A Needy Future Chicken Farmer's Impossible Journey of Raising Chickens. Ideas appreciated.

[Krugerrand]

...". I grow a garden, what else can I do? Hobbies that generate income? Time to move this thread to the, " How to have something when you got nothing" thread. lol

I've never tried raising goats or pigs ... perhaps something there. You can at least milk goats.

 

[FunClucks]

Since building a coop seems like it's not possible at this moment, have you considered a house chicken or two? It's a bit more work, but an egg a day can really add up. I know a number of folks keep chickens inside at night and take them out during the day for walks and stuff. We have a chicken leash and harness we use that some of the chickens don't super hate, and it's good for having the chickens outside the covered run foraging in the yard while making sure the bird can't run off and the human is right there watching over it.

An XXL wire dog crate would be good for having the food and water in, and a place to walk around a bit, while being inside or in the garage or something and protected from dogs. You can use brush, mulch, pine needles, leaves, old newspapers, etc. if you want to put litter on the dog crate tray to catch the poop. To use it outside, you can cover it with hardware cloth to prevent paws going through the gaps if needed. Put old feed bags or house wrap or cardboard on the inside and bottom to keep shavings inside and secure with zip ties. Put old feed bags or tarp over the top to protect somewhat from rain. If you remove the black bottom tray, some of the crates including this one have large gaps between the wire on the bottom (~4"x5"). You can set the crate without the bottom tray in the yard, and stake it to the ground and move it periodically to new areas to forage, kind of like a small chicken tractor, but fully protected from dogs. The chickens can forage in the grass and dirt through the bottom of the crate. Can put landscape bricks on top to keep it from being toppled over.

If you don't have a dog crate, you could probably keep them in the bathtub overnight, and just clean it daily. In that case, you'd need a chicken diaper, washable inserts, harness, leash, chicken feed, grit, and oystershell. You could probably get all of that for less than $250 you stated, including the dog crate. Not an optimal situation, but since you're short of resources, creative utilization of what you have can help. Good luck figuring things out!

 

[teddyjames]

I really like some of the ideas here but keep in mind that I'm only one man. I currently don't have enough "free" time to cut the firewood I need for the year. I'm already stretched as far as I can go and don't see anything "working" that involves more time or labor. I let firewood cutting go in favor of chickens but since thats a bust for now, I'm back to cutting firewood. I have no time for anything else, I stay busy all the time. Growing a larger garden or doing anything else that takes time or labor isn't going to happen.

Quail lay eggs.

He says the space to grow 1 bushel is:
Field corn, 10' x 50'
Sweet corn, 10' x 80'
Popcorn, 10' x 80' (regular ears; not necessarily strawberry type varieties)
Oats, 10' x 62'
Barley, 10' x 87'
Rye, 10' x 145'
Buckwheat, 10' x 130'
Grain sorghum, 10' x 60'
Wheat, 10' x 109'

He says these are just ballpark figures. Weather, variety, knowhow make a lot of difference. A really good wheat grower with a little luck can get a bushel from a plot half that size.

He also covers how much grain a family might use for cooking and sprouting in a year:
Wheat, 4 pecks (1 bushel)
Corn, 2 pecks
Popcorn, 2 pecks
Soybeans, 4 pecks
Grain sorghum, 2 pecks
Buckwheat, 1 peck
Oats, 1 peck
Triticale or rye or barley, 1 peck
Navy (or other soup bean), 2 pecks
Alfalfa (for sprouting), 1 or 2 quarts
Lentils, field peas, cane sorghum, ??

This can be expected to take 1/6 of an acre. For all of them. That is, all of the pecks a family could expect to eat (not the one bushel of each kind given before that).
Obviously, families vary in size and tastes. Mine is quite a lot different in the mix used, although probably not much different in total amount. A cup of grain makes about a cup of flour, if someone wanted to figure how much they use by how much whole grain, rolled or cracked grain, and flour they use.

A sixth of an acre for a family is less than 2000 sq ft per person.

I'm pretty old and pretty decrepit and turned that much over with a shovel, breaking the clods and shaking the roots out with my hands starting with sod. 20x50 the first year, that plus an additional 20x25 the second year, ...

You don't have to do it all at once. Do some now for the buckwheat, some over the next couple of months for the winter wheat and rye, some late in the fall to frost seed the plant the spring wheat and oats in, some next spring for the corn, sorghum, barley, and beans.

Besides, you can grow part of what you can eat the first year, more of it the second year. Or just part of it as an end goal - it can still be a help.

Tomatoes and peppers are a good start. You might consider zucchini, chard, and beans as a next step.

Mulch cuts down on the need to hoe.

Quail do lay eggs, how many do you need for a good sized omlet? 6? 8? They too small to be worth it in my opinion. (I don't have enough supplies for a quail cage either)

I'm pretty old and pretty decrepit and turned that much over with a shovel, breaking the clods and shaking the roots out with my hands starting with sod.

If you can do that then good for you, my body too worn out plus I have lots more to do than gardening, I have firewood to get which takes all my free time since i have no truck and no way to haul it. The last log I sawed up for firewood was 10feet long and about 8 inches diameter. I drug it out of the woods myself, 6 inches at a time, over 600 yards. Took me two days to do. Thats what I have to deal with.

 

[teddyjames]

Since building a coop seems like it's not possible at this moment, have you considered a house chicken or two? It's a bit more work, but an egg a day can really add up. I know a number of folks keep chickens inside at night and take them out during the day for walks and stuff. We have a chicken leash and harness we use that some of the chickens don't super hate, and it's good for having the chickens outside the covered run foraging in the yard while making sure the bird can't run off and the human is right there watching over it.

An XXL wire dog crate would be good for having the food and water in, and a place to walk around a bit, while being inside or in the garage or something and protected from dogs. You can use brush, mulch, pine needles, leaves, old newspapers, etc. if you want to put litter on the dog crate tray to catch the poop. To use it outside, you can cover it with hardware cloth to prevent paws going through the gaps if needed. Put old feed bags or house wrap or cardboard on the inside and bottom to keep shavings inside and secure with zip ties. Put old feed bags or tarp over the top to protect somewhat from rain. If you remove the black bottom tray, some of the crates including this one have large gaps between the wire on the bottom (~4"x5"). You can set the crate without the bottom tray in the yard, and stake it to the ground and move it periodically to new areas to forage, kind of like a small chicken tractor, but fully protected from dogs. The chickens can forage in the grass and dirt through the bottom of the crate. Can put landscape bricks on top to keep it from being toppled over.

View attachment 3587886

If you don't have a dog crate, you could probably keep them in the bathtub overnight, and just clean it daily. In that case, you'd need a chicken diaper, washable inserts, harness, leash, chicken feed, grit, and oystershell. You could probably get all of that for less than $250 you stated, including the dog crate. Not an optimal situation, but since you're short of resources, creative utilization of what you have can help. Good luck figuring things out!

No, I'm not keeping filthy chickens in my house. lol. I have a dog crate but not going to pin a chicken up where it can't get out and have free space. Its not all about food here, I want my birds to be happy with free space to roam and be safe but I'm not going to live with them or put a ... hahahahahahahha.... harness on one. Funny here.

 

[saysfaa]

...
... The last log I sawed up for firewood was 10 feet long and about 8 inches diameter. I drug it out of the woods myself, 6 inches at a time... two days.

Paring ladder - I don't like this video but can't find the one I liked from several years ago. Anyway, skip to about 2 min 20 seconds into it to see the ladder in action, sort of. The one I saw several years ago also pulled a log up a slope with only person power, poles, rope, and leverage - without the jerking at it that this video shows. The other people spread the legs of the ladder a lot wider. It looked more like rowing. The other video also showed a much simpler ladder design - basically, hitched two poles together with the tow rope (using a bowline, probably). That is faster to build than this video shows and can be easily adjusted for different conditions.

I assume the steeper angle of the ladder's legs is because it is in the woods but if it is in the woods then you can winch. Or winch the top of the paring ladder.

Two pole flip winch,

They can be a lot faster than dragging directly, freeing up time for other things. Either way, one or both make the job easier on the body even if you already use roller logs, skid plates, and such.

You may already know these things, from building your log cabin or whatever, but other people might be looking for ideas.

If you don't have time to turn over a garden plot, planting in the weeds works quite well. Better to clear a foot or so around the vegetable plant (or row) to let them get a start -by just piling cardboard or paper on the spot if not by digging it.

 

[SmiYa0126]

What about pallets, they're free you can probably fit a couple at a time in your car if you see them when you're driving around.

 

[SmiYa0126]

So just throwing this out there,is there a way to convert a part of your house to house chickens?

 

[FunClucks]

No, I'm not keeping filthy chickens in my house. lol. I have a dog crate but not going to pin a chicken up where it can't get out and have free space. Its not all about food here, I want my birds to be happy with free space to roam and be safe but I'm not going to live with them or put a ... hahahahahahahha.... harness on one. Funny here.

Chicken keeping in the house works for a number of people - they're usually pets in that case, but the breakfast benefits are real.

The crates I suggested are 4'x30" footprint. If you zip tie two of them together, that's 8'x30", which is a significant amount of space for one or two chickens. Then you move it around the yard like a tractor, with the caveats (add predator and weather protection) mentioned above. In a perfect world, the chickens would be able to roam free, but since you have all those dogs next door, I thought tractoring would be a reasonable solution. best of luck figuring things out! And yes, watching my son "walk" our chickens is hilarious.

 

[Sally PB]

The crates I suggested are 4'x30" footprint. If you zip tie two of them together, that's 8'x30", which is a significant amount of space for one or two chickens.

The chickens would help clear out ground for a garden. Get rid of weeds and roots, eat bugs, a fertilize it too. 8'x30" is 20 sf. It wouldn't take too long to clear a decent sized garden plot, and then they could work on another.

 

[FunClucks]

The chickens would help clear out ground for a garden. Get rid of weeds and roots, eat bugs, a fertilize it too. 8'x30" is 20 sf. It wouldn't take too long to clear a decent sized garden plot, and then they could work on another.

The crates have two doors on them. You can zip tie them together by either door set, I use the ones on the end, but you could do the ones in the middle. [I used this setup to grow out meat birds to ~3 wks, and wanted them to walk as much as possible from food to water when they were chicks, so 8 ft or so length was pretty good]

To connect the two crates, I physically remove the same door on each crate, mate the openings, then zip tie the wire crates together. You can make a ramp with wood or something if needed to get over the lip of the opening but my chickens haven't had an issue getting across it. The bottom openings on the crate are large, like 4"x5" or something, I haven't actually measured. Large enough that I flip the crate upside down if using it as a broody breaker so my chickens have enough mesh to walk on. I use the plastic tray as a lid on the top of the crate, or cover the large opening with hardware cloth (zip ties), if I'm not setting the crate directly on the ground so they can scratch about.

You can connect an apron to the outside of the crate if desired to prevent digging, hang feeders and waterers, stake it down, and put landscape rocks on top to keep it in place when jumped on by large dogs.