I really wanted to raise chickens this summer, and was disheartened when we didn't close on the house until mid-May. I was certain we'd missed the chicks by too long, especially when finances didn't line up for a local store's last shipment. Lo and behold, we stopped back into the store two weeks later and eight Partridge Plymouth Rock chicks remained. We had been in the market for four-six, but they were so desperate to get them gone, they have us a "buy one, get one" deal. So now we have eight li'l peepers. Some will make food, and some will eventually be food.
Now that the chickens are about seven weeks old, they've outgrown the temporary brooder and we were getting desperate to get them out of our entry way. Welcoming people into our home to the smell of chicken poo wasn't working for us. So Husband set about planning a coop.
We learned some lessons.
Mother suggested we simply move the peepers into our garage, which is not stable enough to put our car in but plenty stable to serve as a shelter for livestock. I argued that it was too big, and would be difficult to keep warm in the winter.
Instead of listening to her advice, we spent ~$250 on materials to build a coop. Husband drew up plans, and I did my best to leave him to the project.
With limited carpentry experience, he found small technical mistakes at most turns, proving frustrating for both of us. It took roughly three days to build, working from about 6pm-8:30pm each night after work. Even though Mikhail was pretty handy at coming up with workarounds for our mistakes and wrong measurements, the structure was fairly crooked. In my haste to get the chickens out of the house, we opted to close 'er up and retrofit the coop with brooder boxes over the rest of the week.
However, when the moment of truth came, we lifted the sheet of plywood that was to be the rood into place and found... it was a few inches short for the length of the hut.
Bickering ensued.
At the end of the bickering, we opted to move the chickens into the garage after all, at least as a temporary measure. We haven't decided whether Husband will try to make the coop work or use the materials to build brooder boxes for the garage.
The peepers seem fairly happy, if a little cold at times.
Gee, though, we learned a thing or two. To be honest, I think we would have been happier finding plans online than trying to wing the design. That would have helped a TON with keeping us on track with framing allowances. Oh, and listening to my mother is usually a good idea.
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Other Things:
My coworkers are pretty surprised Husband and I leapt into the chicken thing (and the gardening thing) just weeks after moving into our home. I am SO GLAD we did. People are very concerned with deciding on the "right" time to do things, and it stalls us in pursuing our goals. Sure, Husband and I would have been financially and infrastructurally more ready if we had waited until next summer. We probably would have done more research and been more sure of what we are doing. But this way, we will have a whole year of experience (good or bad) under our belt by the time next summer rolls around. If we can keep our heads above water, we'll also have eggs and produce!
Moving the chickens into the garage and seeing them scratch around in the space also inspired me. Over this year I want to do a bunch of research on raising goats. I could really envision building in to make it a cozy space for a pair of milkers, which would also help warm the chickens. I'm getting ahead of myself. :)
Good luck with your chickens. Looking forward to seeing them lay eggs. Are your birds for meat too?
Thank you!
We are definitely interested in using some of them for food, although we haven't decided on a timeline for that yet. Our current thought is to wait until they begin laying and determine whether people are interested in buying eggs, whether we have too much production, and then which are poorer layers. The poorer layers will probably be a little gamy by then, but we're OK with that.