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How nice to join and immediately be directed to a fellow Canuck cluck. I'm just north of Edmonton in Sturgeon County, just a little backyard operation... For now. I'm on my own with nothing to hold me back so I have to be careful. After all chickens ARE the Gateway livestock...
Welcome fello rednecker! LMBO
I would have to disagree that "chooks" are the Gateway livestock. More so for us...STOCK dawgs were our issue. Got dog, need stock...it fell apart fast from thar, eh!
Had chickens AND dogs all my life...hope to always be that way. Living under bridge with chicken tucked under my arm...dogs sitting watching my back...yeh...
So best advice is to build yer coop to human building codes. One of the reasons why my Hero never really had any hiccups over "how to build a coop" for the birds we were going to get is he approached it as to the matter, if we would be comfy in the quarters, so too mighten the chickens. Best way.
First coop...he designed to mimic a grain elevator (far, far too many getting destroyed and like nobody notices...them and town water towers...LOVE...did I say LOVE...not strong enough...ADORE our heritage markers and so distraught to see so many toppled for no other reason past the past got tossed on by for newer...yeh...whatever--that'd be a rant unto its own).
So he started in 2001...I remember because we took Makins, HyBlade, Stoggar and Makins' litter of three lovebug children to U of Saskatoon for BAER tests (hearing for dogs). We left with the "de coop fur sure" in the works. Rick names the buildings...got five acres and 30+ outbuildings to get lost to...so named it after his version of French Canadian lingo of an Albertan. Soup of the day...de coop fur sure.
Let's see how bad the service provider tests my patience and see if'n I can load up the first chook house and run we built here.
Do as you wish but we raise birds in a self-sufficiency aspect...I want birds to raise birds, be more natural than the commercial factory farm setups...do as you wish, these are my opinions with over 90 years of combined poultry and livestock, dogs and such under our husband/wife team's belts...
Keep in mind...we have ZERO tolerance for infringing on happiness factors (happy critters, happy us--joy hinges upon giddiness of all beings here) and ZERO tolerance to predation by the huge hordes of predators drooling just a stone's throw over our three fence deep perimeter barrier! Wild things and domesticated dogs and cats threaten the tranquility and lives of what we keep...so we have not had any predation (zero) since Earth Day 2007...when I unwittenly left a retired bantam Dark Brahma hen have her way...she decided to stay outside one night, I got lax in doing my head counts in the evening to make sure everyone was inside where they should be and one of the zillion most welcomed owls ATE her for her decision. Me bad I shoulda done the head count and realized the potential pile of feathers and a beak were immanent. MY BAD...
You may first go to the link "My Coop" there under my CanuckBock avatar in the left hand margin. Second building I speak about...photos of winter and summer views...cleaning day shows the puckboard, tenplast interior...cleaned and then topped with oat straw.
Here is de coop fur sure as of August 21, 2016...
Here is the hardware cloth wiring, topped over with pretty (to us) plastic white lattice...
January 2012 - yeh, that be ice and snow...ten months of the White it seems, eh!
You do not, I repeat NOT want to encourage skunks, coons (down in Calgary I hear...), vermin of any sorts like weasels...living UNDER your coops and outbuildings. You build it right ONCE and you have no regrets because you never do realize what deterrents YOU put up in the first place. Newbie and drop the ball poultry and livestock owners pop in far too often whining about predation (wild and roaming domestic "pets")...they think the answer is to kill predator when in fact, those predators will be replaced three fold when you kill one. Triple your problem because suddenly there is an opening in the food chain for the predators pushed out by territorial savages that protect their turf. We live in harmony with the wilds and roaming domestics...WE stepped up and kept them outta our space for the safety and enjoyment of our dependents who rely on US to do it right the first time. If this sounds like preaching...it is. Nothing frustrates us more than to hear that precious property is being feasted upon by predators. Fault lies 100% on the humans for any predation...simple to us...made complicated by humans shurking THEIR duty of care to what they often say they "love."
So nuff said. Build as big as you can muster (I usually tell persons the minimum you require is four pens...can be one house, or some spread out but FOUR is best). You want a pen for the egg layers and their roo(s), you need a sick quarantine area, you need a brooding and growing out area (this can be beside or in the main coop...so the growing up youngsters can be accepted and accepted to the main flock) and you need at least ONE EMPTY containment area open at all times. Yes, you can do the emergency pop a few birds IN that pen but if you just did that...why and will it meld into a permanent situation?
I have entire EMPTY buildings here...and like to keep it that for my birds and ruminants...being full up at the Inn is not a good situation to be permanently in.
Now if'n you get right into the chooks and wanna start up breeding yer own past the egg layers and tasty meat providers...that is where the second coop came in...the lil' Duece Coop (yes, duece is not spelt as it should be but we paid our DUES and that be why I spell and painted the sign that way, eh). Five runs, outside all year round covered and hardware clothed, raised off the ground runs. The precious breeder birds reside here until they retire and then are let loose in de coop fur sure to run wild on the grassy lawns and live a real chicken existence until they pass on due to old age, in the shade, on a lovely summer's eve...jest how I wanna go...when it is MY time to go else where to the next HEAVEN...
So you want some extra pens, you want to use hardware cloth at minimum (chicken wire fails...can't even keep chooks in), you want to build to human building codes for whatever area you reside in (if you would be comfy with a nice jacket on or off pending the season, so too will your poultry), you want ventilation (like us, birds are sacks of water that must expire and bring in moisture...we ooze wetness and need some way to exchange the bad wet for the good), you most definately want a covered roof for outside time (no birds up to ankles in putrid mud...thanks--my father build me a chook coop as a pestery kid on the WEsT Coast and I swore as an adult...NEVER again would I submit myself or my precious creatures to tortures like that...just would not have birds or livestock if I did not have protective cover for outside time...never, ever...why bother). And yeh, I get that all this costs major resources...but if you want to enjoy this hobby for years to come in the most simple and fantastic fashion...you save, you work, you do it right the first time and never EVER know the misery you avoided by stepping up and caring properly for the creatures YOU have chosen to acquire and CARE for.
Forget the thought of buying organic feed, far too often you see things like canola oil use to lube the augers used to move the grains around....you can be daft like me and attempt to grow your own grains if'n you want but the real benefit is safe outside time on grasses chasing bugs if you can manage it. I use a base commercial unmedicated all vegetable poultry ration...one for waterfowl, one for turkeys/pheasants, and one for chickens. Starters are for waterfowl, turkeys and chickens...and yes, medicated against coci... We add in whole hard red wheat, whole heavy oats, yellow corn cracked (for the winter time and no steam rolled as it molds up too easily). Add in No. 1 Granite grit (year round, in winter, hard for birds to find grit) and oyster shell. Keep yer water clean and fresh, we use heated buckets for all but the geese/swans who would play make mud pies and drain the buckets every time! Rubber pails, make the investment to be able to smash out the frozen water unless you heat the water inside the building and then you might manage to keep the chicken water fluid...change the winter water as often as summer time...water above zero forms nasties in it...winter or summer fresh water becomes quickly polluted. FRESH WATER is half of (and sometimes more) what goes in as an INPUT in yer birds. Not jest feed, eh.
If'n you decide to keep bantam ducks...here's my article on that.
https://poultrykeeper.com/blog/winter-care-of-your-bantam-ducks/
A quick word on biosecurity...do it right from the start...don't trade birds, buy at auctions/shows (once the birds breathe air from where other birds are...whatever other birds might have...they ALL will--my vet's advice on showing poultry..."Do you want what everyone else has?"), equipment, have people visit and muck about within areas where your birds are. You personally can carry in ILT on your EYEballs...yup, carry ILT for 24 hours on your eye and infect your birds...think of this...birds contract it, at two days in the disease progression...they spit blood up on the walls, die or become carriers FOR LIFE). For that one lapse in care for one day...there are 363 (give or take a day) days of glorious enjoyment...so I don't go to shows, auctions, visit with other bird persons or buy birds for less than similar facilities like ourselves. Just won't do it as we have far to much happiness to lose over one hiccup. We breed for disease resistance, never administered ANY antibiotics EVER to any of my poultry (dogs and ruminants, different story...go by my vet's advice...get yourself a good vet too...hunt hard and hold on to one once you find a good one). We breed cold tolerant, disease resistant, STRONG animals here...no coddling and definately NO making more from ones I would not want fifty more of the same and worse of. What you tolerate is what you will have surrounding you in future.
Infectious Laryngotracheitis (ILT) in Poultry (Alberta AG publication...I worked for them back in 1998...)
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex2216
Stuff like Mareks which we breed for resistance on...can blow in on dander carried by the winds...from ten miles away. Yeh, once you got it, yer birds shed it on their feathers and you got it...so we breed for strong genetics resistance to the disorder. We lose maybe 3 percent and I don't hinge my heart strings on chicks until they are sexually mature, crowing or laying eggs. Takes the very young or the old or the compromised...if you keep livestock, yer gonna have deadstocks. Suck it up Buttercup and enjoy them whilst they are here...we have 15 year old ducks...20 year old geese...ten year old chickens...some do quite fine, others, just don't have the right stuff.
Do not approach this hobby of livestock or poultry like you will save any money...think of it like having pets with benefits when it comes to meat and eggs for consumption. If saving money is the want, buy swill eggs and mush meat from your local grocery...cheap and easy. Raising your own food and having pet poultry and livestock for company COSTS WAY WAY more. For the bother, your quality of life and theirs rises up accordingly. The more effort you put in, the bigger bonus you, the animals and the world reaps. There is no easy way to make quality and premium products. Roll up them sleeves, get saving that money and get on it woman...and enjoy, breathe deeply in the rewards and remember between scrubbing pails and refilling pans...to pause and suck in the view. There is no better remedy to true human happiness than chicken $h!t on your boots, straw in your hair, and dreams of what the latest crop of chicky poos will grow into.
aug 21, 2016
Trench completed...inspected and encouragement lavished by dogs...
Power is upgraded...so now to cover over trench and on to the next jobs...
Aug 25, jest in time for the skies to open up...as usual.
Aug 26 - wired up yesterday, 29th
Glad to see that I don't have to widgen my way under the house to poke the wire thru...glad this ditch is done, but more digging to do but for now, done at the moment.
Be doing sand and return this one cart of clay back in the trench
I have things to do...away I go.
Doggone & Chicken UP!
Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
