Coop Project: Maken the Plunge & Getting Chickens

[Rock Home Isle]

Today I added a few things to my normal list of chores and cleaned out the run and added new wood shavings. This step in my poultry maintenance goes a long ways towards keeping down odors and providing a nice dry environment for the birds.

Sometimes beetle larva and grubbies will establish little colonies in the shavings as the mixture of shavings & droppings composts and decomposes in the run. The birds know this and they constantly turn the shavings as they scratch and look for live food items.

 

[katbriar]

I found your thread yesterday and have finally made it through. Since you started it last year I just knew I was going to be disappointed to see the end of it!

Imagine my surprise when I read the last post this morning and saw how recent it was.

I just started my first flock about a month ago in northern New Mexico and keep trying to find other flock owners with similar climates. There seem to be more in Colorado than my state. This high desert climate may be a challenge with its low rainfall and wide range of temperatures.

I enjoyed your stories and the thoughtfulness with which you told them. I hope to hear more as you get your new birds and new eggs!

 

[aart]

What's the frame and mesh thingy on the right hand side of the last pic?

 

[katbriar]

aart- see post #165. It's a drop pan to catch the splash mess the ducks make at the waterer.

The waterer sits on top of the wire and the water falls into a pan below and inside the box frame.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Upon My Soapbox:

I was sitting with a friend after graduation today and we got to talking about different topics; our interests that we share; family that we wish to visit in the coming weeks and of course what we will be doing this summer. He will be traveling and enjoying his leasure time this summer and I will be working with some wonderful students and conducting research at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC).

As we talked, my collegue indicated to me that he had heard that I was starting a small backyard poultry flock, so he explored the subject with me. He was under the impression that raising my own birds for eggs for my family was more economical than going to the store and buying commercial eggs. He was curious to know the facts and the details of my project. (I must talk to much...I'll try to fix that charactor flaw) I think I might have injured a plan of his when I responded and explained that it couldn't be further from the truth...Raising poultry on a small scale for your own consumption is not a finacially motivated descision. My project is a statement of philosophy and personal beliefs. These eggs that I hope someday to get from my pullets will not be cheap commercially mass produced eggs. The eggs won't possess a sickly yellow colored yolk with a bland pasty flavor that we all have become acustomed too. They are not the product of some venture capitalists that own controlling shares of stock in an Industrial Ag-Corporation that manages a cage based egg production business. With my project, I am making a statement against our modern manufacture of the food chain that we consume as a population and have come to think of as normal. I never thought that I would ever say or write those words...but after several years of research, reading, fact finding, and education, it is what I have come to believe.

A couple of years ago I had a discussion with a group of my upper level students about modern genetics and commercial food production...Franken Food is the anti-term that has been used to describe these types of advancements in biotechnology that has integrated into our food chain. Personally I think that our technological advancements are simply amazing and our lives are going to be forever changed once there are just a few more breakthroughs in Nano-Technology. During the course of our discussion, I asked the class an open ended question, "Where does our food come from?" I was expecting reasoned and thoughtful responces about our modern agricultural system and manufacturing infrastructure...But what I recieved as a reply, "The Store..." Frustration can be almost a physical force and not just an emotion.

I teach my students, but they also teach me. I like that arrangement very much. I have come to believe that there is a disconnect in our society. There are segments in our society that no longer understand that there is a point where a living animal becomes a carcass and then becomes food that we comsume. There is nothing bad about the cycle of life, but we are now raising several generations that do not understand this process. The eggs that my pullets will produce for me; for my family; will be the product of a healthy happy flock of poultry. My family, my children and at the moment several children in the neighborhood, will have a little closer connection to the process of food production and simple agriculture. These animals in my backyard are not machines that produce a consumable product and then discarded once they've reached their production limits. They are enjoyable living entities and it is fun to interact with them and observe them as they grow and live out a healthy life; while at the same time they produce eggs for my family; they controll bugs and pests on my property; and help to maintain and incorporate organic materials into my garden.

Free Ranging our small flocks is a healthy way to take care of and maintain our little charges. If your flock is foraging and thriving off the living land then we have succeeded. When Commmercial Feed has been demoted from the position of a primary food source for our flock to just a suppliment to the flock's varied and nutritious diet...that is the goal of free ranging poultry. The eggs that our free ranged flock produces are proven to be more nutritious and healthy than their commercial counter parts... and our animals are happier & healthier than the commercial layers. But more importantly we have made a powerful and growing statement about what is important to us about our food sources for our families.

Don't think less of me if you happen to disagree with my views. I'll now put my soapbox away for the moment....

GOTTA agree with ya on this! Been sitting here reading your thread and enjoying it to the hilt! I have laughed and grinned and just love your coop! I am new to chickens myself. Never raised them before now. I have Rhode Island Reds, 15 of those and 23 Black Australorps and Sex links. They're straight runs so some of those will not be kept (UNLESS I can't give em up) ;-) Get attached to my critters I raise. Mine are almost a couple months old now. The RIR's are 2 weeks older than the Australorps and sex links. Anyway enjoying this thread and just had to comment on this one!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Here is a close up of the Welsummer Pullet. She's stalking a moth in the grass in this photo

 

[Rock Home Isle]

She found a moth in the grass and is going after it. These photos are a bit blurry for some reason, I'll need to go back and check my camera settings to see what is wrong....

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Here is one of the Americana Pullets...

The new birds spend most of their time hiding under the coop in the run. They have only recently ventured out of the run and allowed me to capture a few images of them. These new girls are very skiddish and do not yet trust me. That is a big difference from the girls that I raised myself from chicks. My Buff Orpingtons are birds that I raised from day old chicks, I made a pint of handling each of them several times each day and I hand fed them as chicks. When my Buffs see me, they see a food source and come running. The new girls see a possible threat and try to seek cover and safety.

I have my work cut out for me with these new birds. I want the same enjoyment from them that I get from my other birds. I have been able to head off problems by being able to pickup and handle my birds regularly...injuries are easily discovered and by checking the birds crop when I hold it I can verify that they are eating and that there are no signs of impaction.

Its important to me to be able to call the birds and handle the birds each day. Its going to take time with these new girls.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I found your thread yesterday and have finally made it through. Since you started it last year I just knew I was going to be disappointed to see the end of it!

Imagine my surprise when I read the last post this morning and saw how recent it was.

I just started my first flock about a month ago in northern New Mexico and keep trying to find other flock owners with similar climates. There seem to be more in Colorado than my state. This high desert climate may be a challenge with its low rainfall and wide range of temperatures.

I enjoyed your stories and the thoughtfulness with which you told them. I hope to hear more as you get your new birds and new eggs!

Thank you for your post. I'm glad that you've enjoyed following me on my journey (Chicken Trip) with these fine animals. My family has enjoyed the birds and I really have enjoyed having them around the yard.

Tell us about your chickens and post a link to the thread, so that I may read about them as well.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

What's the frame and mesh thingy on the right hand side of the last pic?

The image shows the corner of the frame for my Drop Pan.



The drop pan was built because I had some ducks last year and they would dabble in the water and flood the coop or the run...where ever there was water they were sure to be playing in it. Since the ducks are gone, I moved the drop pan into the run and built a stone block riser to get it up off the ground. Chickens don't play in the water like ducks, so there is no catch basin under the present setup.



Here is a view looking down into the Drop Pan. There seems to be a small hazel nut tree growing under the pan this summer...I should transplant the little guy to a better location.