May 28, 2021
We built a small chicken coop out of wood from my brother's sawmill - having loaned him my “feather plucker” in exchange. I like to think that the trade actually qualifies us as good 'ole yankee farmers, but I suspect the fact that I even own a feather plucker tips the scale decidedly towards just being a red neck.
The coop is near our house on Mountain Spring and is hopefully sufficiently fortified to keep the chickens safe from impending marauders. Most of our chickens will remain on Prattling Pond happily co-housing with the pigs. If I could, I would attach a regiment of chickens to each grazing animal, but predation is always the limiting factor. The chickens are stellar at consuming food waste, cutting down on ticks, shredding leaves and breaking up manure. Even if they didn't provide eggs and the occasional kabob, they are a wonderful asset to any farm. On Prattling Pond where we keep the sows, the pigs keep the chickens safe. The chickens are free to roam to their hearts content, which they do, but when they are done they sleep contentedly on the backs of the pigs. The enormous sows don't do a whole lot of free ranging - mostly they prefer to spend the day sleeping, wallowing and making piglets. In our wooded pastures on Mountain Spring, the younger pigs move around a lot and unfortunately the chickens don't follow them. As they become separated the predation begins. If we only grazed the fields, we could build movable “chicken tractors”- but they don't work well with the trees and rocky ground, so this coop will be stationary and secure. The chickens will always have access to a run outside of their coop and when we are around we can let them roam free.
Immediately upon completion of the coop, all of the sheep entered it through the very small chicken door, and it was actually a while before they found their way back out again. I guess it was a house warming party of sorts, complete with leaving “hostess gifts” scattered across the brand new floor.