Hi:
On Wednesday and Thursday I built an outside covered run next to an old stone building on our farm. It had been the coop for 200 years and I figured it was best to keep using it.
It was certainly more challenging that building on flat ground, and we have lots of foxes around, so I did my best to keep them out. I ran stretched barbed wire at the base of the chicken wire and then set the big stones on top of the folded chicken wire.
Here is Wednesday's start. These are chestnut pickets I split from a limb that was taken off the tree above the coop.
Then by Thursday afternoon I was ready for my wife to bring home the gifted birds from a farm where she works with sheep and makes cheese.
And this ws from this morning when they woke up in their new home
But the coolest thing was when I was cleaning the coop and was tossing out the odd rock that had come from the wall, I pitched out a whitish round rock. Then I thought... wait... there aren't any round rocks around here, and no white ones either. When I found it, I put two and two together. I guess it was a very old version of the fake plastic eggs I see for sale in the feed stores. They would have had to find the rock in a nearby riverbed, or further away, and it still had some remnants of the chalk paint that has been used here for centuries. Cool find.
I originally thought they were going to give me three hens and one rooster, but it is a start anyway. The farmers around us make VERY good use of their chickens, (as do the foxes), so there aren't any "extra" hens floating around. I'll buy a few more and get things started.
Thanks for looking.
Pete
On Wednesday and Thursday I built an outside covered run next to an old stone building on our farm. It had been the coop for 200 years and I figured it was best to keep using it.
It was certainly more challenging that building on flat ground, and we have lots of foxes around, so I did my best to keep them out. I ran stretched barbed wire at the base of the chicken wire and then set the big stones on top of the folded chicken wire.
Here is Wednesday's start. These are chestnut pickets I split from a limb that was taken off the tree above the coop.
Then by Thursday afternoon I was ready for my wife to bring home the gifted birds from a farm where she works with sheep and makes cheese.
And this ws from this morning when they woke up in their new home
But the coolest thing was when I was cleaning the coop and was tossing out the odd rock that had come from the wall, I pitched out a whitish round rock. Then I thought... wait... there aren't any round rocks around here, and no white ones either. When I found it, I put two and two together. I guess it was a very old version of the fake plastic eggs I see for sale in the feed stores. They would have had to find the rock in a nearby riverbed, or further away, and it still had some remnants of the chalk paint that has been used here for centuries. Cool find.
I originally thought they were going to give me three hens and one rooster, but it is a start anyway. The farmers around us make VERY good use of their chickens, (as do the foxes), so there aren't any "extra" hens floating around. I'll buy a few more and get things started.
Thanks for looking.
Pete
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