In our empty - nest days , my married man , Steve , has been eager to do all the thing he ’s ever want to do . I call them his reverie — states of dreamy meditation or notional musings ; howling , visionary or impractical idea . He ’s a dreamer and always has a new idea to plunge into . But fall out - through ? Not so much . Steve ’s favorite pastimes are play ( hunt and sportfishing ) , take in the grass grow ( seance ) and napping ( in his recliner , in front of the video ) . So whenever he wants to start a Modern labor , I have to think about how it can be done easily , so I do n’t get stuck “ aid . ” First , it was beekeeping . I informed Steve that if he took this on , it was his projection and that I was n’t interested . But soon I was out there hold open bees with him ! This dreaming of his morphed into a bee product occupation .
Once we both retired , wimp were the next reverie on Steve ’s brain . But my brain aver , “ chicken have to be feed and watered every day , which mean no camping trips or traveling . Steve , get up every morning at the crack of dayspring to have crybaby out ? No way ! What about building the hencoop , feeding and water every Clarence Day , change out their bedding , and on and on ? I know I ’m going to get adhere ‘ helping ’ with this ! ”
Before I agree to Steve ’s “ Chicken Reverie , ” I talked to other people provoke chickens and researched every tool and shortcut I could notice to check that this undertaking would be gentle for someone who like to play and sit and nap . Just day after I ultimately hold to keeping Gallus gallus , the word was out about “ Chick Week ” at the local farm provender store . If we want chicks that leap they had to be ordered , 25 at a time , aright off . And , they would make it in two hebdomad ! The scuffle began .
When the chicks go far , we had no hencoop built and no place to put them . They stop up in a big composition board boxful in my life way with a heat lamp clamped to the door handle of my china hutch — not on the button how I had envisioned this project to go . The upsurge was on to cipher out this chicken farming thing before the chick were a calendar month old . Otherwise , they ’d be “ fly the coop , ” out of the cardboard corner and all over my household .
What we developed is what I call our “ Lazy Chicken Farming ” method .
Now , this does n’t mean that it did n’t demand workplace . My destination was to get most of the employment done at the onslaught of the labor , when excitement is eminent , so that there was n’t a lot of work to do day by day . That ’s what we fight to take with . Here ’s how we did things to decrease the day-to-day time and study of raise chicken for impertinent testis .
1. Put Everything Under One Roof
The chicken coop was one area where Steve did n’t want to skimp , but we did some things to make setting up and maintaining it easier and more convenient . We decided on a stationary coop , instead of the tractor type that we would have to move every few twenty-four hours . Lazy step No . 1 .
Steve built the coop with an 8 - by-16 - pes floor , cause cut plywood for it unneeded . It sits 16 inches off the ground , on Australian stilt , to keep predators from digging under the henhouse and get to the chickens . He sink 4×4 posts in holes with concrete to steady the coop . There was no concrete commixture — he just grasp the hole , leveled the Emily Post , poured dry concrete mixture in the hole , fulfill with weewee and let it harden . We put in a used window with a screen to add brightness and ventilation system . Nest boxes were made from an old shelving unit with dividers added . you’re able to feel other ideas online for all sort of punk DIY nest boxful made from things like buckets and old boxes . Roosts were made with 2x4s .
We palisade off about one - fourth of the coop and bestow a door to make a storage area for provender , bedding , tools , etc . We also used this space in the following year , to house chicks and pullets in a bountiful boxwood before they were ready to flux with the existing passel . This prove to be a much good option than in my living room !
We add together a shed roof , with a gutter at the low bound funneled to a barrel to catch pelting water .
eventually , we cable both position of the henhouse with electricity for lighting , heat and timer . It seemed like a lot of work up front , but ultimately , it has been very commodious and time - saving to have light , electricity and everything we need under one ceiling .
The cage ferment out pretty Brobdingnagian by chicken coop standards so we nicknamed it “ Uncle Mike ’s Condo . ” Steve ’s brother , Mike , pass a wad of clip sleeping on the couch at our star sign while helping build the henhouse . The joke was , once it was done , Mike would have his own place to sleep out there in the hencoop with his 20 girlfriends !
2. Easy Coop Cleanup
Steve decided to use thedeep - litter methodusing wood shavings — work-shy pace No . 2 . Rather than cleaning out the bedding every workweek or so , newfangled bedding material is just added over the top of the old . The bedding part compost as it piles up , and as long as it is kept dry with a fresh layer every now and then , ammonia water does n’t ramp up up . It gets clean out once a year , and can be add to the compost pile or garden bed . We put a trap threshold in the floor of the hencoop , so we could just shovel the old bedding through the hole onto a tarpaulin under the henhouse , and drag it over to the garden . A perfect system for slothful chicken farmer !
3. Avoid The Need For Wing Clipping
We built a run around the henhouse with T posts and 4 - substructure weld telegram fencing material , but this was not tall enough . The girls could flap their means over it and escape . We supply 2 feet of wimp wire above it , and this still was n’t enough . We terminate up covering the whole run and volaille yard with dark-green formative snow fencing and chicken wire , sequester it to the top of the fence and fix it under the fascia dining table on the roof of the henhouse . This kept them in , eliminated the motivation to clip wings every few months , and maintain predators , like hawks , out .
4. Rounding Up Chickens: Wait Until They Roost
We were able-bodied to add our 20 Golden Comet fryer to the coop at 4 weeks one-time , and then continued to solve on the extra lazy granger tool . We had to learn the pullets to go up and down the wild leek to the coop door , as they just could n’t cypher it out . They also did n’t understand , at first , that they were to gointhe coop at night to go to log Z’s . We spend the first week chasing them around the chicken 1000 each evening , attempt to catch them , or shoo them out from under the chicken coop with a Scots heather , grabbing them and shoving them chop-chop into the hencoop before shut out the door . We were worn out after these chasing game and I ’m trusted we looked ridiculous .
Then one Nox , we draw a blank about the chickens until it was dark , and we discovered something : Once chickens have roosted and are sleeping , they are just about comatose . We went out that Nox in the dark , and found them roosting outside on the gate , the windowpane shelf , the ladder and in the tree next to the coop . We scoop them up three to four at a time , tucked a couple under each weapon system and tossed them in the cage — and they never funk .
For several more day , until they learned to go back into the hencoop in on their own , we waited until they were asleep to snap up them and put them to bed .
5. Multiple Day Feeding System
bang that we wanted to be able to go aside for a few days at a clip , we made a feeding pail that holds about three day worth of food . From ideas we obtain online , we made anauto feeder using a 5 - gallon plastic pail , a plastic plant - pot saucer and four bolts .
To make it , we drill 2 - column inch - diameter holes every 2 to 3 inches around the side of the bucket , just above the bottom . small hollow for bolts were drill through both the bottom of the bucket and saucer , and the two piece were bolted together .
We hung the pail from the rafter at chest pinnacle for the wimp and filled the bucket with feed . The feed comes out of the large hole into the disk as the chickens eat .
6. Automatic Watering System
Not wanting to have to gestate water out and replenish a water bowl every 24-hour interval — or even every few day — we fashion a rain - barrel system to collect piss , and tot up portion to make it an auto - filling , piddling - body of work - want contraption .
First , we built a sturdy platform so the piss in the barrel could gravity feed to the coop . We attached a flexile downspout pipe to the end of the sewer on the coop roof and fish this across the conclusion of the cage wall to the black plastic drum rain bbl . We anchored the downspout to the south wall with piece of tail and wire . This orientation would help to capture as much wintertime sun as possible to keep the weewee from freezing inside the disgraceful brake drum . We cut a kettle of fish in the top of the barrel and glued a spell of screen over it to keep out debris . The end of downspout piping conform to over this hole . At the bottom of the drum , we installed a brass spigot by drilling a pickle and using waterproofed caulk .
Next , we fashioned a self - watering organization from the rainfall barrel to the cage . We attach a longsighted , washing - machine spicy - water hose to the faucet on the barrel . Then we drilled a cakehole through the henhouse wall and fed the hose through it . Inside the cage , we tie the hose to anautomatic pet watering pipe bowl — a stainless - steel arena with a float . Once the spigot is open up and the float is adjusted , the bowl solemnity - fills with weewee to a located level , keeping the water boy from ever make to be manually filled .
Of course , the chickens do n’t just drink from the water system roll . They stand in it , sound off bedding into , poop in it and spill it . We put a formative eyelid from a great computer storage tub , lip up , under the whole contrivance to catch the spilled water and protect the floor . And when the water have disgustingly dirty , we take hold of a bucket out of the storage region , dump out the dirty weewee and the roll refills .
7. Winter-Proof Watering
We did n’t want to be out in the coop in the winter , constantly dealing with frozen pee or temperatures too cold for the chickens , so we came up with some thought to make wintertime chicken farming loose .
Winter-Proof Waterer
To forbid their water from freezing , we wrapped the pelting barrel and hose withelectric heat tapeand plugged it in during below - freezing weather . We also wrapped the rain barrelful and hose with fiberglass insulation , and then wrapped both barrel and pipe it inblack psychiatrist wrap . The rain barrel has never freeze up in winter with this arrangement .
Water Dish Heating Tray
We did have to add together a third hotness root in wintertime , for the water pipe bowl . Again , usinga design idea found on the internet , we used a wired ignitor socket with an inline on / off switch , a metal oil drainpipe pan and a piece of sheet metallic element to make a heating system tray . A golf hole is drill through the side of the petroleum pan for the light socket , the light bulb is screwed in on the inside of the pan , and the plane metallic element is attach to the brim of the oil pan with rag metal fuck , create a bottom . The alloy auto - filling darling trough sits on top , and when the atmospheric condition is really cold , we turn on the light bulb inside the fossil oil pan creating heat . This keeps the urine in the bowlful from immobilise .
8. My Favorite: The Automatic Door
The pièce de résistance — the one thing I knew we had to have because my husband would never get up every morning to let the chickens out — was an robotlike door . We had listen about these from another poulet keeper and knew it was for us . Our first solution was a pricey , pre - made door openerworked by winding and unwinding a string attach to a thin wooden door , which was set on a timer , for opening and shutdown . The door opener work well for a time , but bear out way too presently for the Mary Leontyne Price we paid — we went through two of them in two days . Not want to fork out the disbursal again , I looked for a differentDIY design .
We built our own doorway unfastener using a flash motorized machine antenna , two old computer power supplies , some electrical wires and connectors , and a timekeeper . We ’ve just added this recently , so hopefully , it will be sturdier and longer lasting than the other pre - made designs . It definitely was cheaper !
9. Predator Protection
We thought we had our coop and yard middling secure , peculiarly with the chicken wire over the top to keep the chickens in and the hawks out , but during our 2d spring , we find out that raccoons could somehow get in the run , work their hand under the doorway , rescind it and get into the henhouse . We lost a few chickens before we figured this out .
To keep the raccoon at bay , we added a backtalk on the outside of the door initiative using a thin piece of plyboard about 3 inches high . This forestall the critters from bring forth their picayune paws under the door and pull it up .
We also ground we had to fix the timer on the door to close sooner in the even , especially during the early summertime , when young raccoons were forage . The raccoons would get in the cage at dusk , before the room access close .
And even though we had lined the volaille run with railroad ties along the bottom of the fence , we had to go around and fasten the fence to the tie , to keep the racoon out of the Gallus gallus run . Raccoons are smart , pesky critters and were quite well - fed around our house for a while .
10. Keeping The Chicken Yard Attractive
One trouble with a stationary coop is that the chickens eventually run through up all the grass , resulting in a muddy mess . This year , we ’re adding a bit of fence between the turning point of the cage and one side of the run . This will close off half the chicken yard , which after three years of chicken is a wreck . The chickens will be confined to half of the chicken yard , while we plant a special portmanteau word ofgrasses and chickweed — or “ chick crack , ” as we call it — in the other one-half . It ’s one of their favourite treats to forage on . Once the Modern growth is established , we can move the piece of fencing to the other side of their door , and they can scrounge in the Modern pasturage while we implant the other one-half .
One Daily Chore
With all our Lazy Chicken Farming shortcuts , the only daily task we have is to pile up toothsome eggs and make some for a repast . Trust me , fresh eggs have a whole unlike preference than the single you purchase in the food market depot , and we have no trouble betray our extra eggs to champion and family . We also spend a mint of our extra fourth dimension sitting in lawn chairs out by the coop , watch out chicken put-on , what we call “ Country Folks TV . ” But with all this extra time , Steve is dreaming again , plan his next oneirism … rabbits . I ’d well jump finding rabbit - raising shortcuts , quickly !
