct them for an extra $100. He does custom work and well worth a shout. Long wait though, because he's very in demand for his low prices and great work.
I previously made the mistake of building coops for the chickens needs and discovered that in my 60s, the coops need to be built for MY needs or it's impossible for me to take good care of them. Cleaning etc needs room, and with arthritic hands it needs to be as easy as possible. I'm 5'2" so it's a low coop, but he will make 6 foot ones for you non-hobbit sized folk.
It's super hot and windy here so I have planted lots of Aussie Hybrid Willows as they can take a lot of wind without falling over, hopefully they will grow into a windbreak and shade area. Grape vines are planted around the coops now, also for shade purposes. I got all the plants at minimal cost because I rooted willow cuttings and also haunted Lowes for their one dollar sale plants. I got a ton of perennials for a dollar each, and then grew a bunch of herbs from seed. The idea is that I'll use the herbs to line the nesting boxes and to make feed supplements for the chooks. It's a theory of mine that you should feed the birds as much locally grown plant life as possible.
Anyway. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed my little bit of paradise. More later.
It's been a while since I posted. I relocated from NH to TN and of course, so did the chickens. I won't bore you with the tale of our 4 day journey south with a camper full of chickens. Or with the 3 hour wait for a tow truck on a rainy Sunday morning on a highway outside Bowling Green, Kentucky, with a blown transmission and a camper full of chickens, two dogs and a cat.
I decided that as I was starting from scratch I would build my dream coops with a herb garden in the middle. It's a work in progress and will take me a couple of years to get it done. Here's some pics of the work in progress.
I've positioned my Serama coop, the greenhouse and the regular chickens coop in formation so that I can enclose the whole section of yard with pallets and put a gate on. I used concrete blocks to make the beds and planters because the soil is terrible and it was cheaper to make beds and add good soil, than to condition the whole area.
Stan over at @Chickenpartner on FB made the coops for me. You order what you want, he builds them and he will come and construct them for an extra $100. He does custom work and well worth a shout. Long wait though, because he's very in demand for his low prices and great work.
I previously made the mistake of building coops for the chickens needs and discovered that in my 60s, the coops need to be built for MY needs or it's impossible for me to take good care of them. Cleaning etc needs room, and with arthritic hands it needs to be as easy as possible. I'm 5'2" so it's a low coop, but he will make 6 foot ones for you non-hobbit sized folk.
It's super hot and windy here so I have planted lots of Aussie Hybrid Willows as they can take a lot of wind without falling over, hopefully they will grow into a windbreak and shade area. Grape vines are planted around the coops now, also for shade purposes. I got all the plants at minimal cost because I rooted willow cuttings and also haunted Lowes for their one dollar sale plants. I got a ton of perennials for a dollar each, and then grew a bunch of herbs from seed. The idea is that I'll use the herbs to line the nesting boxes and to make feed supplements for the chooks. It's a theory of mine that you should feed the birds as much locally grown plant life as possible.
Anyway. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed my little bit of paradise. More later.
- Next page: The Journey from NH to TN.
