Tag Archives: urban chickens

Urban Chickens: Part III

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covered-run

This is the new covered run to keep the hens out of the neighbor's yard.

GUEST POST by Maureen Lefebvre

When living on a homestead, however small, the story never really ends. The new chicken coop was wonderful. The old chicken tractor became the home of the new chickens until they were large enough to hold their own with the older girls. We had to deal with an outbreak of lice at one point. After trying all the natural remedies I could find, I resorted to one application of a garden pesticide. The lice were gone instantly. Unfortunately the health of one chicken had deteriorated too far to recover and she had to be put down. You?d think chickens with lots of room to roam could get along with each other, but no. At one point two of them took to pecking on their sister. This is apparently a chicken trait and as quickly as it started, it was over.

One of my greatest joys is to look out my kitchen window at the chickens pecking at the grass, chasing after bugs and creating dust baths. I do this many times in a day ? a mini relaxation break. One day last summer I looked out and to my horror the hens were in our neighbor?s yard! Immediately my youngest son was sent out to retrieve them while I hastened over to explain what this young child was doing in his backyard. It was with complete surprise that I learned from him that the chickens had routinely been into his garden over the summer. His disapproval was apparent and understandable, although I did wonder why he hadn?t mentioned it. I offered a carton of fresh eggs as apology, but was rebuffed. Oh, well. So, obviously, the girls had to be contained. My teenage son was again recruited and the next building project became an enclosed, covered outside pen. This was perfect for the winter months it turned out, as the chickens could be outside every day, but didn?t have to contend with the snow. I spread a shredded bale of straw over the ground and they were content. Now that the weather has improved and the grass is greening up I?ve extended their grazing space by propping up a woven wire fencing in a half-circle outside the door to the coop. From the house the fence is almost invisible and it looks like they instinctively know not to range more than ten feet from home.

What is in store now on our urban homestead? More projects, of course. The coop still needs to have siding on it. I want to change over the nest boxes to something easier to clean (with the nice weather a good spring cleaning is on the agenda). We?re thinking of milk goats and research on that topic is a hot item in the house. For that we?ll need a small structure and really, really secure fencing. My teenage son is in the process of redoing my raised-bed garden as the railroad ties are completely rotten. I?d like to put the birds in there for several days before I plant. It?s all a process and is never completed, but enjoying the journey is as important as the end result. Keeping in touch with your creative side in whatever form that takes is one vital component of the total health spectrum.

covered-run-house-tracter

Here is the new covered run attached to the winter house. On the far right side is the chicken tracker for moving the flock around the yard.

Urban Chickens: Part II

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GUEST POST by Maureen Lefebvre

chicken-house

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.

chicken-perch-nesting-box

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

chicken-water-feed

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.

Urban Chickens: Part I

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GUEST POST by Maureen Lefebvre

chicken-tractor-book

A permaculture guide to healthy hens, eggs and soil.

We left our beloved Pritchard homestead under less than ideal circumstances. Fifteen acres, river front, cows, chickens, hayfields, barn and shop. We had it all. The story of that parting is best told in person over a cup of hot tea.

We had made the decision to move into town, but my line in the sand was drawn. I WOULD have my chickens. And so began the search for the ideal house with the ideal bit of town property suitable for a backyard chicken coop. Internet searches and phone calls to city hall revealed that indeed, you needed to have at least one acre to have chickens. Deeper reading of past city council discussions brought up comments indicating that if neighbors didn?t pose a problem, bylaw officers wouldn?t come pounding on your door demanding to confiscate your birds. In any case, the house we ended up with is in rural Barnhartvale, on not quite one acre, with neighbors who are used to horses and dogs, bears and deer. A few chickens wouldn?t upset the ecological balance.

The problem now became what to house these birds in. Our previous property came with a father-in-law who was quite the handyman. He built a sturdy chicken coop and pen that served us well for years. However, he wasn?t making the move with us. So we began the three part journey to chicken ownership satisfaction ? a journey that hasn?t quite ended four years after we started.

My handy teenage son was recruited to build our first chicken home. We home school and this satisfied his love for carpentry, especially when he could be outside pounding nails instead of inside writing. Based on the concept by Andy Lee a chicken tractor was soon in the conceptual stage. After much discussion and pages of graph paper designing, we soon had a rectangular, floor-less box moving its way across our back yard. This box was 8 feet by 4 feet by 30 inches. One half was an open pen. The other half was closed in with an attached nest box and a roost. The water and food containers sat on the ground. Both halves had lift-able lids with handles. The lid of the open pen was chicken wire.

By moving the pen to fresh grass every few days this size was plenty for the three chickens that we acquired from a Vernon farmer. I chose to keep the flock to three so as to perhaps be a prototype for an urban chicken raising example should I ever take part in political action.

So there we were happily enjoying our fresh eggs every day. But winter was coming. How would we handle cold and snow?

chicken-tractor

The chicken box is not exactly as we originally built it. In the meantime we?ve gone on to something else and this has been adapted for a different use. But the basic idea can still be seen.

back-yard-eggs

The joy of an urban flock is happy hens, delicious eggs and healthy soil.