- Jun 26, 2013
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Timmi here. My partner and I have begun raising backyard chickens as part of our small town permaculture project. We ordered 25 straight run heavy brown egg laying chicks from McMurray Hatchery and started them out in a kids' wading pool turned brooder in our living room. Needless to say, as they grow very quickly, we had plenty of motivation to get outside and build them a proper coop within an old garage on the property. We named the coop Ft. Sedgewick, having just watched the movie Dances With Wolves right before its completion. The coop is heavily fortified to foil local foxes and other predators. We have such fun tending our birdies, taming them and watching them grow up to be big, healthy chickens. My partner had raised chickens before, but this is a first for me - SO MUCH FUN! We hope to keep the best behaved rooster (if the neighbors don't complain) and all the hens for fertile eggs, and butcher the rest of the cockerels when they are full size. Currently they have the run of a large fenced area adjoining the coop, but as soon as we get more fencing up, we will begin letting them free range throughout our property, limiting their access as needed to plants and crops they might damage.
