There are chickens in the hen house! Part 2

  So! Today I only got five eggs. Hmm! What's up with that! Fresh water, lots of food, they get to run around all day, only coming home when they want to or if they see me  out side, then it's a chicken stampede cause they think I have a tasty morsel for them. Usually I do, and this behavior works in my favour when I want them in the pen earlier than usual, which is dusk. 

Checking out my house!

 Now , I will never ever profess to being handy with tools, but apparently over the years I have learned something. My first thoughts were to have someone build me a coop. I scoured through books from the library, checked out Pinterest and Google for the ideal hen house plans. Then I decided I would buy one and spent oodles of time on Kijiji and Facebook yard sale sites. Even when I was driving I kept an eye out for suitable chicken accommodations for sale. With all this searching I kept coming back to some plans  found in the  books I had checked out from the library.

  I knew I wanted a raised coop with the run extending under the house so the hens could have some shelter from the elements and still stay outside. The run had to covered and the wire buried a foot to keep predators out. There was lots of evidence of attempted break ins the first few weeks of residence. After spending the Winter and early Spring searching, I decided to build one myself.

  I started with the plans I really liked, from the book and proceeded to make significant design changes. OK, yes, a buddy did help framing up the house, and my brother did help with the run, but closing in the coop and run and building the doors, window and gangplank was all me!!  Hardware cloth (it is sturdier than chicken wire) was my choice for the run. The cloth covers the top of the run to prevent aerial attacks and is buried about a foot to deter subterranean excursions. The floor is plywood. The walls and roof are OSB, because, after all it is a chicken coop, with asphalt shingles on the roof and wooden shakes to go on the walls and a couple of vents for air flow. The coop needs to be airy for the Summer and draft free for Winter habitation. Inside are two roosts and three nest boxes. The actual house measures 8 by 6 feet. Plenty of room for seven hens at 4 to 5 square feet per lady.

 All said and done it cost me about three hundred buck, buck, bacaaaahs!!! (in chicken lingo), for the materials. Labour was free. Thanks guys!  A lot less than buying one or paying a real carpenter (no slight intended guys!). I think it 's pretty nifty and should serve the girls and their successors well for years to come.

DARN PROUD OF MYSELF!!

EDITH, BESSIE, EMMA, JOSEPHINE, LEONA, BEATRICE

NOTICE: SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

AND MARGUERITE  ARE PROUD TOO!!

  And all from looking at a book on raising chickens from the library!!

 

Tim Jackson

Community Engagement Assistant:

Annapolis Valley Regional Library,

Small Scale Chicken Farmer

and Rough Carpenter (Retired)

 

There are chickens in the hen house! Part 1

  After a 28 year absence, fowl once again roam the grounds of my homestead. Chickens again rule the roost, although not physically, for now they prefer to sleep in the nest boxes or the small doorway to their run. 

  Late last fall I made up my mind that eradicating the local tick and earwig population and enjoying fresh eggs with rich orange yolks (not pale yellow) would be my goal. Now I can't say for sure but since the seven girls began free-range foraging approximately 10 days after they arrived on May 10th, not one tick has found it's way onto my tick-sensitive body and the earwigs aren't as prevalent either. And then there are the 6-7, gorgeous brown eggs ranging from a light tan to a dark brown, that magically make an appearance daily.

The first egg! Nobody claimed it.

  I mention the number of eggs because there are seven ladies and most days only six eggs. So I figured somebody was slacking off until I did some research at the library. I thought I knew all there was to know about chickens. I mean, ever since I can remember, a flock of approximately 15 hens and the odd rooster occupied the old chicken coop, now long gone. So I figured I was an expert. NOT!

Good production.

  Now I do know that hens don't need a rooster to lay eggs. He is basically a spiffed up lord and protector. He settles squabbles, (and the girls do squabble a lot, hence the terms, 'pecking order' and 'hen fight'), and he seeks payment for his services lustfully and often! What I didn't know was when the young pullets (find that term in this book) would start to lay, how often they will lay an egg, the nutrition they need, the extra calcium they may require for shell formation, how to store eggs and how long eggs will keep under different conditions. Did you know that, when the egg exits the hen's vent (look it up) it is covered with an antibacterial secretion called the bloom? The bloom is a natural protectant to keep the egg from deteriorating and unwashed eggs can be stored for several weeks in a cool un-refrigerated environment for several weeks. Washed factory eggs (bloom removed) with the pale yellow yolks have probably been sitting around for a couple of months before they even make it to the store cooler. Fresh huh??

First stroll out of the compound.

  Now, depending on the type of hen, they will start laying at between 20 weeks or up to 6 months old, give or take week. Some are prolific layers, up to 300 plus eggs per year at peak production and some are laying 150 or so. It basically depends on the breed, whether purebred or a hybrid and also the age. Production declines as a hen ages, and size and colour of breed depends on a bird's parentage. Certain breeds will lay white eggs, others shades of brown, from an off white to a dark mocha brown, some speckled and others green or blue, some large , some small. And guess what - a white egg tastes the same as a brown egg or a blue!! You don't eat the shell.

Tick check!!

  When you get past egg differences, looking at hundreds of different breeds and sizes with different colouring and feathering and wattles is a whole new ballgame.

  Now the coop. No wait! I'll save that for part 2. Because deciding on a coop was a whole different stress level!!

 Tim Jackson

Community Engagement Assistant,

Annapolis Valley Regional Library

and Very Small Scale Chicken Farmer