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Modifications to the Chicken Coop Feeder SupportI have had my hanging feeder suspended from a 2X4 that I just put across the width of the chicken coop...
For the past 4 years, it has worked great for me. However, my new chicks I got this spring have grown up and started to roost on that 2X4 instead to the roosts I have for them on the far end of the coop.
As you can imagine, the problem is that they started to poo on the feeder suspended below...
Good thing I have a cover on the feeder. But they were also pooing on the waterer and even a corner of the nest boxes...
It was to the point that I had to clean up that stuff every day. The new pullets would not roost on the 2X4's on the far end of the coop. I needed to make a change.
I was thinking of all kinds to ways to make it impossible for the chickens to roost on that feeder support 2X4. Everything from twirly spinners to wedge shaped add ons and lots of other ideas that would have made roosting on that 2X4 hard for them.
It took me a few days to come up with idea just to install a scrap piece of pallet wood 2X4 suspended from the rafters and attach the feeder chain to that board...
So, zooming out, here is a picture of the working end of my chicken coop...
I live in northern Minnesota. As you can see, all I have to do is open up the back door in the winter and both the food and water are right there for me. It's important for me to keep them inside the coop and out of the elements outside. My waterer sits on a heated metal base and it has kept the water ice free down to -35F in the dead of winter. I don't think it would work nearly as well if it was outside exposed to the wind. Basically, my chickens live in the coop for the snow months, so everything is right there for them.
Well, now they won't be roosting above the feeder and waterer, pooing on them in the dead of winter, which would cause all kinds of problems in frozen temps. I was glad to solve this problem now. Nothing is fun to work on when it gets really cold.
I keep asking Dear Wife if we can get some goats, but she is a hard no on that idea. I guess I'll have to be OK with a small backyard flock of chickens.
I have been making more pallet wood chicken wire protective cages for my raised beds. Today, I ripped a bunch of pallet wood planks to make more cages, but 3-feet tall with the new chicken wire I just bought. Those will be used for the Roma tomatoes and my pepper plants. I also found more 8-foot long salvaged 2X4's to make yet another trellis system for another raised bed. So, those projects are coming along good. The deer will have to somewhere else for free food next summer!
As many leaves as I have stored already, I can tell you that the leaves are only starting to fall heavy now. I don't know how many leaves will get collected for the chicken run or to fill these cages, but I have lots of leaves yet to mow up in the next few weeks. It's my favorite time of the year. And I don't mind mowing every other day to clean up leaves off the grass.
Yep, it's a long slow process. This time of year, I mow my yard two or three times per week to vacuum up the falling leaves. I have found that if I mow them up as they fall, I do not get to the point where there is a thick mat of leaves that clogs up my riding mowers. Also, if it rains and freezes, I don't want a thick mat of leaves on the ground to block out and kill all my grass in the spring.
I still have leaf rakes, but mostly I use my riding mowers, collect the leaves in the grass collection bins, and then dump the leaves in the chicken run and now, in those pallet wood chicken wire cages I built for my raised beds.
It's like having money on the ground! So many good uses for leaves around the homestead.
I can hardly believe, back in the day, that we used to rake up all those leaves and burn them! What a waste. But back then I did not know or appreciate the value of leaves. Having chickens has opened my eyes to many home recycling efforts.
That was a disappointment. I don't know if that is just their local Menards policy here in town, or at all their stores. I suspect, like Home Depot, they are in the business of selling lumber and don't want to give any wood away, even if it's an old used pallet.
