We finished the hoop coop early last week and moved the meat birds in to their new “home”. The tarping could use some work, but I was trying to save a little using some tarp scraps we had. Despite the ugliness it seems to be keeping the chickens dry (if not terribly warm). We will probably rework the tarping soon. Otherwise the chickens seem much happier to be out of the brooder. We expected to need to move the coop with the tractor but instead moved it both with the truck and by hand and it’s pretty easy to move (on flat ground anyway). We need to reinforce a few things, but otherwise I’m quite pleased.
The tractor is supposed to be back this week, but it was also supposed to be back last week and a few weeks before that. The dealer/service seems to find something new each time they look at it. I’m not terribly pleased with them right now. We’ve not had it for almost two months. Thank goodness we don’t rely on it at this point.
I’ve got almost all of my seeds started that need to be started indoors at this point. The girls even planted a few while they were here so I have some rather early corn (it was Eva’s choice) so we’ll see how that holds up. I’ve already had to pot it up. About the only thing not completely sprouted are my peppers, but that’s pretty normal. We are scheduled to start direct sowing and getting things ready to transplant in the next few weeks so it’s time to break out the tiller and potato boxes.
My parents made a surprise visit this week, up from Oregon. They brought a goat stanchion my Dad had made for us as a holiday present. My Mother always insists on being put to work so I took a day off of work and we made quick work of some outstanding chores:
- Trim goat hooves: This has to be done regularly and has historically been a two man job because we didn’t have a goat stand. It’s MUCH easier to do with the stand and some grain to distract the girls.
- Clean chicken coop: We do a full litter change of the cedar shed chicken coop by the house about twice a year. We also scrubbed and sanitized their feed and water, scraped down the roosts, and refilled everything including their oyster shells and the bedding in the nesting boxes.
- Fence and reseed backyard: This isn’t really farm related but needed to be done. Last year’s leaves suffocated the grass and the chickens have been keeping it well turned and any hint of reemerging grass eaten. The moss was starting to take over as well. So we fenced it off from the chickens so we could add some garden lime and reseed. Once everything is established the chickens won’t be able to keep on top of it.
- Planted more seeds: It was time to start my tomatoes and peppers inside. So far the only real failure I’ve had for seed starting was some chives and onions, but I already have chives so that’s not a big deal. I may try starting onions from sets since starting from seed is so problematic.
- Scrubbed the back patio: Chickens traverse the back patio alot and even like to hang out right outside the back door. This leads to lots of “presents” on the patio. I still need to scrub off the front patio.
It wasn’t really on the chore list, but Mom tends to bring out the gardener in me. We broadcast a bunch of “wildflower” mix and seeds I’d saved in to the front flower garden now that it’s been fenced off from the chickens. Maybe I’ll have a cut flower garden after all!
About the only spring chores that are left right now are to do the spring cleaning of the goat shed (waiting on the tractor for that), finish the hoop coop, and to prep the garden. We are off work next week so I’m sure there will be lots of activity.
One of our farm projects over the last couple weekends has been to build a “hoop coop” for the meat birds. Our intent is to use it as a chicken tractor for them.
After doing some research, Bengt settled on roughly using this design. I think in part because we already had the necessary stock panels. We use them for creating temporary pastures for the goats occasionally and have plans to use them more permanently in the future.
Our parts list:
- 5 1×4’s ($3.82 each)
- 4 2×4’s ($2.76 each)
- 1 box of medium fence nails ($3.24)
- 1 box of large fence nails ($3.34)
Grand total of $40.10 with tax. I don’t remember how much the stock panels actually cost us, and the poultry netting, zip ties, hinges, and latch are things we always seem to have around. I think we also came out with an extra 1×4.
We still need to put up the tarps, roosts, complete the front wall with poultry netting, and add a “handle” for the tractor to pull it. Unfortunately we also realized that we did the bottom wrong and will need to add skids. The plan is for the meat birds to move in to the hoop coop this next weekend. I’m a little nervous because it’s been getting relatively cold at night still and this design provides less protection from the colder temperatures than the range house.
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