Well sort of free. I removed the poultry wire from between three runs since I’m done trying to sprout seeds in them (except in the salad bars). It gives the hens more room to roam and some extra outdoor perches. The whole run is still covered in hardware cloth because they still need protection from the neighboring wildlife. (Although not spiders. I watched a hen take down a wolf spider this week. Spider didn’t have a chance.)
Chicken wire removed between runs
The outside run now looks like a chicken jungle gym. The hens had no problem with the removed wire and they wandered happily under the dividers. After a couple days, they started perching on the 2x4s, I did sand the splinters down to try to prevent bumblefoot. I left the doors intact, since it is helpful to have a closed off space when we are doing health checks, but right now the doors are all open.
Happy Fourth! Celebrating our freedom like the hens: walking under dividers. Or maybe enjoying our apparent freedom. There are probably many comparisons between the chicken life and life during pandemic, but I’ll let you draw your own.
Because it is amusing to watch, here is a video of one of my hens on a swing. They regularly get up on the swings, but I rarely can get a video because as soon as they see me they run over to demand mealworms.
I finally broke down and made some chicken salad bars. These are basically just hardware cloth in a wood frame designed to let the plants grow through the frame, but keep the chickens from scratching up the roots. I used scrap lumber: 2x4s for the base, and 1x2s for the top (to protect the chickens from sharp wire edges). I made a square and a rectangle because that maximized my wood scraps. The hardware cloth is 1/2” squares.
Rectangular frame set over growing sproutsSquare frame set over seedsChickens removing excess sprouts
My hope is that the chickens will have a more steady access to fresh greens, rather than spending a week growing sprouts in a run, and the hens consume the lot in a day and a half.
Coop: My husband built the coop and I love having a shed sized building to house the chickens. We can walk in which makes cleaning out easier and catching chickens easier. There is also plenty of room for storage. I originally planned to section the coop in half so that I could house a mother hen and the chicks in one side separate from the adult flock. I don’t think that is going to happen, but having the option is nice. I do hang a waterer inside, but all the food and the rest of the waterers are outside the coop. (I have 5 water stations for 11 chickens. Texas summers are hot.)
Runs: My husband also built four runs off the front and side of the coop. The main run, which is open all the time, runs along the side and across the front. This is where their food, water, and dust baths reside. I have three other runs with latched doors. The original idea was the center run would be a garden, but with the surrounding trees it doesn’t get enough light. The next idea was to rotate the chickens through the three runs so they would have fresh grass. After carefully tending grass growth for a week, it takes the chickens one day to take it all down to bare earth. Ugh. I am currently leaving the farthest run open all the time (this run is the chicken’s favorite because it has the most perches and overlooks the meadow) and alternating growing forage seed in the other two runs. The runs are enclosed with hardware cloth that is also buried about a foot down all around the coop. Inside the runs we used less expensive poultry wire. There are swings in two of the runs, and the chickens do jump on them occasionally. What they really love are the natural branches lashed to the framework.
And I wondered why the other branch broke
Situating the coop and runs in the low point of the meadow has given us some drainage issues, but some creative ditch digging solves most of the unwanted flooding, except in really heavy rains.
Using a wooden dowel on an outside latch – fail
Something that definitely failed from heavy rains was the rotating latch on the outside run door. The tolerances were a little tight, and when the wooden dowel swelled from moisture it would get stuck in the pass through hole. Eventually the dowel tore in two from being twisted when wet. Oops.
So I think that is it for now! I’ll probably think of other things to share later, but a 5 part post will have to do for this week. Tomorrow I’ll go back to my regularly scheduled program of random rotating subjects.
Grandpa’s Feeder (left) and Cheeper Keeper (right)
Grandpa’s Feeder: This was a good investment. Yes it was a little pricey, but I have near zero feed waste, which will be more significant after a few years. The chickens access the gravity fed feed by standing on a treadle that opens the lid. Training the chickens to use it went well. At the beginning there were only two or three chickens that could open it after the introductory period (Grandpa’s Feeders provides excellent instructions), and the rest would wait until it was open to eat. After a year, I think they can all open it on their own (although I haven’t done a thorough study on that). It sits just outside the coop pop door on a bed of bricks. I do dust the bricks with diatomaceous earth. I fill it about once a week. Since it is under the overhang on the coop, it stays dry even in the worst weather. I did put in stakes as side guards to keep chickens from reaching in to eat without standing on the treadle, and a hinged “roof” to keep chickens off the top also to keep them from eating without using the treadle.
Cheeper Keeper: This automatic door is awesome. It opens at dawn and shuts at dusk. I don’t have to remember to open the coop in the morning! Because the chickens can go out in their own into the runs, I don’t usually to go out and check on them until mid-morning. This works really well for hectic school mornings. This was also worth the investment. At night, the chickens all put themselves to bed on the roost, well before the door closes. In the summer I do open the people door to help the temperature in the coop drop after sunset (I have a temperature activated oscillating fan inside, but the extra air flow helps), so I go out to close that door at night.
Critters and Craft 