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As we continue to develop a sustainable lifestyle out in the woods, miles from any kind of town, having some chickens around has been sounding more and more appealing. Chickens could help us with many things; eggs and meat to feed us and our dog, and to sell; feathers for tying fishing flies for sale; manure for the garden, orchard, and pasture; garden bed tilling; fly population control; and understanding of and appreciation for life. In return we can give them protection from predators (except for the humane kind); sustainable population control; well balanced, natural diet; warm, dry, draft-free, super-spacious coop; varies, interesting, fenced outdoor landscape to explore; about 3/4 of an acre of pasture to forage, with possible excursions to other parts of the land; care for illness; and lots of love.

The basic idea is to give the chickens a mobile coop which can be moved between the garden and the chicken yard, depending on the season and how worn out the ground in the yard is. The coop and the yard will be in a corner of a 3/4 acre, fenced-in pasture, eventually being protected by dogs and accompanying sheep or goats. During the daylight hours, the birds will spend most of their time in the general pasture.

The chickens we start out with will come from a local farm, and could cost anywhere from $0 to $60. We plan on starting our flock with a couple of pullets and a cock, sometime in late winter, around the end of February or beginning of March, 2010. That gives us a few months to save money and collect all the materials we’re going to need, and build everything. The reason for the particular selection of birds is that they will be able to hatch and raise their own chicks, and teach them how to be self-sufficient. This way, we won’t need to specifically raise chicks, or have animals that depend on our hands for food rather than their own wit. Hens simply make better chicken-mothers than humans. The reason for the particular timing is that the birds we initially start with will most likely have been raised on a farm where they depended on store-bought grains, and in a yard smaller and with less diversity than what we can provide. By starting them out in late winter here, I think it will be relatively easy for them to adjust to the change in farming style, as there will be plenty of insects making their presence, and lots of fresh plant-life surfacing everywhere. Additionally, the chickens can scratch through sections of the garden while it’s still too early to plant many things in there.

Though they will eat mostly forage from the pasture, garden, and chicken yard, their diet will be supplemented with red-wiggler worms raised near the coop, maggots raised in a bucket inside the coop, garden fodder, and occasional kitchen scraps (if there are too many for the worms to devour).

In the various projects related to chickens, there will be a few things that have to be bought brand-new, but we will look for and use as many salvaged/recycled materials as possible. If there is anything that you would like to contribute to these projects (materials, connections, ideas, wisdom, time, money, etc.), please click here to contact me, or leave a reply at the bottom of this article if you just want make a quick comment.  Maybe you have a chain-link fence in your backyard that you’re tired of looking at, but you don’t want to take the time to remove… I could do it for you. Perhaps you know just the right breed of livestock guardian dog to suit a farm with chickens and goats. Or, maybe you think I’m completely wrong about something, and you want to correct me. Maybe you live in the local area and want to give me a hand with something.  I’m interested in considering anything you have in  mind.

Initially, it’s going to take a lot of energy to make all of this happen, as there are many things to prepare. Once everything is in place, however, they may last years and year. Here are the things we need to make happen:

• Mobile chicken coop
• Chicken yard
• 3/4 acre of fenced in pasture
• Increased worm population
• Trained livestock guardian dog

Mobile Chicken Coop (chicken trailer)

The mobile chicken coop is going to be made out of our old 21 ft. park trailer. The internal dimensions are about 7′6″ x 18′, which will make a very spacious home for a flock of 10 to 20 chickens when attached to the chicken yard. Some of the materials need to complete the project are already here on the land, and a few will need to be bought, or otherwise acquired (like scraps from someone’s project). Here’s the list:

• Seven 1/4″ x 4′ x 8′ concrete panels to cover the floor and first two feed of inner-wall around the entire perimeter. I’m choosing concrete over other materials because it is completely rot-resistant, tremendously decreasing the chance of needing to replace the floor. These will most likely need to be bought brand new. 7 panels x $22 = $150
• Two gallons of Snow-Roof sealant to seal up the roof that won’t stop leaking. May last for years and years. I just bought these yesterday at my parents’s hardware store. 2 gallons x $19.79 = $39.58
• 324 square feet of almost any kind of plywood. There are a few scraps of board laying about the land, and I think I can find people who want to get rid of their scraps. If I end up having to buy most of it, say, 150 square feet, the plywood would end up costing about $53.
• A role of plastic sheeting to create a vapour barrier in the walls. There is still plastic on the ceiling that hold up the insulation, so that is already accounted for. One roll costs about $9.
• Several 2″ x 4″ x 8′ boards for several things that will need framing, including a giant door in the side of the trailer that will swing upward to make a roof and create a dry space to work in just outside the coop. 15 boards will probably be enough. 15 boards x $0.89 = $13.35.
• Hinges for the giant door. These will most likely be found attached to something that doesn’t need them. if not, I can find them for a few dollars probably at the recycle store in Glenwood (Bring Recycling).
• Insulation. There is already plenty of mylar bubble insulation in the trailer. We recycled it from a local yurt manufacturer a few years ago.
• Scrap boards to build a few nest boxes. There is probably enough here on the land, but otherwise I can probably salvage them from someone’s project.
• Small tree-branches for roosts. We live in the woods.
• 36 square feet of 1/2″ x 1/2″ galvanized hardware cloth to cover cross ventilation holes, windows, and large opening created by the giant door. $0.44 per square foot x 36 square feet = $15.84
• Fasteners: screws and staples. We have plenty from old projects. Recycled from old projects, though the staples are unused, of course.

Expected cost: $250 to $300
Anticipated completion date: February 1st
Amount saved for project so far: $120
Amount spent so far: $39.58

Chicken Yard

The chicken yard will be a chain-link fence structure about 20-foot wide, 30-foot long, 6-1/2-foot tall. One-inch chicken wire will be buried about 2 feet into the ground and turned out a foot to keep critters from digging under the fence. Chicken wire will also wrap the first 3 or 4 feet of wall above the ground (maybe all the way up, but I’m not sure if that is necessary) The same wire fencing will also be attached across the top of the structure, preventing aerial attacks. A 10′ x 20′ space in the yard will be roofed over with something solid, like corrugated tin, creating an outdoor dry-space in the wet months and shade in the summer. Inside, there will be trees, roosts, a growing salad bar (with wire surrounding it so the chickens don’t eat it all at once), and other things to nourish, entertain, or otherwise provide comfort.

We intend to allow the chickens to free-range over a 3/4 acre of fenced pasture, but the chicken yard will be very useful for when we or a dog cannot be around to discourage predators from grabbing a snack. The yard will be big enough to be comfortable for 10 or 20 birds, especially considering the spacious coop, and frequent visits to the rest of the pasture.

I believe it is possible to find the materials for the chain-link structure for the price of removing and hauling them, or at least for a greatly reduced price through a recycling center or private seller. The corrugated tin roofing is often easy to come by, as it sits with no purpose in many people’s backyards,  including our own. The chicken wire, however, will probably need to be bought new, for about $168.

Expected cost: $200 to $250
Anticipated completion date: March 1st
Amount saved for project so far: $0

3/4 Acre of Fenced in Pasture

We want to allow our birds to free-range in the majority of the pasture because they will be able to find most of their food on their own, only being supplemented with home-raised worms, maggots, garden fodder, and kitchen scraps. Having the wide range will give them a diverse array of food and environments, making happy, healthy birds that are also healthy for us to eat.

We have about 3/4 of an acre in which we could regularly pasture the chickens, and fencing it in will be our first line of defense against large predators including foxes, coyotes, cougars, bob-cats, bears, stray dogs, and humans. A fence alone will not indefinitely keep out most of these predators, but it will provide a strong deterrent because of the effort it takes to pass the fence. Large cats are the least likely to worry about a fence, but they usually don’t come around in the daytime when the chickens would be out and about anyway. Once we have a livestock guardian dog or two, however, the fenced boundary will hold a lot more meaning. Also, about another year down the road, we would like to have a few sheep or goats around, so the fence will be useful for keeping them in.

The current plan is to make the fence out of 16-foot sections of cattle paneling, holding them up with t-posts driven into the ground. To enclose about 3/4 of an acre, it will require about 600 feet of fencing. That’s about 38 sections of paneling 76 t-posts, a few packs of t-post clips, and a roll of wire. I think it’s possible to find the paneling and t-posts for free or cheap if I look around enough. If the paneling and t-posts were bought brand new, altogether they would cost about $1800. The clips and wire probably wouldn’t be much more than $25. Alternatively, we could use field fencing instead of cattle paneling, which would cut the cost of new fencing in half, but when we get goats or sheep, it will not hold up as near as well

If it turns out that all the materials need to be bought new, we will probably wait on this fencing for several months after we get chickens until we can save up enough money. Going without a fence would put a huge damper in free-ranging our chickens in the pasture, but we could get by moving them back and forth strictly between the chicken yard and fenced-off sections of the enclosed garden.

Expected cost: $100 to $500
Anticipated completion date: March 1st
Amount saved for project so far: $0

Increased Worm Population

I recently started raising red wiggler worms (Eisenia Fetida). I finished making the bin for them just a couple weeks ago, and promptly found a few red wigglers under boards and carpet on the ground and put them in the bin with some kitchen scraps (banana peels, coffee grounds, etc.). The bin is about 4′ x 4′ square and 18″ deep, covered with a sheet of plywood. The plywood is attached to the frame of the bin with hinges, and covered with corrugated metal roofing, creating a heavy, weather-proof door to keep the worms safe from predators and excessive moisture during the rainy times of the year.

The current worm population in the bin is very small, only 10 or 20 worms at most, and it would take many months to increase their numbers to the point that they could be harvested for chicken food. To expedite the issue, the next time I’m in town I will be buying pound or two of worms (about 1000 per pound) from a grower and use them to inoculate the bin. If I don’t get them in town, I will order them on-line. Each worm can produce two to three cocoons per day, and each cocoon contains two to three new worms. The cocoons hatch in about 21 days, and the new worms reach sexual maturity and start breeding after about 60 to 90 days.

With 1000 worms, in about 60 to 90 days there may be between 4000 and 10,000. In another 60 to 90 days, their numbers could raise to between 16,000 and 100,000. If there population can increase to between 4000 and 6000 by late February, I think that there will be enough worms to sustain their population while feeding chickens and selling them as bait to the local fishers. If I get a pound Once the population increases to about 16,000 (16 pounds), however, a new been will have to be made if we want to raise even more worms, as the worms generally require about one square foot of space per pound, and the bin is 16 square feet.

This bin cost me only time and effort to put together. I found all of the materials laying about the land or salvaged from the chicken trailer when it was being cleaned out. The bedding material I found in the next field, under an alder grove.

Expected cost: $15 to $30
Anticipated completion date: March 1st
Amount saved for project so far: $30
Amount spent so far: $0

Click here to read more about the worm project

Trained Livestock Guardian Dog

A dog will be vital to the farm, as it will be our best defense against predators. Two would be even better, especially once we have even more livestock to keep safe. They will be able to enforce the boundary line that the fences create, keep the birds herded if we need, and provide us with protection from the increased number of large predators that will likely come for visits. It would be great if we could raise the chickens and dogs side-by-side form the very start, but it will be much easier for us to devote enough time to properly training dogs if we wait until next fall or winter. The period of time without dogs have an increased change of disaster for the chickens, but it will be worth the wait, as patience is more likely to bring prosperity. Also, if we raise chickens a few months or so before dogs, then we will be able to feed the dogs farm-fresh meat and eggs, mitigating the need for store-bought dog food.

We hope to find our dogs via a Humane Society location or similar avenue, but we are willing to pay if that is what it will take to get an appropriate breed for our purposes. Whatever happens, it’ll be about a year from now, so there is plenty of time to find the best breed. The intervening time will be a good opportunity to read  up on training livestock guarding dogs, and talking with others about their experiences with them.

Expected cost: $0-$300
Anticipated date of arrival: October 1st to December 1st, 2010

Altogether, all the preparations mentioned above could take as much as $1400, maybe more… maybe a lot more. Let’s see if it can be done for less! As these projects happen, I will continue to write articles here about what’s going on. I also plan to visit a few different farmers around the local area to see what some people are already doing, what’s working and not working for them, and what I might do the same or different. With their permission I will publish what I learn from them.