Selling the Chicken Tractor and Chicken's New Home

Well folks, sometimes the best laid plans. . . 

Last year, I showed you a post about the chicken tractor.

You can find that post here.

To date, that has been my most visited page and has received the most pins.

I actually like it too; however, I'm going to sell it.

What I discovered is that it doesn't work for how I run my birds.

It was perfect for a while when "the girls" were young,

and I kept them pinned.

They got to follow a couple days behind the lambs.

As they grew and knew well where their home was,

the mobile coop wasn't necessary.

I could just lift it during the day so they could free-range all day,

then at night they would return to their tractor to roost so the need

for wheels/mobility was gone.

Then we had a Wowza! of a winter ~ the winter of winters.

We had 4-5 feet of snow at any given point for a good 4 months.

The tractor is only a couple feet high at the coop and 

about 4-4.5 ft. high at the house. 

I wasn't intending on giving them a heat lamp, but with subzero temperatures

for long stretches of times, I had to figure out a way to "rig up" a heat lamp

in a fashion that was both safe and effective.

If we hadn't had the winter we did, I would probably be keeping it.

Sooo,

the question then became what to do.

We are empty nesters - the kids have flown the coop~

(sorry, couldn't resist:)

The playhouse that once housed the toys and toddler activity

sat as a decaying storage for 'stuff.'

Here are a couple "before" photos.

So we went to work on it.

You can see there was still snow on the ground which made it a little more difficult to shuffle and sort the "stuff."

But one of the first things I did was cover those crazy colors 

with some left-over white.

Then came the real work.

(Too funny, Mr.LB kept a beard for winter since it was cold for so long.  He has since shaven so it seems funny to see him so furry.)

I also need to mention that this is reason one million, forty-two

why I love Mr.LB.

I had a ton on my plate right about the time 

"the Wees" were ready to emerge from their tote.

I get a different breed each year so I can tell how old they are 

simply by the breed.

Each group seems to get a name.

The Barredrocks were "the Girls."

(They are gone now - long sad story.)

The Rhode Islands are "the Wees." (They were wee ones but have grown.)

And, here are a couple "after" photos.
Sorry they are a little dark.
It's been rainy so my natural light is not as powerful as usual.
We have to run a cord for power which we don't do for summer.

It doesn't take them long to make a mess does it?

And here it is occupied~

Yes the shelf is crooked.
Number 4 thinks it's sooo funny to jump up there to roost.
Then she pretends to be all in a tither when I get her and put her in the coop.
We don't have the outside coop made yet.
For now I just go out and open the door each morning and
go out and close them in each evening.

So, while it's not my ideal coop, they are safe and come winter,
it should be much easier to offer them enough room and safe heat.
The few boards we purchased and the wire were not a huge investment, 
it made good use of the old playhouse,
and it forced me to go through and sort all that "stuff."

Keep Chickens From Eating Your Garden

Well, you could keep them in the house of course.
We can't leave the door open in summer, or the girls will try to come visit me.

But if you don't want to keep them in the house,

there is another way.

We will soon be getting our spring chicks as I know many others will also.

Each year I read about how people can't keep their chickens out of the garden.

I actually let the chickens in the garden.

They are great at finding those awful little slugs and bugs. 

My mom had told me this before, and I wondered if it was one of those

"silly Mom" things or if it worked.

I listened to my mother, and she was right! 
(It's okay.  I already told her she was right:)

I don't feed the chickens any kitchen scraps.

I haven't fed them any sort of scraps from day one.
So in essence haven't trained them to eat/like those items.

They start out under the heat lamp eating an organic chick starter.

(I prefer non-medicated; why medicate healthy chicks?)

Once they out grow their brooder box, they get to go to the coop.

They have feathers by now and just get the heat lamp at night.

We are in the mountains and can get snow and/or freezing temps until June.

After a few days, maybe a week in the coop, once they have "settled in" and know where home is, they get to be free during the days.

They still have the option of their feed which after the first bag of starter crumble gets switched to layer pellets (still organic, non-med.)

They don't waste pellets like they do crumble.

However, as spring emerges, they eat less and less feed.

They begin finding those juicy yummy bugs and slugs.

Chickens actually prefer meat to veggies if given the choice.

Chickens are not vegetarians.

The only time I really have to watch them is when I am still planting.

They like to scratch in the freshly turned soil.

By the time they are to this stage, most of the garden is in anyways

so it's a very short-lived problem.

The only sort of kitchen waste we share with them is when we butcher.

The dog usually has his fill, and the chickens tend to take over

the cleaning of the bones.

They will do an amazing job of getting any remaining meat off of the bones.

In times past, many folks kept a butcher pig.

In addition to whey, this is where the kitchen scraps went.

We aren't set up for pigs, but have certainly considered it.

It might be something we do in a year or so, just not this year.

This year, we will again add our kitchen scraps to the compost bin.

They are still valuable, but being used in a different way. 
The only caveat to this is if you have adult hens that like to feast in your garden, they will teach the chicks/pullets where your garden is and
which are the tastiest treats.
So this really only works if you are starting from scratch with new birds.

Now if we can figure out how to keep the chickens out of the house?

          

Just as a little side note: 
This year I may wait until the beginning of March to get chicks.  
As you can see by the past two posts, we've had an exceptional winter and still have a good deal of snow on the ground.
I know in other areas, it's been mild so am sharing this before most folks are getting their chicks (hopefully.)