I have wanted to raise chickens for several years, and when my husband and I moved out to our new place in the county my dream could finally begin to take place!! I have learned so much already and I know I have much more to learn as we go. Currently we have 11 chicks that are about 2 months old...let the adventure begin!! :)
Last summer I was at a garage sale and found this old camper for the back of a pick-up truck and I thought, hmmm...that looks like a perfect chicken coop!!
I paid $25 dollars for it, hauled it home and we got it in place where we wanted it. First thing to check off my list: chicken coop...done!
We ordered our chicks the earliest we could in our area and got them April 7th.
36 hours old here!
We set up the brooder in our mudroom because it's still very cold in northern Minnesota in April, especially at night. We lost one the first night and two nights later one drowned in the water container :( I had read somewhere to put marbles in the bottom of the water tray to prevent that, wish we would have done that right away. But we did add the marbles and didn't loose any more chicks. The chicks are so small that if they get pushed into the water container, they might not be able to lift themselves out, which is one happened to one of ours.
Another thing we had to watch out for when they were very young was pasty butt, or sticky bottom...yes that rights...you have to check their butts!! Their poop can actually build up around their vent and they literally get "plugged up"! We found the easiest way to take care of the pasty butt issue was to run the chicks rear end under some warm water and keep gently wiping until all the poop comes clean. We found this way worked well because it kept them the most dry. We then dried their bottoms as best we could and I put a small dab of Neosporin or Vaseline around the vent to keep it moist...no, it's not the most pleasant job, but it's a must do because otherwise the chick will die if it's plugged too long.
Keeping the chicks in the brooder was pretty easy, we gave them fresh water daily and added food as they needed it. About every 3-4 days I sprinkled some more pine shavings in to cover up the poop and give them a fresh layer. We kept a heat lamp going 24/7 with a thermometer to keep on eye on the temp, we kept it around 90-95 degrees for the first week and then slowly raised the heat lamp to raise the temp by about 5 degrees every week.
We used a large plastic tote for the brooder until they were about a month old, then we took a large appliance box and turned that into their new brooder because they had outgrown the plastic tote. Our 11 chicks are 2 months old and we are still using the first bag of medicated chick feed we bought. They will start eating more the bigger they get, but I think 2 months on one bag at around $16 is pretty good. :)
Here they are about 1 month old, they are growing fast and getting their feathers in.
We knew they were ready to get out in the coop because their feathers had grown in, we couldn't keep up with getting them fresh water, and they were really starting to stink!!! Everything in our mudroom had a thick layer of dust! Time to move them! We needed to get the chicken coop (the hillbilly camper coop as my brother in law called it!), so we spent a few weekend days on it and got it ready. I build a few nesting boxes and put them in the corner for when they start laying. I also added a piece of plywood at an angle above the boxes so they wont roost on top of the nesting boxes and poop there.
I laid down some old laminate flooring that we tour up from our kitchen. This will make it easy to clean out the coop and scrub the floor.
We build a roost and I designed it so I can lift it up to be able to clean under the roost area easily without having to work around the roost legs.
We also stapled 1/2in hardware cloth over the windows on the inside.
Of course I had to do a little curb appeal!! I made a little patio in front of the door and hung some flower pots. We wrapped fencing around the whole outside along the bottom because the coop is resting on cinder blocks off the ground, we folded the fencing to have it lay out of the ground, I think this is called apron fencing. This prevents predators from digging and it's a lot easier than digging the fencing down into the ground.
We moved the girls out to coop and they didn't know what to do!! They were so excited to have more space to run around. It was still getting chilly at night so we kept the heat light on at night. We put out the 5 gallon water container and put it on a brick to raise it up so less straw gets in it to dirty it. We have also recently switched to the big feeder which is awesome because we don't have to refill it every day and we also put that on a brick to it doesn't get messy.
They are starting to explore the roost but still bed down on the floor at night.
Here's Sadie guarding the girls!
The last thing we needed to do was build the chicken run, we wanted the girls to be able to explore outside, they were getting "cooped" up in the coop. :) We have too many neighbor dogs plus our own black lab to let them free range so we build them a nice 8ft x 20ft run.
We did the same apron fencing around the whole run, laying part of it on the ground (after I took these pictures). The grass will grow up threw it and eventually dirt will burry it and you wont know it's there. We also plan to over the top with chicken wire.
First day exploring the outdoors!! Sadie was a little too curious!
The chicken run cost more to build than the coop, but we were still able to cut corners and use as much scraps as possible to cut down on cost. Our girls seem very happy with their finished home...hopefully they will stay that way and lay us plenty of eggs come fall!
They loved the watermelon rinds, third day outside.
My husband Max and Bella...happy man, happy chicken!!
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