I have attached the Mason Bee Condo onto a planter in my front garden. It is facing southeast. There are numerous fruit trees in the area. Note the different colored chambers.

Honey bee populations all over North America, Europe and parts of Asia are in decline due to colony collapse. Many of our cultivated food plants require the pollination services of bees and other insects. Without pollination there will be no fruit.

One solution to this problem is Mason Bees (Osmia lignaria). Mason Bees are a native species that has been in decline due to destruction of their habitat. With a little help from us they could become a major spring pollinator in our gardens. Building a Mason Bee Condo will help these bees have a place to nest.

Mason Bees hatch out around the time plum or early apple trees come into bloom. The males emerge first and a few days later the females. Males do not pollinate but mate and die. The females find a suitable nesting site.

Mason bees naturally nest in insect holes or hollow reeds but we can help them out by setting up a condo. The female proceeds to collect nectar and pollen which she brings back to the nest. Then she lays one egg and builds a wall of clay. The nectar and pollen will feed the growing larvae. She will repeat this process about thirty times during a five to six week period.

We can help out the female by placing a small bowl of damp clay near the condo. The bee will use this clay for her masonry work. The female can control the sex of her eggs and only lays male eggs at the end of the chamber so they will emerge first.

Mason Bees like to live together but do not want to share chambers with other bees. Coloring the ends of the chambers different colors helps the female find her nest. A female will fill about two chambers during her laying period. You do not have to buy Mason Bees for your condo. If you build a condo, your local bees will happily move in!

If you would like more information about attracting Mason Bees to your garden please see Blue Orchard Bees. There are plans for making your own condo and numerous videos on how you can care for your bees and condo. If you would like to get more involved with your bee’s life cycle there is a video on how to clean mites out of your bee cocoons using sand.

It is hard to see in this picture but this plum tree is swarming with hundreds of bees of different sizes. It's wonderful to lay under the fruit trees at this time of year and hear the buzz of so many busy pollinators. Take time to watch the dance of life.

This is Shaen's gravity water system for the cattle. It is a simple system that does not require the use of a pump or energy.

During the cold winter months, Shaen had to carry water to the cattle since there isn’t an underground water system. In Kamloops, a winter watering system would have to be at least five feet down to avoid ground frost. In the winter, cattle need less water because they learn to eat snow. Neverthelss, carrying water is not a pleasurable task. Shaen put a positive spin on the chore by pointing out the massive shoulders he has developed since starting pasturing animals! By the end of the winter he found he could run a hose from our neighbor’s frost-free hydrant to the cow’s trough. He would then drain the hose completely before it froze.

About four weeks ago the ground warmed up enough to get the gravity fed water system operational. The water system is based on a well and a 3,000 gallon holding tank. The well will give about 500 gallons a day, so Shaen has to be very frugal with water use. Shaen uses 3/4 inch polyethylene piping for the main lines and 1/2 inch for feeder lines. By the time the water gets to the livestock trough, there is about 35psi of pressure. When making a gravity water system you will get about 1/2 psi for each vertical foot of height between your reservoir and the outlet minus the flow loss caused by the piping itself.

Just before Olivia gave birth, Shaen separated Olivia from our little Dexter bull, Piglet. This meant separating the water into two troughs. The larger trough is for Olivia and the calf and is a food grade plastic barrel cut in two. The water fills the first trough and as it overflows it gravity fills the second smaller trough on the other side of the fence. As you can see, just about anything can be used as a trough. As soon as possible, Shaen will replace the second trough with another food grade plastic half barrel. Troughs must be large enough that the animals never run out of water. Larger troughs are harder for the bull to knock over but can be difficult to empty when the trough needs to be moved to a new location.

The white pail is filled with sea salt and kelp. Shaen adds Fertrell Dairy Supplement Mix. There is also a cobalt salt lick for dairy cows. Since there is still no pasture to eat, the cows are eating hay, barley haylage and alfalfa haylage. We also give Olivia a small amount of grain and a few over-wintered apples during milking time. Olivia loves apples and always gives Shaen a big lick after receiving this treat.

Don't spend a fortune on plumbing and fixtures. This is a transit point between the 3/4" main lines and the 1/2" feeder lines. We use inexpensive two hour timers for the irrigation system.

This is Shaen's simple irrigation sprinkler system. A steel tube is pounded into the ground with a rock. The steel tube can be moved wherever water is needed in the pasture.

The sprinkler is inserted into the top of the steel tube. The steel tube gets the sprinkler about three feet off the ground, increasing the watering area.

Brittle grassland is one of the most difficult systems to manage. After a lot of research Shaen decided to use Allan Savory’s methods as outlined in his Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making. If you are looking for more information about what Allan Savory has done to heal grassland in some of the toughest environments on the planet, please see the Savory Institute or watch this video called Keeping Cattle: cause or cure for climate crisis?

I highly recommend putting aside some time to watch this lecture. This video will explain ideas like: slow-oxidation in brittle grassland, fast-oxidation fire, high-impact controlled grazing, predator prey relationships, dangers of over-resting pasture, and holistic planning. He also explains why we are an omnivore scavenger and why species extinctions have always followed humanity. Be ready to have your paradigm challenged or changed. This may be the most important video on this website.

Below is a short video outlining the salient points of holistic management.

All these pictures of the pasture were taken on April 28, 2012. The pasture is located on a north facing slope of a series of hills just inside the southwest corner of the City of Kamloops. The elevation of the pasture ranges from 777m to 817m (2560ft to 2700ft). The average yearly rainfall is 38.1cm (15″). We are considered zone 3 or 4. We leased 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) two years ago for this experiment. The owners leased us another 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres) last year.

Below is a picture of the typical over-rested grassland in the Kamloops area. An over-rested grassland is an area where there are no herbivores to stomp down the dry, dead growth and break up the clumps of bunch grass. The cattle also urinate and manure the ground which brings in needed moisture and nutrients. Without herbivores, we see the greying of old growth which much later decomposes by slow-oxidation. Slow-oxidation is not a good way to decompose plant materials. Slow-oxidation is a chemical breakdown of plant material rather than the faster bacterial decay. If too much slow-oxidation occurs in a pasture, the pasture will transform into desert.

Next time you look at a cow, I want you to imagine the cow is a fermenting vat on four legs.  Herbivores carry water around in their digestive tracks and have a highly evolved symbiotic relationship with their gut flora. During the dry season, herbivores eating grass stop slow-oxidation because they carry the water and bacteria around in their gut and help the plants decay faster by using bacterial action.

Here is a picture from over the fence of ungrazed brittle grassland. You can see the slow-oxidation in the grey color of the older grass. The new grass has trouble getting light and has a tough time growing through the stubble. This pasture is slowly dying and will turn to desert.

Below is an example of what a brittle grassland looks like after grazing without mulch. There is a lot of variety in plants but the system is very fragile and prone to damage. Without biomass, the surface layer dries out extremely quickly in our hot, dry summers.

This is an example of grazed brittle grassland without mulch.

Below is an example of grazed brittle grassland after one year of hay mulch and high-impact controlled grazing. You can just barely see the pieces of cow pie that our pastured hens will scratch apart to get all the undigested grains. Maggots also grow in the cow pies which the hens and wild birds feast on. If the maggots are allowed to grow without bird predation, the cattle are plagued by flies. The cattle and birds really help each other out. This is an example of the beauty and complexity of natural system design.

This is an example of grazed brittle grassland after one year of hay mulch.

Below is an example of a grazed brittle grassland after two years of hay mulch and high-impact controlled grazing. We have only 2275 liters (500 gallons) of water per day to irrigate 2.4 hectares (6.0 acres). That’s not very much water so irrigation didn’t do this. The hay mulch protects the topsoil and helps retain moisture. Any rain that falls will have a better chance of staying where it landed and not pour off the hills. Hay mulch also adds seeds to the pasture. We bring in local hay with seeds that are better adapted to the area.

This is an example of grazed brittle grassland after two years of hay mulch.

Below is an example of standard grazing on the left. Note how the ground is almost bare. The soil is exposed to the elements. During bad rainstorms the soil will just roll off the hill into the gully. On the right is the property we lease from a neighbor. After we heavily graze an area with cattle, the cattle naturally stomp and break down the old growth and naturally urinate and manure the area bringing in moisture and nutrients. We then lock the cattle out of the area so the ground can recover. We then cover with hay mulch any soil that becomes exposed or any area that looks like it needs more biomass. The hay mulch also has seed which naturally seeds the pasture. We use local hay so the strains are better adapted to the area. The upper right field has only had one year of hay mulch and very little irrigation. The lower field has had two years of mulch. This area was used as a wintering bedding down area. The area has not recovered yet.

Our neighbor on the left is using standard grazing methods. On the right is the leased property we have been managing. Any open soil is covered with hay to hold moisture and protect the soil.

Below, on the left, is an example of our lower pasture. On the right of the fence is over-rested land. What you can’t see is how bare the ground is on the over-rested area. (See the first picture in this series.) All the dry, dead plant materials make it hard for the new grass to get light. According to Allen Savory, without herbivores stomping, urinating and manuring the grassland it will slowly die out and become a desert. Grasslands and herbivores evolved together and need each other to survive.

Our leased pasture is on the left and on the other side of the fence is over-rested pasture. Without herbivores, over-rested pasture will desertify.

Below is our lower pasture. It has had two years of high-impact controlled grazing and hay mulch. After two years we can visually see how much greener the area we manage is from the surrounding properties. It appears Allan Savory’s methods work very well for brittle grassland in the Kamloops area.

Here is an example of our lower pasture after two years of controlled grazing and hay mulch. This method requires bringing in fertility from other areas until the land can support the herbivores.

The White Crowned Sparrows and Rock Doves have learned that they can find undigested grains and maggots in the cow patties. They happily break-up and spread the manure for us.

Friends wish Olivia's new calf a happy birth day! Wendy Cooluris came in to milk while we were out of town. Thank you, Wendy! Olivia is in the background. Photo by Wendy Cooluris.

On April 15, 2012 Olivia had her third unassisted birth. This heifer has a pure breed Jersey dame. The sire was Patty’s (Georgia’s) adopted calf from Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm. He was a Brown Swiss Shorthorn cross. The calf looks more like a Jersey but will benefit from the grass-fed genetics from Gort’s Gouda.

Olivia was two weeks overdue and we had a busman’s holiday booked that could not be changed. The day after we left, Olivia had her calf. We were very lucky to have a neighbor watching her for us and a friend willing to come and milk for a few days. Having a supportive community is very important for any urban homestead.

What a treat to come home to a beautiful heifer that will make a wonderful family cow for someone. I enjoyed my first colostrum shake of the year. My girls went wild over colostrum shakes, experimenting with different frozen fruit flavors.

Colostrum is one of the wonders of cows. Colostrum is considered a superfood and traditionally was consumed by the whole family once a year for its immune building power.

This is Olivia's third heifer. She seems to display her Jersey genetics even though she is a Jersey Brown Swiss Shorthorn cross.

Creamy Coconut Candy is a healthy snack that everyone enjoys. The recipe is very easy to make. My nine year old daughter can make this nourishing snack herself.

I have been looking around for a coconut milk that doesn’t have any additives. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any coconut milk, even organic brands, without additives.

Then I found out that coconut cream concentrate could be mixed with water to make a safe, additive free, coconut milk. Coconut Cream Concentrate is whole coconut meat that is ground into a fine powder. The high fat content gives it a creamy texture. I found a local supplier called Tropical Traditions Canada which works from Quesnel, BC. I also found a delicious candy recipe using coconut cream concentrate. This recipe is based on Candy Nut Crunchies.

The coconut cream concentrate jar will need to be heated with hot water and mixed until smooth before using. Tropical Traditions has a video on how to heat the jar in a bowl of hot water and mix the coconut cream concentrate.

1c organic coconut cream concentrate, warmed
2T local raw honey
1T organic virgin coconut oil
1tsp organic vanilla extract
big pinch of sea salt
2T organic raisins (optional)
1c soaked and dried macadamia nuts, walnuts, pecans, or almonds, chopped

After your coconut cream has been warmed and mixed, this is a good time to make this recipe. If your coconut cream concentrate has cooled and is hard, place 1c coconut cream concentrate in a 2c pyrex measuring cup. Place the pyrex cup in a bath of water in a sauce pan and gently heat until the coconut cream liquifies. Remove from heat and quickly add honey, coconut oil, vanilla extract and sea salt. Mix until smooth. Add your choice of chopped nuts and raisins. Pour the mixture onto a glass baking tray protected with wax paper. Put the baking tray into the fridge and let candy harden. When ready, remove from the fridge and break or cut into pieces. My children love the taste. This is candy I am happy to feed to my children!

I named this recipe after Dr. Jack Kruse because he inspired me to do what is called a biohack or n=1 experiment. I will talk more about his work in a later post. I am not doing the leptin reset, which is great for metabolic syndrome or diabetes. I am doing cold thermogenesis while balancing circadian cycles and following a ketogenic modified paleo diet. Here is Dr Jack Kruse’s Easy Start Guide.

Updated May 3, 2012: Here is Dr Jack Krase: Brain Surgery Without a Scalpel at TEDxNashville.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

I have just received this Call to Action from Margo McIntosh, Weston A Price Foundation leader for Wilmot, Wellesley and Wellington, ON. If you would like to sign the petition, we will have a copy at GO BOX Storage. Please come in person to sign the petition if you would like to see raw milk legalized in Canada.

Your help is needed to support the efforts of a new working group of raw milk consumers across Canada. We are the Canadian Consumer Raw Milk Advocacy Group and our website is www.rawmilkconsumer.ca.

ACTION TO TAKE
We have a petition that will be presented in the House of Commons in the fall of 2012. You can help by circulating this petition through social media, in your health food stores, to your contact lists and through your chapter members. You can also collect signatures for us at health shows, farmers markets, etc. Any way that you can help will be appreciated.  Even if all that is on your petition is your signature, we want you to mail it! The petition must be hand signed and the originals presented to the House in order for it to be taken seriously. The petition link is on the front page of the website.

ACTIVITIES
We are working on an education package for Members of Parliament both Federal and Provincial. A photocopy of the petition signatures will be part of that package.

It is imperative that we collect a significant number of signatures for this endeavor and we are counting on WAPF Chapter Leaders and members to help us make a difference in Canada. Working together as a countrywide effort instead of little pockets of well intentioned people will bring better results.

This effort is not limited to the collection of petition signatures. Our information package will be sent electronically to every MPP and MP in the country. For this we are recruiting people from each province to help us with both the distribution and the follow-up after a few weeks.  This will all happen in the fall. We will be need at least one person in every province to coordinate the efforts for their province with our help. My hope is that one WAPF Chapter from each province will take this on as a project, work together and help to make change happen. If your chapter wants to do this please have someone designated to join our working group so that you are kept in the know. If you are interested in this please contact me at margo@balanceyourapple.com or margo@healthharmonybalance.com and I will put you on a list to be kept informed.

For the Quebec Chapter Leaders and members, I was contacted by Bobby Gregoire from Slow Food Montreal. He can be contacted at info@slowfoodmontreal.com. Bobby helped me when we were organizing the rallies across the country for Michael Schmidt last November. His group is taking volunteers to do what sounds like exactly the same thing our group is doing and we will be collaborating on this.  We were going to have our website translated into French but will instead link to theirs when it is done. If you are in Quebec and would like to help out on a provincial level, please contact him. Please watch our website for that update when it is available. If you collect signatures for us in Quebec please send them to the address on the petition so they can be used at the Federal level. I feel that we will enlist the help of more French speaking people outside of Quebec as well if we link to a Quebec group and website that is working in collaboration with us and the same for them with English speaking people inside Quebec.

Thank you everyone! Lets work together to create change in Canada!

Margo McIntosh, RHN, RNCP, CGP
Registered Nutritional Consulting Practitioner
WAPF Chapter Leader: Wilmot, Wellesley and Wellington, ON

“I confess that I get quite upset when people like MPs tell me the Regulations are necessary for our “safety”. Indeed, I am now of the opinion that the word “safety” when used by politicians and bureaucrats is the most dangerous word in the English language. It is the only word that over-rides critical analysis in the population and leads the average citizen to willingly give up freedoms.”

Shawn Buckley is a constitution lawyer who lives in Kamloops, BC. He is being interviewed by Vinny Eastwood. Shawn Buckley talks about a number of court cases he has been involved with, including Strauss Heart Drops of Kamloops, BC and Truehope of Raymond, AB.

The stories about both companies are extremely instructive as to how our government perceives our autonomy, or lack thereof. He introduces a term called rent-seeking, where large companies influence governments to increase regulation which makes it more difficult for smaller companies to access the market.

Large companies like this policy because they can maintain a larger market share or even a monopoly by making it difficult for newcomers to enter the market. Bureaucracy likes this policy because it grows their power and influence. Please watch if you would like to learn more about Health Canada’s promises of improved safety at the rock bottom price of your personal freedoms.

Eating well on the SCD or GAPS is easy and doesn't need to take a lot of time. Here is some buttered scrambled eggs, topped with homemade winter salsa. What looks like bacon is salted pork belly. The side is a seasonal winter salad with homemade mustard seed dressing.

“People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are healed by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.”
Wendell Berry

Over the years I have been asked to compile a recipe cookbook for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This post is an index of all the recipes on eatkamloops.org. Some of the posts have many recipes not described in the title. I hope to better organize the recipes at a later date. Nevertheless, these recipes will be good for anyone on the SCD, GAPS or the modified paleo diet.

There will be a few recipes that are not safe for someone on the SCD or GAPS. I have put most of these recipes in an area called Transition, but use your good sense. Remember what my great grandfather used to say: “If the food doesn’t agree with you, leave it alone.”

When people come off the SCD or GAPS, the types of foods they can tolerate is very individual. It is important to slowly introduce a new food and watch carefully for negative symptoms. Sometimes it takes awhile for the old problems to come back. If old symptoms come back, simply remove the irritating food again.

The best advice is to go slowly with one new food and watch carefully for old symptoms. Compulsive eating can be another dangerous sign to remove the food. Here are two posts with more details on how to home test for food tolerance:
Coffee Substitute Taste Test
Food Intolerance Test: What NOT to Do

Some of us can never go back to the old foods. We have to move on from where we are. I would like to give just a few personal examples. Raw dairy was the first food I was able to reintroduce. It was a great surprise to me that I could consume raw dairy, since dairy is considered very hard to digest. I still cannot consume pasteurized and homogenized dairy. Everyone in the family can consume raw dairy products without problems.

Over a number of years, I have been trying to find safe sources of starches to increase my family’s carbohydrate intake. Partly, this is because half of my family needs more carbohydrates in their diet for optimum health. I tried potatoes, which appeared to be okay for me, but after about a month I would wake in the morning with totally numb hands. Everyone else in the family was okay on potatoes. I have found sweet potatoes agree with me and everyone in the family.

Many times I have tried to reintroduce grains without any success. Even using nourishing traditional preparation methods, grains are poison for me and I get immediate feedback that this food is not for me. After numerous trials, I am at the point of being off grains for life. My daughter can tolerate some grains but she can get into trouble if the amount of grains goes above some unknown tolerance point. Everyone’s reactions will be different so transition is a very personal journey.

Please remember that during transition the foods that will agree with me may not agree with you. If your child is on the SCD or GAPS, they will have an individual response to food too. So your child may be tolerant of a food that you cannot tolerate. In general, children heal better than adults. Always keep this in mind during transition. Go slowly and be careful. If you get into trouble, go back to safe foods and try again in four to six months.

Basics
Beautiful Bone Broth
The Grease Bucket: Something from Nothing
WAPF Shopping Guide: How To Assess Food Quality
Cooking with Grass-Fed Meats and Fowls
Making Raw Sweet Butter or Raw Cultured Butter
I Got Culture!
Learning Home Cooking
My Mother’s Dutch Oven
Eating Nourishing Traditional Foods While Traveling
Wise Tradition Beginner Video Series

Fermented Foods
Wild Fermentation
Lacto-Fermented Horseradish Dill Pickles
Lacto-Fermented Horseradish Condiment
Making Homemade Lacto-Fermented Whole Seed Mustard and Yoghurt Cream Cheese
Winter Storage: Kimchi and Lacto-Fermented Green Tomatoes
Apricot Chutney

Main Dishes
Traditional Sour Cabbage Rolls
Morels and Mushroom Season
Roasted Lamb Chops with Savory Stuffing
Just One Sit-Down Family Meal
Christmas Forest Stuffing
Holiday Dinner Menu
Upsidedown Pizza
Liver and Onions
Orange Ginger Dressing
Marrow Bones and Parsley Salad
Salted Pork Belly

Travel Foods, Snacks and Appetizers
Recipes of Nourishing Traditional Traveling Foods
Perfect Pate

Desserts
Swine Flu: Delicious Cure
Christmas Butter Tart Squares
Chocolate Brownie with Cream Cheese Icing
Lemon Coconut Cookies
Birthday Cheesecake
Chocolate Mousse Pie
Dr Kruse’s Creamy Coconut Candy

Transition
Cream, Cream and More Ice Cream
Birthday Chocolate Ice Cream
Creamy Spring Custard
Sweet Potato Custard
Vanilla Colostrum Shake
Walnut Maple Ice

This pastured pork roast was cooked with fresh local apples for a sweet, late summer flavor. The cucumber salad and buttered, stewed zucchini came from our garden. The coleslaw was made from ingredients found at the Kamloops Farmer's Market.

Salted pork bellies are a simple substitute for bacon. It lacks bacon's pink color but also the unhealthy chemicals. It's good to know what's in your food.

For people on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or GAPS, finding bacon that is safe to eat is very difficult. Almost all commercial bacon has sugar and chemicals restricted on the SCD/GAPS. Salted pork bellies are a very simple solution for making a bacon-like substitute. This recipe does not require smoking, just a bit of time in the fridge.

1-2tsp sea salt, freshly ground
1 pound pastured pork belly
3T organic raw cider vinegar (optional)

Cut the belly slab into about four inch sections. Put the sections of pork belly in a glass container. For every pound of pork belly, rub on 1-2tsp sea salt. You will have to experiment with the amount of salt to use, but saltier is better. Cover and store in the fridge for at least 24-48 hours.

The salted pork belly will easily last a week or longer in the fridge. When ready to cook, cut the section you want to cook into 1/4 inch slices. Keep the other sections in the brine; liquid will naturally come out of the meat.

Place the slices into a cast iron fry pan and cook until well browned. Salted pork belly will not have bacon’s pink color but will taste almost the same. You can even salt after cooking, if desired. Remember to save the fat to use for frying. Lard from pastured hogs is a good source of vitamin D.

Just a note about the optional cider vinegar. In my experience, adding vinegar to the salted pork reduces how long it will last in the fridge. I have had mold grow after a week, something that doesn’t happen with just sea salt. If you do add cider vinegar, cook the salted pork at a lower temperature to avoid burning.

You might be wondering why I add cider vinegar with all these down sides. I read a Weston A Price Foundation article called How Does Pork Prepared in Various Ways Affect the Blood? This is a very controversial article. Some WAPF members question the science in the article, but if you have trouble digesting pork protein, you could try this technique and see if pork becomes more digestible for you. Also, this technique works on the pork protein, not the pork fat. Marinating overnight cuts of pork with more protein will work better than pork belly, which is mostly fat. Also, short marination avoids potential mold problems.

Here is the salted pork belly after frying. It doesn't look exactly like bacon but it tastes like bacon. Remember to save the fat and use it in frying. Pastured hog lard is a good source of vitamin D.

This is the winter chicken house.

In Urban Chickens: Part I we had a bottomless box inching itself across the lawn, leaving behind decimated grass. Don’t be fooled – chickens will do a lot of damage to your lawn. However, a pristine carpet of green was not what our goal was. Nutritious eggs and the stress-relieving joy of watching chickens scratch and peck was what we were after.

However, there was still the problem of the encroaching bad weather. The small coop wasn’t insulated and there wasn’t any way to get a heat source to it. My first thought was to plant it in one place and stack bales of hay all around it. This may have worked just fine. In the meantime, my teenage son (you remember the one who prefers pounding nails to writing essays?) really needed MORE. More time outside; more constructive/productive activity. So began phase two – building an actual chicken coop.

Again much research went on online and on graph paper. Ultimately, in spite of my linear-thinking need to “have a tried and true plan”, we went with his need to “plan it all myself”. With the occasional help of his dad, teenage son went to work. We had a 5 foot by 5 foot “floor” left over from another project, so that is the size we went with as a base. The thought was that 25 square feet was enough for three birds. In retrospect, I would have made it a little bigger to allow for flock expansion.

In order to make this experience as instructive as possible, the coop was built as if it was a mini house. My electrician son wired in for a thermostat, a light and a heat lamp. A heavy duty extension cord snakes across the lawn from the house to the coop. My son made a double nest box and roost. We have hatches out two opposite sides so that we can switch off the pen area each year to let one side lie fallow every other year. This cuts down on parasites (so I’m told). All the walls, floor and ceiling are insulated with recycled pink insulation. The plywood sheets and 2x4s were bought new but the window and the door came from the dump. The stripped down chicken tractor was added to the side to make an outside pen. For most of the time until the snow came, though, the hens had the run of the yard and spent many happy hours pecking at grass and having dust baths beside the rhubarb.

So we entered winter number one with three contented chickens in a cozy home having no cause to worry about snow or cold. However, as is customary with life, the following year threw in some surprises and things changed yet again.

Here are the nesting boxes and perch. Chickens like to roost for the night.

This is the inside of the winter house. There is a water pail to the left and dry feed to the right. The chicken door in the center can be opened during the day and closed at night.