Tag Archives: poultry

The chicken house

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Last year’s July 4th weekend project with my son was the building  the pheasant fly pen, a 45 x 25  net enclosed space for the pheasants to grow out from 6 weeks to about 18 weeks.  It is covered with netting and has about 6 – 7 feet of head room

img_3899Along the east, long side, I’ve added a 8 foot wide lean-to pen for the ducks.  And now, at the south end, I’ve placed the chicken coop and soon, the chickens will have their own pen along the south edge as well.

So once again, North Lumber delivered wood and I laid it out on the deck.  a 16 x 48 deck really makes a nice open-air work shop.  I ordered coop plans online from Jenny Robson, and after looking them over and mentally building this in my head, began putting it all together.

I assembled each of the walls and “dry fit” everything to see how it went together.  img_3903Then, I took it apart and re assembled it in place, and finished the sheathing, and the interior roosts, nesting box, and feed box.  The chickens moved in last Sunday and seemed pleased with the space.  Since they are about 5 -6 weeks old, the cool night air and the open front design was causing them to pile in the corner the first night, so I ran a 250 watt brooder  lamp for nights for them.  They find a comfort zone near or far from the lamp, depending on the temperature.

I used cedar shakes for the false roof.  One of the unique features of this design is it is a 6 sided cube/rectangle, with chicken wire under the floor and ceiling for added predator protection.  The “roof” can either be pitched or shed, and I opted for shed roof with shakes, and I’m about 7 shakes short of finishing.

The young chickens are experimenting with the roosts and the lip of the nesting box as a perch.  I have two bared rocks that *appear* to be pullets, we will see.  A black sex link, two Buff Orpingtons, and an Ameraucana.

Testiung the roosts

Testing the roosts

Chicken Take Out

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I’ve  written about receiving shipments of 52  pheasants in the US mail. From what I’ve read online at many of the hatchery sites, it seems that the smallest shipment is 25 birds. In this number, the birds generate enough body heat to survive there one or two day trip.

While raising pheasants for release requires one kind of pen, and management, I wanted to start slower with chickens. To start with, I want a small flock of laying chickens, no more than six. Fortunately, many farm and tractor stores bring checks and ducklings into the store in the spring.

In some cases, these chicks are destined to be abandoned because of well-meaning, but short thinking, parents who buy them as “cute” Easter presents.

ChicksFor people looking to add to their flock or to start a small flock, feed stores, tractor stores, and farm supply stores are a good place to pick them up. I chose six chickens to start with. One black sex link, one red sex link, to buff orpingtons, and two barred rock.  All of the chicks are pullets, with the possible exception of the two barred rock. The barred rocks were sold as “straight run” chicks, meaning they were not sexed by the hatchery. With my luck, they’ll be two roosters, but I would be happy  if there were as one rooster, or they were both pullets.

According to Storey’s Guide, I may see eggs as soon as 16 weeks..If so, that’s August.

Backyard chicken advocates take up the cause in Iowa City | GazetteOnline.com – Cedar Rapids, Iowa City

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An effort is under way to change Iowa City law to allow residents to keep chickens in their backyards.

Iowa City resident Stacey Driscoll started an online petition Tuesday calling on the city to allow people to keep up to five hens, no roosters, in residential areas.

The self-described avid backyard gardener said she’d heard of people in other urban areas raising chickens and wanted to do the same here to get fresh eggs but soon discovered she could not.

via Backyard chicken advocates take up the cause in Iowa City | GazetteOnline.com – Cedar Rapids, Iowa City.

Choosing the Right Chicken Breeds

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Frederick J. Dunn offers advice and links on choosing chicken breeds as spring approaches, courtesy of Mother Earth News:

I keep both ornamental and dual-purpose poultry. Ornamental birds are just that, nice to look at and be entertained by — or even to show in competition for those interested in the “poultry fancy.” My recommendations for dual-purpose (meat and eggs) are traditional breeds: the Rhode Island red and barred Plymouth rock. Both (rocks and reds) are independent on open range, forage well, produce eggs in abundance and (if you choose) will make flavorful table fare. In fact, the ALBC hosted Renewing America’s Food Traditions blind taste test, and the barred Plymouth rock was most preferred.

Choosing the Right Chicken Breeds.

The duck house

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I don’t know where this is going to end up.

"Gilbert" stands next to the duck wading poolI first thought the ducks, once grown, would live on the pond.  My concern about possible predators and the ducks becoming midnight snacks for coyotes had me thinking of a floating duck house.  Then the option of building or perhaps buying a dog house kit — and starting the ducks in the pen, and moving them to the pond.

So in the middle of this thinking, the ducks finally received their official and final names:  The largest duck is Gilbert.  The two middle ducks who tend to stick to gether are Duck Vadar and Indiana Quackers.  Quackers is the nosiest of the group and often runs with his bill open.  The most independent — but also — most human friendly, is Mocha

The duck house idea was easily resolved by my friend, Jerry O’Rourke, and his sons during a recent visit to help me find scraps and boards in the wood piles to build our own:

img_3832

The ducks moved into the pheasant pen and into the duck house for a few nights before the tempreatures dropped back into the low 30′s and high 20′s.  They dont have all their feathers yet, so to keep warm, I moved them back into the heated box in the barn.  After this week, they may be able to move back out.

Gene Logsdon’s All Flesh is Grass

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booksPage 137: on pasture raised poultry

I can’t resist an aside.  The mindset that leads to consolidation in agriculture, so evident in the chicken business, has also taken place in an alarming degree in human culture, especially in consolidated schooling. Just as we herd more animals into confinement buildings, we herd more children into classrooms.  Then we have no choice but to follow the rule of the chicken factory: One size fits all.  And we justify both kinds of concentration camps with that all-American article of faith:  It’s cheaper per unit; we can’t afford to do otherwise. Then we wonder why we must de-beak chickens and frisk schoolchildren for firearms.

Support Small Farm Life and buy it here: All Flesh Is Grass: Pleasures & Promises Of Pasture Farming

The Cottage Smallholder» » How do I keep my chickens clean?

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One of the sites I like to follow is Fiona Nevile’s The Cottage Smallholder

The trick to quick and easy cleaning is to store everything that you might need within a few feet of the chicken house. We keep our chicken consumables in two large barrels in the run. One holds the bedding the other contains sprays, powders, oyster shells, grit and everything that a chicken keeper might need. These storage bins are also popular with the flock as they have another vantage point on which to stand and observe the world.

via The Cottage Smallholder» » How do I keep my chickens clean?.

M R Ducks

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Black Cayuga Ducklings

Black Cayuga Ducklings

It was really simple enough.
I was just going to the feed store to get cracked corn for the pheasants and some starter feed to stock up for this year’s new pheasant arrivals in a few months.
While I was there, I got to talking with the owner and he asked,
“You wouldn’t want 4 Black Cayuga ducklings would you?”
Keeping in mind the forecast for the weekend was 8 degrees and snow, and without heat in the barn, there is really no good place to keep ducks at the cabin, so I said no, but looked at them anyway.  What he really wanted to do was get rid of the largest of the ducklings.  I told him I needed to think about what they would need and I could get back to him on Monday.
“No”, he said, if no one took them today, he would get rid of them.
Hmmm.
So I figured the worst that happens is they don’t survive, and since I have two ponds of natural duck habitat, they would have a nice place to live once spring came…so I took them.
For now, they live in a rabbit cage in the little cabin.  In a few weeks, I’ll move them to a pen in the barn, and then in a few more weeks, out to the pond.
So far, the suggested names include:
  • Duck Vadar
  • Bat Duck
  • The 4 Tops
  • Mocha
  • Black Coffee
  • Gilbert
  • Indiana Quackers
  • and finally  Gladys Knight and the Pips

Black Cuyugas are good egg layers and good meat ducks — but rather than go to the trouble, I’ll put them to work eating the algae out of the little pond.  We’ll see….

There is an old visual joke that is often attributed to the Iowa test of Basic Skills, however, it is usually used to refer to anyone you want to teasingly make fun of.  The test reads like this:

M R ducks

M R not
O S A R
C M wangs?
L I B! M R ducks

The “key” or translation is

Them are ducks
Them are not
Oh yes they are
See them wings?
Well I’ll be!  Them are ducks

City Folk Flock To Raise Small Livestock At Home : NPR

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NPR’s Megan Verlee reports on All Things Considered about a new kind of urban farmer.

City Folk Flock To Raise Small Livestock At Home : NPR.

If you wonder how to do this and keep the neighbors content, consider this:

But backyard farmers seem to have one ace in the hole for answering any local objections: bribery. Plenty of Brad’s eggs, for example, end up on his neighbors’ breakfast plates.

“I ask them every now and then if it’s bothering them and they say, ‘Oh no, it doesn’t bother us at all and besides, you wouldn’t mess with the one that feeds ya,” Brad says.

Chickens for first timers

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If you’re curious about chickens, or the curiosity has moved on to serious contemplation, there are a number of great places to begin your reading online.

Starting out with the encouraging words “Chickens have got to be the easiest, most forgiving, creatures for a small farm to manage.” The Gateway to Vermont site from the folks at The Farm at Morrison Corner is a good place to start, before you move on to Rasing Chickens in your Backyard.

The Chicken Encyclopedia can answer some of your first time questions, and then, when you are ready to think about coops, Free Chicken Coop Plans has a great jumping off spot.

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