Hello BYC members,
I am new to the group and I look forward to reading, learning and posting here.
My name is Linda and I live in Southeastern Michigan. I have been looking forward to getting chickens for a couple of years now. Unfortunately I was held up by my city's completely outdated ordinance regarding them. Since I have been 'trolling' enviously on this site for a long time - I love reading everything people post! - I stumbled across a post regarding Michigan's Right to Farm Act mentioned on this site! Of course I was all over that, and did hours of research to find out more about it. Well, lo and behold, my city's ordinance cannot stop me from getting chickens (or rabbits or goats etc.). As long as I follow the common management practices that are clearly spelled out on the state of Michigan website, my city cannot do anything about it. I have also heard from a few city employees (who will remain nameless) that the animal control officer knows he can't do anything about it, but doesn't want anyone to know because he 'hates' chickens! He will threaten to ticket you to make you get rid of them if you have them, but will back right off if you mention the Michigan Right to Farm Act. So wrong, using strong arm tactics to dupe people into submission because of his personal agenda. I am no stranger to fighting City Hall (and winning) and plan on changing this wrong once I get my chickens all set up and rolling.
So, I researched coop plans and talked to my neighbors who are completely supportive (they all want to buy eggs from me now
) and my husband and I are building a very nice coop! We are building the "Daisy Coop Plan" from CleanCoops.com and this is what it is supposed to look like:
This is how far we are now:
I have already ordered chicks and they are scheduled to be delivered next week: Buff Orpingtons, Plymouth Barred Rocks and a couple of Easter Eggers just for fun colored eggs!
I have a large dog crate that is not being used at the moment and I will re-purpose that into a chick brooder. I plan on putting the brooder inside the coop. My husband said that it should be done by then. He is going to put 2 electrical outlets inside the coop for lighting, heating etc. I don't plan at this time to heat the coop in the winter, but I do plan on lighting it in the winter mornings for a longer day. I also want to be able to have a heater to keep their drinking water from freezing and an automatic coop door opener/closer and maybe even a fan for air movement and ventilation in the summertime.
I painted the floor with Behr's new paint called Deckover. Its an acrylic based exterior paint that has a very fine textured grit in it so that it is not slippery, but is very comfortable on (human) bare feet and will be wonderful for chicken feet without being slippery. It is meant to paint over old wood decking. I found it to be very easy to work with and put 2 coats over the OSB flooring and it covered very nicely! It is also waterproof so that I can spray, scrub and deep clean the floor without damaging the wood.
I painted the walls with Behr's exterior enamel paint (acrylic based) because I would also like to clean or scrub the walls if I see fit and don't want to do that on bare OSB. I picked a pink color to keep it a little bright and happy in there for the ladies! Both paints are low VOC and are reported to be non-toxic.
I found some light grey vinyl siding that was on clearance so I will use that on the exterior. It will match our house and garage.
Since the wood sheathing is OSB, I don't want to paint the exterior and felt that vinyl siding would work better for durability.
I plan on putting on a completely fenced in pen for them so that they can pasture outside in safety. When I am out with them I will let them free range. You can see the woods in the background and there are lots of yummy worms, snails, slugs, bugs and ticks in there for them to find there are also foxes, owls, raccoons, possums, hawks and the occasional stray dogs to tend with.
I live in a suburban neighborhood, but am lucky enough to have some small woods and a river beside us.
I have been yearning to become more connected with my land and am having loads of fun researching, buying books and practicing my new lifestyle. Right now I feel that I have the luxury of calling it a hobby, where I am free to learn, make mistakes and hone skills without going hungry if I don't do it right! My goal is to start with the chickens, then rabbits then goats. I already have a couple of fruit trees and am expanding my raised vegetable beds. My goal is to try to live exclusively on the land for our food on a normal suburban lot size. I'm calling it my NanoFarm (organic of course!)
I am also replacing my lawn with native Michigan plants and am setting a major chunk of the land to native habitat restoration for the other wild 'earthlings'. I am on my way to saying goodbye to factory farmed animal practices and GMO Frankenfoods.
I am glad that I found this site, BYC has directed me in attaining 95% of my chicken knowledge. I have never owned a chicken before, but I feel very confident that I will be able to practice good techniques and raise happy healthy animals.
I want to thank BackYardChickens for letting me daydream about chickens and troll the site for so long and finally showing me the information I needed so that I really can have chickens in my city.
Linda
Warren, Michigan
"Control the food and you control the people."
Henry Kissenger
I am new to the group and I look forward to reading, learning and posting here.
My name is Linda and I live in Southeastern Michigan. I have been looking forward to getting chickens for a couple of years now. Unfortunately I was held up by my city's completely outdated ordinance regarding them. Since I have been 'trolling' enviously on this site for a long time - I love reading everything people post! - I stumbled across a post regarding Michigan's Right to Farm Act mentioned on this site! Of course I was all over that, and did hours of research to find out more about it. Well, lo and behold, my city's ordinance cannot stop me from getting chickens (or rabbits or goats etc.). As long as I follow the common management practices that are clearly spelled out on the state of Michigan website, my city cannot do anything about it. I have also heard from a few city employees (who will remain nameless) that the animal control officer knows he can't do anything about it, but doesn't want anyone to know because he 'hates' chickens! He will threaten to ticket you to make you get rid of them if you have them, but will back right off if you mention the Michigan Right to Farm Act. So wrong, using strong arm tactics to dupe people into submission because of his personal agenda. I am no stranger to fighting City Hall (and winning) and plan on changing this wrong once I get my chickens all set up and rolling.
So, I researched coop plans and talked to my neighbors who are completely supportive (they all want to buy eggs from me now
This is how far we are now:
I have already ordered chicks and they are scheduled to be delivered next week: Buff Orpingtons, Plymouth Barred Rocks and a couple of Easter Eggers just for fun colored eggs!
I have a large dog crate that is not being used at the moment and I will re-purpose that into a chick brooder. I plan on putting the brooder inside the coop. My husband said that it should be done by then. He is going to put 2 electrical outlets inside the coop for lighting, heating etc. I don't plan at this time to heat the coop in the winter, but I do plan on lighting it in the winter mornings for a longer day. I also want to be able to have a heater to keep their drinking water from freezing and an automatic coop door opener/closer and maybe even a fan for air movement and ventilation in the summertime.
I painted the floor with Behr's new paint called Deckover. Its an acrylic based exterior paint that has a very fine textured grit in it so that it is not slippery, but is very comfortable on (human) bare feet and will be wonderful for chicken feet without being slippery. It is meant to paint over old wood decking. I found it to be very easy to work with and put 2 coats over the OSB flooring and it covered very nicely! It is also waterproof so that I can spray, scrub and deep clean the floor without damaging the wood.
I painted the walls with Behr's exterior enamel paint (acrylic based) because I would also like to clean or scrub the walls if I see fit and don't want to do that on bare OSB. I picked a pink color to keep it a little bright and happy in there for the ladies! Both paints are low VOC and are reported to be non-toxic.
I found some light grey vinyl siding that was on clearance so I will use that on the exterior. It will match our house and garage.
Since the wood sheathing is OSB, I don't want to paint the exterior and felt that vinyl siding would work better for durability.
I plan on putting on a completely fenced in pen for them so that they can pasture outside in safety. When I am out with them I will let them free range. You can see the woods in the background and there are lots of yummy worms, snails, slugs, bugs and ticks in there for them to find there are also foxes, owls, raccoons, possums, hawks and the occasional stray dogs to tend with.
I live in a suburban neighborhood, but am lucky enough to have some small woods and a river beside us.
I have been yearning to become more connected with my land and am having loads of fun researching, buying books and practicing my new lifestyle. Right now I feel that I have the luxury of calling it a hobby, where I am free to learn, make mistakes and hone skills without going hungry if I don't do it right! My goal is to start with the chickens, then rabbits then goats. I already have a couple of fruit trees and am expanding my raised vegetable beds. My goal is to try to live exclusively on the land for our food on a normal suburban lot size. I'm calling it my NanoFarm (organic of course!)
I am also replacing my lawn with native Michigan plants and am setting a major chunk of the land to native habitat restoration for the other wild 'earthlings'. I am on my way to saying goodbye to factory farmed animal practices and GMO Frankenfoods.
I am glad that I found this site, BYC has directed me in attaining 95% of my chicken knowledge. I have never owned a chicken before, but I feel very confident that I will be able to practice good techniques and raise happy healthy animals.
I want to thank BackYardChickens for letting me daydream about chickens and troll the site for so long and finally showing me the information I needed so that I really can have chickens in my city.
Linda
Warren, Michigan
"Control the food and you control the people."
Henry Kissenger
