New Chicken Coop - Part 1

I spent last night drawing up the plans for our new coop and figuring out the material list.  I went back and forth with buying a shed kit, but the to get a kit close to the size I wanted was several hundred dollars more than building it from scratch.


What we've decided on is a 10'x6' coop, the inside would have 7'x6' (42 sq ft) of space for the chickens.  The other 3x6 space would be for storing food.  The idea is to be able to get eggs and feed the chickens while being out of the weather, while storing everything with the chickens.  The chicken area will have a small loft area above it for storing heat lamps, water heaters, and other supplied.  We're going to build the egg boxes so that they stick out of the chicken area, likewise with the feeders.  This way we can gather eggs and feed the chickens without having to walk through chicken manure (a plus for my wife).


Below is a visual of the coop plans.  I made this in about 10 minutes with Sweet Home 3D, http://www.sweethome3d.com/.

The middle wall in the image above will be welded wire with a door made of welded wire on a wood frame.  The egg boxes will come into the entry area, as well as the new feeders.  The new feeders will be made out of PVC pipe, about 3 feet long with a 180 bend at the bottom.  I saw a friend of mine in Seattle had these type of feeders that he built and they work great.


So, here is the material list to build the coop, broken out by where it is used:


Floor:
2x6x10' - 6
2x6x12' - 1 (cut in half to make 2 six footers)
7/16 OSB - 2 sheets


Long Walls:
2x4x10' - 4
2x4x12' - 9 (cut in half to make 18 six footers)
T1-11 Siding - 5 Sheets


Short Walls:
2x4x12 - 8 (cut in half to make 16 six footers)
T1-11 Siding - 4 Sheets


Roof:
2x6x10' - 1
2x6x8' - 6 (cut in half to make 12 four footers)
7/16 OSB - 3 Sheets
2 bundles of shingles
36' of drip edge


Trim:
1x3x6' - 10 (for the corners of the coop and sides of door)
1x3x8' - 3 (for the windows, top of door, and chicken door)


Most of the materials are now at the homestead.  We're going to try to get this built and the chickens living in it over the next 2-3 weeks so that we can get pigs in the barn, where we are currently housing the chickens. 


It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, stay tuned for updates.

Moving The Homestead

We are officially in our new home.  Technically we've been here since Thanksgiving, but with the holidays and everything that comes with that time of year, it didn't feel like we moved in until now.  Looking out at our pastures and the unfenced in parts of our property, we definitely have some work to do.  We want to change the fencing around so that the paddocks are bigger and fence in more of the property.  There is about 2 acres of grass/hayfield that we want to fence in and just let the cows eat it.

But back to moving.  Everything was pretty easy, then it came time to move the chickens.  Thinking about how are we going to get our chickens from the old homestead to the new one, an hour away, I spotted an old metal dog carrier that we had sitting in the wood shed. 

I waited until dark so that the chickens were calm and in their coop.  They looked a little cramped in there, but in hindsight it was probably perfect since there was really no room for them to move around and get injured during the drive.

We decided not to bring the old chicken coop, since I wanted to build a new/bigger one anyway.  Our barn had a section that was fenced off with gates, so we put up some chicken wire and put the chickens in there until a new coop was built.  I let them out to tour the pasture and eat bugs, but they seem pretty happy in the barn, with plenty of light.

Chickens in Barn

Our new chicken coop is going to be approximately 8x8, like a shed, with 1/2 of it for the chickens and the other half for storage.  I'll start construction this week, so look for a new series of posts detailing the construction of the new coop.

Wild Game Wednesday - Stewed Pheasant with Sage Dumpings

Here we are, Wild Game Wednesday's, presidential election edition.  I'm looking forward to us making this soon.  I reckon I need to get out pheasant hunting.  It's been a couple of years since I chased pheasants, but I love hunting them.

Stewed Pheasants With Sage Dumpings

Pheasants
2 large pheasants, cut up as for frying	1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 carrots, thinly sliced	1/2 tsp. pepper
2 medium onions, thinly sliced	1/2 tsp. mace
1 rib celery with leaves, chopped	2 tsp. mushroom catsup or Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. savory	1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp. marjoram
Dumplings
2 cups flour	1 tsp. rubbed sage
3 tsp. baking powder	2 eggs
1 tsp. salt	2/3 cup milk

1. Place pheasant pieces and the remaining pheasant ingredients in a casserole and add just enough boiling water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours.
2. When pheasant pieces are tender, remove them but keep warm in a pot with a little sauce. Make the dumplings while the broth continues to bubble. Thicken broth, if you have decided it needs thickening, with flour and cold water paste.
3. Stir the flour, baking powder, salt, then stir in the sage, being sure to distribute it evenly.
4. Beat the eggs with the milk and stir into the flour mixture. Drop spoonfuls of the dough into the boiling broth. Cover and cook gently for 15 minutes. Do not lift lid to peek.
5. Arrange pheasant pieces on a platter, surround with the dumplings, pour over some of the sauce, and serve remainder in a sauceboat.

Inheriting Ducks

We just got asked last night if we would like to keep the 4 ducks that are currently living on the pond at our new property.  After thinking about it for a while, we decided that we would.  Some quick research showed that they are good at eating bugs like mosquito larvae.  The previous owner said they don't require any housing either, which I find amazing considering the pond will freeze in the winter and it gets awfully cold in western PA.  So we'll see how it works out.  I have to find out what kind of ducks they are.  I'm guessing Pekin at this point, but don't know for sure.

There is something pleasant about seeing a farm with ducks on the pond.  I had thought about buying ducks for the last couple of years at our old house, but didn't know how they would do in the creek.  Hopefully we can get some nice duck eggs to supplement our current eggs.

Speaking of eggs, we can no longer keep up with demand.  If I delivered 1 dozen eggs to everyone that wanted them, just at my office, we'd have to buy another 6-12 birds.  We're talking about going from our current 7 birds to 12-18 birds in the spring.  I'm leaning toward 18 since the 7 we have now would be 2 1/2 years old next summer when the new ones start producing, and from our experience with Rhode Island Reds, they will be about at the end of their quality egg production cycle.  It is great hearing the feedback from people on our eggs.

"They are so much bigger than store eggs."
"Your eggs taste so good."
"The yolks are so much brighter."

Maybe we'll see a similar demand for duck eggs.