Backyard chickens have been something we have thought about for years. To have actually materialized a chicken coop is very exciting, especially while sticking to our budget. We searched the internet for different chicken coops and how-to instructions. We got the basic gist of caring for chickens but there were all these little doubts in our mind because some information pointed to disease, lice and hard-to-please chickens. All of these were something I didn’t want to deal with and I was wondering if building a chicken coop was the right thing to do. So I talked to some people in the area that had chickens and asked them some of my questions. This real-life experience of collecting information gave me a real peace about moving forward and opening up the topic with people around us provided us with access to materials at no cost! We are thankful for the generosity we experienced. There are plenty of places to find used materials so even if you don’t have chicken raising friends with some extra supplies you can find materials on Craigslist or just by being observant.

Buying a chicken coop is also an option. I saw some nice wood construction coops on our local Craigslist for around $200 but an outside run or other enclosure/protection would be needed so the cost wouldn’t stop there. As you might have guessed, we chose to build one to keep our costs down but having it look nice (which is all relative I guess) was important to us and we managed to do this using almost all recycled or reclaimed materiels. The posts and some 2 x 4’s came from neighbors who were doing a small remodel project and we saw a pile of wood so we inquired and behold! They didn’t offer it all to us but we got some great pieces. The rest came from another friend who had a gate from an old privacy fence that I took apart and a bunch of 2 x 6’s that had been used as concrete forms. For the roof, we came across some corrugated aluminum sheets. They originally covered an old well and we had to go take it down. This was a bonus for the owners of the property since they didn’t want it up anymore so it worked out for everyone. The chicken wire, nails and screws were all things that we already had on hand. All we had to purchase to make our chicken coop was 1 more roll of 2′ chicken wire, door latches and hinges. The latches and hinges weren’t exactly cheap though, they ran about $40.

We built our coop with all the things that our chicken-raising friends told us chickens needed. Shelter from the wind and rain, a safe place from predators, a light in their house during the winter (and a heat lamp when they are chicks), one nest per 4 hens and a place to perch. I won’t even mention the food and water, if you haven’t picked up on that basic need maybe raising chickens is not the thing for you right now. Shade in the summer is good too but consider raptors a predator if your area is not covered.

We embraced the existing features on our property and used a dog-house-like structure as the hen house so that was a big part of the coop that we didn’t have to build. This was where we had to divert from the chicken coop plans that can be found online and use our own creative abilities to get things done. Because we were working with used materials we did have to bend the rules of best building practices but it’s just a chicken coop and we aren’t building perfection. To make the door for the dog-house-like structure which is now the hen house, we framed an old window and put hinges on it. This gives the chickens a good amount of natural light which will help wake them up in the winter. We drilled a hole through the back wall which leads directly into a shed that has electricity so we are just running an extension cord for the heat lamp and the light. The same folks who gave us the roofing material also gifted us 2 6-panel solid wood doors. These were taken apart into nice little pieces of wood that formed the nest boxes. We still have a lot of the wood from the doors left over and will possibly use them to make some small planters. We bought a dowel rod because I had heard that some chickens are picky about their perch although lots of people use 2×4’s without incident. Go figure that I would get picky chickens though.  At the end we buried the chicken wire about 9 inches to deter digging predators. It’s hard to tell in the photos but once the coop was up I planted some rosemary, lavender, daisy’s and other flowers and vegetables in front of the coop; I will update in the summer when the plants have grown in a bit. Something you might consider now is looking around on Craigslist for possible structures that could be incorporated into your coop. Look in the “Free” and “Barter” categories and use search terms like; “used lumber”, “windows”, “free supplies”, “panel door.” We hope we have inspired you to begin making the idea of having backyard chickens a reality.

More Resources:
I love the Mother Earth News Publication and website and believe all the information needed can be found right on their site. Including a guide to different chicken breeds, articles on how to raise chickens in your backyard and portable mini coop plans.

If you must buy a book about raising your own chickens then check out these books here:

• Keeping Chickens: The Essential Guide
• Raising Chickens For Dummies
• Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock

Here’s a chicken coop that can be purchased online:

• Chicken Coop, Portable, for 4 to 6 hens

When applying sustainable living efforts it seems like we are always getting prepared for adding a new type of support in our lives. Lately, as you may have read in our Food to Lawn Journal our focus is being as sustainable as possible by growing our own food and this year we finally took the plunge and joined the crowd of people who are raising backyard chickens. At this point in time, most people know that raising chickens in a backyard can be affordable and that it can be loads of fun too…especially with kids. We just finished our chicken coop and we have moved our 3+ week old chicks into the hen house area where they are still protected from the elements and have a heat source.

Cost was a huge factor for us when we decided to raise chicks. We were able to build our coop with mostly reclaimed materials and some things we already had on hand. We’re excited about raising chickens in the backyard and can hardly wait to get our first eggs. Our plan is to share our experience of raising chickens in our backyard so we’ve added a new category so you can keep up with us and share any information you have as well so stay tuned! For now, here are some photos of our chicks on the first day we got them (left) and our chicken coop made with nearly 100 % reclaimed materials and you can now see the chicks in their new home and they are growing feathers.

 

I know I’ve been absent. What can I say…I ‘ve got three kiddos all 5 and under. We are having lots of fun and I’m feeling better than ever. Hopefully I will get more posts up as we begin our backyard chicken project. But for now I want to share a new find with you. I stumbled upon an internet trading post through a facebook ad of all things.

I signed up for an account, uploaded some pics of things I’m not in need of anymore and sent out my first trade today. My package is on its way to Bellingham, WA and it contains cloth diapers and a few special items for a new mama. In return I’m getting a $50 iTunes card. Sweet! So if you want to do some swapping yourself while you are lounging at home then head on over to SwapMamas.com. But you don’t have to be a mama to find something there. Even the papas have a special little place. Be sure to check for your local SwapMama group so you can keep things even cleaner by staying local.

Just a heads up. I think the site is pretty new and it does have a few awkward kinks. If you post desirable items and get a lot of response it can be somewhat overwhelming as the commenting/messaging system doesn’t flow very well. So if you get frustrated don’t worry, it’s not just you. Just take it easy and don’t worry about making an immediate trade. Just wait until you see something that really works for you.

We recently got off our lazy streak and began saving our kitchen scraps and garden debris for a compost pile. It doesn’t really take much time or energy and it makes a huge difference in the amount of garbage that leaves the house.  I used to think that the landfills needed my compostable material so that it could help break down other garbage but I did learn that biodegradable and compostable materials don’t typically breakdown or they take far too long to do so. The reason is because there is a lack of oxygen when the garbage is packed so tightly to make the most of the room at the dump or landfill.

Composting does not have to be difficult and you don’t need anything fancy to do it. You can leave your scraps in a pile and add dry lawn debris on to the top. You don’t even have to turn it. It will take much longer for the pile to turn to compost but it will eventually, probably within the year. So if you aren’t in a hurry for soil but you want to cut down on your garbage waste just start a compost pile. No big deal right?

If you aren’t into the look of a pile and just can’t seem to get over it then read about this inexpensive and homemade composter.

I went out to turn the compost pile yesterday and saw some larvae that I had seen before while turning garden soil but this time there were so many and they were all alive, writhing and wriggling. I quickly looked to find out what type of larvae these were and whether they were beneficial or not. Here were my results:

What I found were soldier fly larvae. The flies lay their eggs on top of the compost pile and the larvae feed on the nitrogen rich scraps that most kitchen compost has. The larvae helps break down the material into compost even faster than it would on it’s own so they aren’t a danger to the compost pile. The flies won’t invade your personal living space, just don’t keep the pile too close to your house.

The photo to the right is the picture of my compost pile with the larvae. The day I found them there were so many more soldier fly larvae and when I returned the next day to take a picture I could only find a few. I’m guessing the larvae traveled further down into the pile but I am hoping I didn’t disturb them too much.

There are some websites out there that explain how soldier fly larvae are used for bio-composting and vermicomposting. Some people are even calling soldier fly larvae ‘green technology.’ Sort of interesting that the best technology is the technology that humans didn’t invent.

Here is an article about soldier fly larvae and the compost pile from our very own University of Oregon