Coop-de-coop
Chirping
Hello All-a newbie to the forum but not completely new to chickens. I grew up across the road from an egg farm, and my very first job entailed shoveling you-know-what. But hey, it was more than my allowance.
Fast forward several decades to where my spouse and I started raising Freedom Rangers for ourselves, then our friends wanted some, then their friends and so on until it became a business. We raise about 350-400 free range meat birds April-October. During our Montana winters, it’s neither pleasant nor cost effective to raise roasters. With help from friends we process them in a 26’ processing trailer we bought from our bank which was in the process of repossessing it. “A hobby that went awry” is how my spouse describes it.
Currently we have 150 six week old Cornish X, 2 four month old Freedom Ranger hens that got reprieved (runts), 150 more FRs arriving this week, and a mix of layers coming soon: white and barred rocks, brahmas, dominiques, wyandottes, and orpies. After years of before and after school chicken chores, I never imagined I’d ever be a chicken man!
Summertime, we can usually carve out some time away from the business to get our dogs—a Dalmatian & very sweet shelter rescue mix—on the trail, be it hike, bike, or water—hopefully before they dig up the yard from boredom.
I came across BYC looking for coop ideas and plans and found all sorts of good ideas and helpful members.
Fast forward several decades to where my spouse and I started raising Freedom Rangers for ourselves, then our friends wanted some, then their friends and so on until it became a business. We raise about 350-400 free range meat birds April-October. During our Montana winters, it’s neither pleasant nor cost effective to raise roasters. With help from friends we process them in a 26’ processing trailer we bought from our bank which was in the process of repossessing it. “A hobby that went awry” is how my spouse describes it.
Currently we have 150 six week old Cornish X, 2 four month old Freedom Ranger hens that got reprieved (runts), 150 more FRs arriving this week, and a mix of layers coming soon: white and barred rocks, brahmas, dominiques, wyandottes, and orpies. After years of before and after school chicken chores, I never imagined I’d ever be a chicken man!
Summertime, we can usually carve out some time away from the business to get our dogs—a Dalmatian & very sweet shelter rescue mix—on the trail, be it hike, bike, or water—hopefully before they dig up the yard from boredom.
I came across BYC looking for coop ideas and plans and found all sorts of good ideas and helpful members.
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