Thar be Chickens in our Future!

Received the first McMurry catalog of the year last week. It has launched a good case of chicken fever, again. Seems like every couple of years I get the itch to become a farmer. It may be tied to work stress, boredom, or that I just like to grow things.

Anyway, I’m going to need to build a new chicken coop, the old one bit the dust after the goats got inside and destroyed it…. Long story! For about 10 chickens, that will bring us about 50 eggs a week, they will need 2sf each… I believe that is about 25sf of coop area, the little extra is so they can move around good! So a coop built on a 4×8 sheet of plywood will make 32sf. That should be enough for their little house. If I build it about 10” off the ground I can use a set of concrete blocks, aka cinder blocks, and 4x4x8 wood runners to create the platform. A little framing and roofing, and viola we have a coop. The big question is going to be the location and the size of the run I’m thinking that it should be to the left of the shop and about 16×8. Maybe frame it out with 2x lumber to a height that I can walk in, and attached to the front of the coop. Then I can enter from the side to do cleaning, the chickens can come out the front and I can put the nest on the back for easy retrieval of the eggs.

Sounds like a plan!

As I begin building this, pictures will be forthcoming.

peace

I came across this, since it came from our government in 1918 I do believe the copyright may have run out.

Uncle Sam Likes Chickens