Monday, December 12, 2011

Top Tips on How to Build a Chicken Coop

Filed under How To Build A Simple Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

chickencoopguide.online-trusted-sources.com Building a coop requires some expertise in construction; however, if you have a guide or instructional manual on how to build a chicken coop then the process is quite simple that even non-carpenters can build excellent hen houses. There are several aspects that you must take note, however, if you are going to build a coop for the chickens; it is best to know some of them so that your coop is perfect for the livestock. Always remember to focus your design for utmost health and comfortable living for the chicken. Both comfort and health is vital to the success of poultry-raising. Providing total comfort for the chicken is important to the quality of meat when sold. Chickens under constant stress due to overcrowded coop or unhealthy environment inside the hen house will produce poor quality meat; while chickens that are living with total comforts with their coop have much better quality meat that is very tender. Aside from that, healthier chickens have good appetite; resulting to heavier growth. Thus, you will also end up having more sales considering that most chickens are sold based on their weight. Subsequently, the heavier the chickens that you are able to raise the more sales and income that you will also get. Moreover, in order to keep the chickens from acquiring various health issues, it is imperative to keep the coop clean at all times. Cleanliness is very important because affects the health of the chicken. Hence, if you …

Thanks for SUBSCRIBING! Farming eggs is possible by throwing eggs to spawn several chickens. Place water so that any eggs that are laid float toward you. At about one hour the chickens should have produced enough eggs for you to break even; The simple “small room” method is good for starters, but it’s possible to create fancy multi-level structures that drop eggs to the player as well. Hint: Chickens will always stay above water suspended by signs and ladders, but the eggs they lay will sink down. Check out our channel for more Minecraft videos

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MOUSE INFESTATION AT W2 GE!

Filed under Toy Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

lolol other people were doing it too but i had that one certain area… some random event that jagex advertised and i felt like joining, wasted 500k on toy mice lolwut?
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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Raising Backyard Chickens

Filed under Raising Chicken. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Rooster Jim and The Chickster (aka, Jim & Martha Schwartz) have been raising chickens for decades. Their kids raised them. Their grandkids raise them. And while familiarity may breed contempt among humans, raising thousands of chickens has not diminshed Rooster & The Chickster’s affection for their feathered friends. At the Boise Fall Home Show, which takes place at Expo Idaho from October 22-24, Martha will be sharing her tips on getting started with urban poultry in her seminar, “”. The seminars will take place on Friday (October 22) at 7:30 pm, and on Saturday and Sunday (October 23/24) at 1:30 and 3:30 pm. Jim will also be displaying his amazing array of backyard chicken coops, which you can buy already constructed, or purchase the plans and materials list to build your own. What are you waiting for? You can get discount coupons for the Boise Fall Home, which you can present at Expo Idaho for a 2-for-1 ticket deal, at the Boise Co-op Customer Service Desk.
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Build Chicken Coop

Filed under Chicken Coop Ideas. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you s fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

www.ChickenHousePlans.ws Learn to build a Chicken Coop Quickly and Easily with this great book. These Chicken Coop Plans will show you how to . The book also covers the small chicken coop plans and chicken coop construction, how to make a chicken coop, there are so many chicken coop ideas,small chicken coops are covered as well. chicken coop plan chicken coop house chicken house plans created at animoto.com
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My Two Chicken Coops and Runs.

Filed under Poultry Coops. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

My 2 coops and runs. Ifyou have any questions about raising backyard chickens let me know.
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Quick inexpensive easy chicken coop

Filed under Simple Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

I needed only temporary housing for 25 jumbo fryers. At night I bring the birds to the inside and close the door. The plywood laying across the corner is to keep the occasional flyer from jumping from the “roost” and over the wall.
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Visit easychickencoop.littlenesteggs.com for more information. Easy chicken coop plans for a DIY chicken coop that you can finish in 3 days. Easy step-by-step videos will help you build your own chicken coop fast!

Get all the tips and secrets for building chicken coops in fast and sturdy. You can make taking care of chickens a breeze with the right chicken coop conditions.

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Cedar Shed for future Chicken Coop

Filed under Shed Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.



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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Large Chicken Coop Assembly Instructions, Hen House, Chick Brooder Coops, For Sale Now

Filed under Chicken Coops For Sale. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Chicken coop assembly for CoopsNMore.com large chicken coop. Great chicken coop and fast easy assembly. Our large chicken coop holds up to 10 full size chickens and shipping is FREE. Buy yours from CoopsNMore.com today. Perfect for city or hobby farm chickens.
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Build A Simple Chicken Coop: The Gains To Building Your Own Hen House

Filed under Build A Simple Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

There’s lots of folks who would really like to acquire their own simple chicken home within their backyard. There are also a number of reasons why so many people do not have them currently. The vast majority merely can’t locate the appropriate product that could be an ideal match for their garden or they can locate them but they are also expensive. For this reason you can start to appreciate the advantages of what many are already taking pride from and that is being able to build a simple chicken coop that is tailored to your needs and you can take the pleasure in being able to say – that was me that built that.

You do not have to have an engineering background. A lot of the components in some of the custom plans that are available to show you how you can build a simple chicken coop include the instructional drawing and the materials necessary provided within the design plan. A lot a lot more often than not you are going to locate that the majority from the materials you’ll need will likely be already available to you personally. They consist of the odds and ends that you probably already have lying around that you can use to get able to start to build a simple chicken coop that you can start on straight away. Some of the plans available around the market are so simple that you can have you chickens living in their very own quarters out within your backyard in as small as a couple of days time.

A couple of bits of timber and a handful of nails and you are pretty much great to go. That’s basically the structure of the simplest plans and technical drawings that you may come across. This is the materials you are going to will require to your challenge and that is what to perform with them. After a few days going by means of your action by action plans, you may look at your project and say to your pals and family that you were the one that was able to build a simple chicken coop with out having to deliver within the hired aid of construction workers to place things collectively.

It actually is that simple to build a simple chicken coop which you and your chickens can get pleasure from for years to arrive. Just believe…no a lot a lot more trudging around having to complete the tidy up chores. Your customized build can include a range of amenities that take the problem of clearing up the chicken pens to much simpler level. It’s even much more advantageous for you should you happen to assemble your project on some sloping land. That will make things so much a lot easier for maintenance.

For far a lot more information on how you can build a simple chicken coop – come on by and pay a check out to our web site at http://www.squidoo.com/build-a-simple-chicken-coop


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Build a Simple Chicken Coop


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How To Build A Chicken Coop

Filed under Chicken Coop Pictures. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Thousands of people are building chicken coops in their backyard, and learning how to build a chicken coop will save you hundred of dollars ,and it is so simple that everyone can do it , just following the step by step guide. Even someone with no experience can build his own chicken coop,it takes time but you can save money and design it in your own.My advice to you is before you start construction, you need to have an idea in what you are doing, a plan or sketch on the exact size of your coop.

 

Where to find the right plan?

We are here to help you. It is important to find the right plan when building a chicken coop. There are many things you will need to know before you even get started, and the right plan should deal with all that. There can be thousands of plans, designs, and ideas for buildings  chicken coops,but we have put all of these ideas into one simple and easy to follow “Build Your Own Chicken Coop” guide. Building your own chicken coop will save you a lot of money, and you can also customize the coop  as well as your desires. You can create a coop that you love and one that will work for you. You need to go through careful planning before you go to the construction process.



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Friday, October 7, 2011

Smart Tips for Your Building Chicken Coop Project

Filed under building chicken coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

When you are considering building chicken coop plans it would be easier to start out with some smart tips to make your project a success.

There are hundreds of different chicken breeds in existence and there are even hundreds of different types and varieties. The different physical characteristics define the way they look and the way they act. It doesn’t take much money to start raising chickens in the backyard and nor does it take a lot of space. These two factors alone make raising chickens an option for many people.

You can have many benefits from raising chickens some better known than others:



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How to Raise Chickens Like an Experienced Owner

Filed under Raising Chickens. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

www.howtoraisechicken.com – If you think that raising chickens is an easy job, then think again. While chickens may be easy to rear, there are many things that you have to learn first on how to raise chickens like a farmer would.

A few Raising Chickens fun I can recommend:

Get all the tips and secrets for building chicken coops in fast and sturdy. You can make taking care of chickens a breeze with the right chicken coop conditions.

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Build Chicken Coop Ideas are Going Strong as Economy Worsens

Filed under Build A Chickencoop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

 

I am sure you are aware that in light of recent economic events it’s no wonder that people are becoming more concerned than in recent memory about their ability to feed their families in the coming weeks, months, and perhaps years especially if you are working less and have more time on your hands. That’s why the idea to build chicken coop is one that many average, ordinary, everyday people are considering.

Actually, most are taking it a measure further and deciding that they must develop a portable hen house rather. Physical stores can’t keep books with hen house intentions on the shelves because they have become very popular. You will find a lot of reasons to construct a chicken coop but, how are you aware it is the right factor to do?

Before You Buy Your Build Chicken Coop Design

It is good to possess grand ideas and start planning. But, before you decide to build chicken coop for fresh eggs you have to make certain it is the right move for the community and where you reside. Many people reside in communities or towns which have strict limitations when it comes to livestock.



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Spicy Indian Instant Chicken Recipes

Filed under Chicken. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

1 .Chicken Cutlet

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups instant mashed potato flakes
1/2 cup water
8 oz ground chicken
1/2 cup onion (finely chopped)
1 large egg
1 tablespoon cilantro (corriander leaves)
1 tablespoon green chillies chopped
1/4 tsp garam masala and salt
oil for fry

Method

In another medium bowl, stir potato flakes, water to mix and remaining cutlet ingredients.Stir until smooth. Divide in quarters, using wet hands, shape into 4 oval patties,each about 5 inches long and 3/4 inch thick.
Heat oil in a nonstick pan over med heat add cutlets and cook per side until crusty and cooked through. (Cook for 4 min per side.) place on plate along with tomato and onion salad.

2. Chicken Pakoda

Ingredients
1/2 kg chicken (without skin & bones)
100 grams corn flour
100 grams custard powder
salt and chilli powder to taste
clove and elaichi powder
oil.

Method

Semi liquid paste of corn flour and custard powder is made by adding water and salt, chilli and elaichi clove powder are added to taste.
The chicken pieces are mixed with the semi liquid paste and kept aside for 30 mts and later fried in oil for 20 mts and your crispy and delicious chicken pakoda is ready.

3. Chicken Manchurian

Ingredients
For making the chicken marinade:
Boneless chicken – 3/4 lb
(cut into 1 1/2 inch length thin strips.)
All purpose flour or maida – 3 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste – 2 – 3 tsp
Ajinomoto – 1/2 tsp
Soya Sauce – 1/2 tbsp
Chili sauce – 1 tsp (optional)
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying
For making the sauce:
Ginger, finely chopped 1 tsp
Garlic, finely chopped 1 tsp
Green chillies, finely chopped 2 tsp
Spring onions – finely chopped – 5 tbsp
Soya sauce – 1/4 tbsp
Chili sauce – 1/2 tsp (optional)
Tomato sauce/ketchup – 1 tbsp (optional)
Black Pepper powder – 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Ajinomoto – a pinch
Chicken stock – 1/4 cup
(or use Maggi/Knorr Chicken Soup Cubes)
Maida/All-purpose flour with water
(mix 3 tbsp of maida & 1/4 cup of water)
Oil 2 tbsp
Salt To taste

Method

Combine all the ingredients for the Marinade (except oil) and set aside for 1/2 – 1 hour. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Deep fry the chicken pieces a few at a time.
Drain when golden brown and cooked. Keep aside. In another pan, heat oil, and then add the chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies and finally some spring onion and saute for a minute. Add the soya sauce, chili sauce/tomato sauce, pepper, sugar, ajinomoto, stock and salt.
Add little water and bring to a boil. Add the fried chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Then add the maida and water mixture and stir so that no lumps are formed. Cook for a few minutes until the mixture thickens slightly.

4. Chicken 65

Ingredients
Boneless Chicken – 1 – 1.5 lb cut
into bite sized pieces
Chilli powder – 2 tsp (or to taste)



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Avoid 5 Critical Mistakes When Choosing The Site For Your Chicken Sheds (Chicken Coops)

Filed under Shed Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

One of the most ignored, but vital choices you can make concerns the location of your chicken sheds. Choosing the wrong spot can cause sickness amongst the flock, decreased numbers of eggs, dirty and sullied eggs, and other damaging consequences.

Error #1: Not Choosing an Area with Sufficient Drainage

Perhaps the one single item that will most often take all the enjoyment out of growing chickens is locating your chicken sheds in areas with deficient water drainage. This can lead to water buildup, sludge, drenched litter, sullied eggs, diseases, and a lower number of eggs produced.

If the water is not able to drain correctly it will result in muddy areas. When chicken droppings are added to the mixture of soil and water, it can yield an unhygienic mire. This can be tracked into the main chicken shed area where the food, water, nest boxes, and litter are located, which will cause the litter to get drenched and the eggs and poultry nests to quickly become sullied. Chickens must be provided with an unpolluted coop to continue being healthy and provide you with lots of eggs.

Error #2: Putting together Chicken Sheds that are Facing A Bad Direction

When making a chicken pen you should face it southward if at all possible. This is mandatory in places where the wintry months are brutal. South facing chicken houses will have the highest sunlight which will serve two very critical purposes. It can keep the chicken sheds a bit warmer through the cold weather which will usually help the interior stay drier. And bear in mind, chicken sheds that are drier will provide you with extra eggs and less illness.



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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Chicken Coop Ideas

Filed under . There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Nowadays, pursuit of health has become an unshakable faith. Healthy diet is certainly a key part in a healthy life style, which means you need to eat the right food. So it is not a surprise if you want to keep away from buying eggs full of antibiotics and to build your own chicken coop.

Have a flock in your backyard, try a little villeggiatura and enjoy green and safe eggs everyday, isn’t it sounds lovely? Before starting the project, it is important to make a plan first. Here are the things you need to take into your consideration: budget, location, size, light, ventilation and predator. Let’s talk about these one by one.

Budget, this is the key factor of your whole plan. How much can you spend on the chicken coop may decide whether your plan can be accomplished eventually. After all, this is building a chicken coop is meant to color your life, not to influence it. What’s more, there is another part in the budget, time. How many hours can you spend on building the coop, maintaining and cleanning it every week ? These two answers are things you should find out at the very beginning.



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How to Build a Simple Chicken Coop

Filed under Build A Small Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

tinyurl.com – more info about . The simple chicken coop need very basic part and also some small investment. You can learn for your chickens and you won’t even shed a lot of money in building it. You just need to invest a little of your time and effort plus some materials that you will need for the building. First, decide on the size of the flock. Make sure you consider the nesting box for the hen and if you want petting the roaster. Second, decide on the appropriate size and it’s comfortably accommodating fully grown chickens. The hen need warm condition to lay egg. Third, consider your climate in the design mainly about the insulation and ventilation. Fourth, Consider How Many Waterers and Feeders You Need. The usual ratio is four chickens to a feeder and waterer. Fifth, allow for room to exercise and be natural. The chicken run will be nice. Lastly, keeping predators at bay.
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Raising Chickens in the City

Filed under Raising Chickens. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.



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Friday, September 30, 2011

Materials Used in Chicken Runs and Coops

Filed under chicken runs. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Chicken runs and coops can be thought of in two parts, one part the materials and design, or two the social make up and habits. I will review some material variations with some tips and recommendations for the new and seasoned chicken ranchers.

Basic Materials

Most chicken runs and coops are made up of lumber and chicken wire, fashioned in different shapes and sizes. There are some chicken ranchers that want to keep their chickens a little bit more out of sight, while at the same time giving the chickens their proper ventilation. The option the ranchers use is a form of plywood called peg board. The peg board has multiple holes made from the factory and it allows air to flow through for good ventilation which is an absolute must for the health of your chickens.

Alternate Your Peg Board

If you want your chicken runs and coops to have a different look or increase ventilation, try using peg board on the side walls only and use chicken wire on the top of your run for protection from predators. If you are not satisfied with the ventilation of the top only method, try using the peg board on top and chicken wire on the side walls. The peg board on top method allows a good camouflage against hawks and other flying predators and still allowing for some sun to penetrate.



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Standard Things You Must Consider In Creating Small Chicken Coop Plans

Filed under small chicken coop plans. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

If you are intending to experience a number of hen chickens you will need a little place for them to keep. Don’t concern yourself in case you nevertheless don’t have a house for them since you can readily build one particular employing easy to follow small chicken coop plans. There are numerous chicken coop strategies available on the internet otherwise you may also construct your personal.

Do you know the items that you have to look at while preparing to develop the chicken coop ?

Find The Best Small Chicken Coop Plans That You Can Use To Build Chicken House Perfectly –> SMALL CHICKEN COOP PLANS



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The Felice Brothers-Run Chicken Run

Filed under chicken runs. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.



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Be a FarmVille Master With a Million Dollar Villa on a Luxury Farm With Every Toy

Filed under Toy Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

FarmVille is one of Facebook’s signature social networking games and it’s going to keep you harvesting virtual crops and milking virtual cows for the next few years of your life. Don’t worry – you’ll be doing it all in the name of good fun and stress relief so welcome to your new career as a farmer. Your life is about to get a lot more interesting.

FarmVille begins with a tiny plot of land and a dream: build an incredible farm and help your neighbors do the same. It’s a friendly community of people that you already know and love, each trying to construct stables, collect rare items, harvest lucrative crops, and train puppies to do tricks. It’s one of the most in-depth social networking games on the Internet, with elaborate co-op modes, neighbor bonuses, and items that turn your farm into an Internet paradise of crops, mansions, trees, and pools. You have to play to see just how elaborate and rich this game really is.

The fun begins by customizing your farming avatar to look true to yourself, plowing your land, planting your crops, and waiting for the harvest to come in. In the meantime, you can begin spicing up your environment by adding a few decorative items to your farm and adding a few neighbors from your friends list.

Friends play a big part in this game. You’ll gain points by fertilizing their crops on a regular basis, be able to send them gifts that help improve their farm, and sometimes work together in co-op projects. FarmVille always lives up to its name as a social networking game. Friends share fuel, collectible items, gifts, and even merchandise in a “farmer’s market.”



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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Easy chicken coop on wheels

Filed under Simple Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Creative Coops makes it easy to move your chicken coop around your garden. Plenty of chicken coop configurations available. Go to creativecoops.com
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Saturday, September 24, 2011

Build a Chicken Coop Today Safe Weather Resistant

Filed under How To Build A Simple Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

top-3-products.info – READ MY REVIEWS BEFORE YOU BUY ANY PRODUCTS ON DIY CHICKEN COOP BUILDING. chicken houses sheds buildings rearing breeding coop coops small for sale plans build building free glorified easy to designs runs and inexpensive movable moveable frame com where buy large best forsham australia old used big mobile modern inside home making online simple pictures winter custom ready made country cool fancy metal urban commercial uk au plastic wineville designer wa photos of second hand cleaning cute perth nz wholesale heaters heating cheap
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GetCoopPlans.com Easy to Build Chicken Coops For Beginners.
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People Are Choosing to Build Hen Houses Themselves

Filed under Build A Chickencoop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Lately many instead of having to pay a professional do it at a great expense in todays economy. Of the advantages of building your own hen house you can design and personalize it however you want. If you do purchase a type of a kit it will comes unassembled and you are going to have to put it together anyways.

The biggest moat important desision you will need to make is how many hens in your flock. To have a happy, roomy hen house you need a minimum amount of space and a good formula to use is 4 sq. ft. per hen. This will give them the nesessary room to move around freely and not get stressed out and stressed hens won’t lay eggs.

Another thing to think about is air quality keeping hens in a enclosed area with improper ventilation will smell terrible and be unhealthy for the hens. Design alot of open space and a ventilation system that allow the air to flow freely. Equaly important is that your hens are comfortable. They need to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter.



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Raising Chickens : How to Build Chicken Nesting Boxes

Filed under Raising Chickens. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.



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To Raise Poultry

Filed under Raising Chickens. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Having been offered an honorary membership in the Poultry Society, Mark sends back a letter of thanks describing his knowledge and experiences in raising chickens. It’s doubtful that his thoughts on raising chickens agree with the Society’s, however. Included in Sketches New and Old from 1870.
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Friday, September 23, 2011

Build A Simple Chicken Coop

Filed under . There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

This article will explain what you need to . Maybe you have recently decided to keep chickens as a hobby or already have chickens and want to yourself since it is the most inexpensive route to take and you can build it to your own specifications.

A basic chicken coop can be put together from common materials that can be found at almost any home improvement store. Most designs require wood to build the main structure. For the walls, wire mesh can be used to offer protection from predators and allow for ventilation.



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Portable Chicken Coop: Move Your Own Chickens From One Location To Another One Without Having The Inconvenience

Filed under portable chicken coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Occasionally, you coulddiscoverthat youneed to haveto movemany ofyour own chickens in adifferentplace. You will findnumerousreasonsexactly whyyou wouldwant to do this nevertheless theessentialthing to think aboutis thatchickensmay bechallengingto safely move, especiallyin the event thattheir wings aren’t clipped. The particularthingthat maytake care ofyour owndifficultiesis really a portable chicken coop sincethey also make transporting chickens a great dealless complicated.

Good reasons for MovingChickens

A great deal of chicken farmers may possiblynot evenrealize that they will have a needto transfertheir own chickens. Alsoin the event yourequireto movesome chickens coming from1coop to another, a portable coop actuallyis useful.

Additionalreasons for relocating the chicken containgetting it to a placeexactly whereit willend up being slaughtered, movingthe chicken to marketplace, or taking a chicken to marketplace. To put it differently, if youhave chickens you mightwanta minimum of1 portable chicken coop.

To put it differently, it doesn’tmatterwhen you have an urban chicken coop or otherwise not. Alsopeople whogrow chickens in cities need to have to locate a approach tosometimestransfertheir very own chickens coming from1locationto another location. You wouldeven havea lot more than 1 backyard chicken coop.



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Urban Chickens in San Diego (video)

And the blog is coming out of hiatus!

Some of you readers may remember I went to school in San Diego, so it should be no surprise I get to share this great video about Urban Chickens in San Diego, produced by Dominic Fulgoni:



I can certainly associate with Shelly Stewart's story as to how she got into urban chickens (fresh eggs, control over food sourcing). It's also great to see that the Department of Animal Services reports they don't have problems with urban chickens as many would expect.

Hope you and your hens are having a great summer!

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Black Friday Deals for Urban Chicken Lovers

Black Friday deals on urban chicken coops? Yes, indeed! If you've been sitting on the sidelines of the urban chicken movement waiting for an incentive to buy your coop and chicks in advance of the 2011 season, now's your chance.
Omlet is having a Black Friday sale on all their Eglu coops, offering $200 off an Eglu Classic, $100 off an Eglu Cube and $50 off an Eglu Go. You'll recall that I got started with urban chickens thanks to an orange Eglu Classic, and I'm a huge fan of the design and simplicity of these robust plastic coops.MyPetChicken.com is offering $25 toward the 2011 chicks with the purchase of any coop (including their overstock coops on sale). They've also got all kinds of fun gifts for chicken lovers.While most of us don't really start planning for next year's garden until the turn of the year, if you do a little planning ahead (like: now) you could save a lot of money on backyard-fresh eggs for next summer.

Happy Holidays to you!

DISCLOSURE: I don't receive any commission on any sales from Omlet or MyPetChicken, I'm just a huge fan of their businesses and all they've done to keep the urban chicken movement growing strong. Please support them this holiday season.

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How to give away an unwanted urban chicken, part 1

Wow, we had some great comments on last month's post about what to do when chickens no longer lay eggs both here on the blog and on the Urban Chickens Facebook page. Given the choice between processing a hen and giving her away, the vast majority of respondents recommended finding a new home for the chook.


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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Happy Earth Day 2011

One of the things I most love about celebrating this Earth Day is recognizing just how pervasive the idea of urban chickens has become over the last four years that I've been paying attention.

Back in 2007, outside of the stellar (yet nascent) community over on BackyardChickens.com, there was very little information online about raising micro-flocks of chickens anywhere off  agriculturally-zoned land. This blog was founded as a way to document my own entry into this fascinating world of keeping chickens in your own backyard. How do you pick a chicken? Where do you get a coop? What do they eat? When do the eggs start coming? What to do with all these eggs? Why can't I have chickens? What do I do with a sick hen? So many questions and answers and there's a lot yet to be learned.

The blog then morphed into something bigger as I found new friends who shared my interest in urban chickens and we're almost 5000 friends strong over on the Facebook page. Today, this blog is just one of literally thousands of blogs talking about the joy that is urban chicken keeping. In my work these days, I get a chance to travel to Portland (Oregon) quite frequently and I'm still tickled to spot coops in backyards and hear clucks behind fences as I walk through the various neighborhoods.

I hope you get a chance to celebrate Earth Day with your hens, and if you're in between hens (as I am right now), here's hoping you know someone just down the block who's willing to share their flock.

Happy Earth Day!

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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Best Fast Food Sonoma Chicken Coop Restaurant in Almaden

Filed under Chicken Coop Restaurant. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

The Almaden Sonoma Chicken Coop is the best fast food restaurant in San Jose Ca.  The reason we say this is that you get a high quality meal (the kind that take 20 minutes to cook in any other restaurant) cooked to perfection in  seven minutes or less. The ability to do this took many years of operation to perfect.

The challenge was how do you create fresh, nutritious, un-processed food with no additives in a very fast and timely manner?  The obvious first part of the formula was to set up the kitchen using the latest and most advanced cooking stations that money could buy.  Next up was staffing the restaurant with high quality people.  To do this right we needed to hire a chef who understood the business model we were proposing and knew where the key players were to help us achieve our goal of having the best restaurant in the Silicon Valley.  The Chef we chose had many years of experience in all kinds of cooking environments and he also had a rolodex of names that we could call upon to help us fill the jobs that needed to be filled in the almaden catering services restaurant, which were many.  The next challenge for our lead chef was training our cooking staff. This job requires patience and leadership and knowing that the people that we have hired will all work as a team and take pride in knowing that they are a part of something that is really special. Our management philosophy requires that our mangers are teachers and leaders and do their utmost to empower their staff.  When you go that extra step to reward with positive reinforcement you get loyalty in return. We did not want a best family restaurant that had a reputation of having a revolving door of unhappy personal , as that is a sure fire way to put yourself out of business early and you certainly will not create the best restaurant in San Jose .

We also needed to find a procurement specialist who knew the ins and outs of vendor relationships and who knew how to get the vendors to understand what we were trying to do.  We needed just in time fresh food product. We did not want to take in large quantities of food and have it sit for one extra minute of time as that would lessen the quality of our food.  So we basically had to bend our vendor’s mindset into understanding that we were doing something special and that it would require a little more dedication on their part then they were use to providing the average restaurant operation.  Once we got a melding of minds on our philosophy the vendors found out that the extra effort on their part would pay off in steady business that continues to grow on a daily basis.  They knew that our success would result in the opening of more restaurants and that we could all enjoy the fruits of our labor together.

Today we enjoy a great relationship with our vendors and in turn we get the best quality food at really good pricing. For us this is key because now we can pass that great relationship to our customers in the form of great food at a fair price making us the Sonoma chicken catering menu best restaurant in San Jose.

Brooke Thom is an Author for Sonoma chicken coop Almaden The best restaurant Almaden. Sonoma Chicken Coop Almaden refers to Catering Businesses, best almaden restaurant, Best family restaurant Almaden Catering, Almaden Catering Supplies, Catering lunch menu.


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Homesteading: Securing Pine Timbers w/ Hardwood Pegs for Chicken Coop/Run

Filed under Wood Chicken Coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

Quick vid showing the construction of my chicken coop/run using pine timbers secured with hardwood pegs.

Get all the tips and secrets for building chicken coops in fast and sturdy. You can make taking care of chickens a breeze with the right chicken coop conditions.

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Georgia to Legalize Urban Chickens at State Level?

If you've taken a look at the nascent Urban Chickens Network Legal Resource Center, you know that trying to keep track of the seemingly endless variations of ordinances regarding keeping chickens in the backyard is a difficult task, at best.

It seems every town and city has to have its own version of the law allowing urban chickens (if, indeed, they are allowed), and depending on just where you're geographically located, you may not enjoy the same chicken-owning rights as your next door neighbor.

Thanks to frequent reader Linda S, I've been alerted to an interesting approach being proposed in the state of Georgia. The Georgia General Assembly is considering a statewide law governing the growing of crops and keeping of small animals in HB 842 - Agriculture; preempt certain local ordinances; protect right to grow food crops; provisions.

The First Reader Summary says
A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 1 of Title 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions relative to agriculture, so as to preempt certain local ordinances relating to production of agricultural or farm products; to protect the right to grow food crops and raise small animals on private property so long as such crops and animals are used for human consumption by the occupants, gardeners, or raisers and their households and not for commercial purposes; to define a term; to provide for effect on certain private agreements and causes of action; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.Now, whether or not the bill passes, I like this approach: deal with matters on a state level so that the constituents don't have to scratch their heads wondering whether something legal or illegal based on the whims of the local government.

It'd sure go a long way toward simplifying the process of knowing where your food comes from.

Does anyone know of another state that is considering (or has even passed) such a law?

Oh, and have you yet added your own town's urban chicken ordinance to the Urban Chickens Network Legal Resource Center? We're at 36 cities and growing!

Photo credit: atlexplorer on Flickr

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Urban Chickens Strengthen a Community (video)

(note: updated the embedded video to point to vimeo version on 3/3/10)

Lisa Schneider's created a nice mini-documentary showing just what happens to her El Cerrito neighborhood with the introduction of backyard chickens.

Are we bowling alone? Think again! Schneider shows how the act of owning urban chickens helps weave connections within and across a neighborhood. She shows that they're not just one person's chickens, they're the community's chickens.

Chickens Create Community on Elm Street from Linda Schneider on Vimeo.


In interview after interview you can see a social community has been created resulting in greater emotional and social support for everyone involved.

I found I could recognize many of the same reactions that Schneider's neighbors had mirrored those of my own neighbors. Have you seen the same thing happen when people discover you own urban chickens?

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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Urban Chickens help teach children about food

I'm a huge fan of Jamie Oliver, naked chef and -- more recently -- food activist.

Just a year after I became an urban chicken farmer, I started seeing Oliver's work in England on behalf of chicken welfare. He's been credited with convincing some of the larger grocers in the UK to stop purchasing battery hens -- those chickens raised in horrid cramped conditions for the 39 days it takes to get from chick to plucked carcass in the local meat section.

Now, Oliver is setting his sights on the obesity epidemic caused by the crap food the majority of us eat day in and day out. I'm thrilled to see he received a TED prize this past week. You can watch the video here: Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food. It's about 21 minutes long, but it's worth every moment.



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Do urban chickens attract urban rats?

#$! rats?

The sudden arrival of rodents in the neighborhood is an issue no one particularly likes. And when they do arrive (or simply come out of hiding), folks are quick to try and find someone or something to blame.

Enter urban chickens to take the blame.

I fear some urban chicken proponents might be too quick to state that urban chickens are NOT the reason rats show up in a neighborhood.

Let's look at the rat facts as related by Judy Haley in her ChronicleHerald.ca article, "Urban chickens bring urban rats":
rats flock to food sources; they remain close to the food source and breed; rats are attracted to bird seed and chicken feed; if rats were already present, they multiply once a new food source is introduced; and areas of clutter also provide nesting spots for rats.I won't argue with any of the above facts (I had a pet rat in college and can see each of these as true). Moreover, I can see where irresponsible storage of food or upkeep of one's yard could contribute to many of the attractions for rats.

However, to link the appearance of urban rats solely on the keeping of chickens in an urban setting seems to be using a bit too broad a brush to paint the blame. There are many food sources, not the least of which is improper keeping of trash in between pickups, leaving kibble in a bowl for "outdoor cats" or yard-kept dogs, seeds and pellets in a bird feeder, etc.

Responsible urban chicken farmers know to keep a clean coop, to only put as much feed as necessary out for the chooks while storing the rest in an air- and water-tight container, and disposing of any coop clutter (poop, nesting material, etc) quickly and thoroughly.

So, yes, the opportunity is there for irresponsible urban chicken keeping to attract rats, but common sense (which unfortunately seems in short supply in some places) should help keep rats from becoming a problem.

Have you noticed rats around your hen house? How have you taken care of the problem?

UPDATE (2/22): Following a discussion on rats on a listserv, I found this great resource from UC IPM on how to "manage" rats: Rat Management Guidelines.

Photo Credit: Matthieu A. on Flickr

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urban chickens are excellent composters

Putting it bluntly: urban gardeners are silly for not also having urban chickens.

It turns out nitrogen-rich chicken poop isn't the only way that urban chickens rock the compost pile.

According to an (otherwise mediocre) article in the Columbia Missorian:
A study found that a hen can consume about 7 pounds of food scraps a month, or about 84 pounds a year.

"If a city had 2,000 households with three hens or more each, that translates to 252 tons of biomass that's diverted from landfills,"

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Flock Observations with Chicken as Muse

It's time to share yet another beautiful essay crafted from spending time with a flock of chickens.

This particular essay, Pecking order, was written by Peter Lennox and appears on the Times Higher Education site.

I can't possibly do justice to Lennox's words, so I'll merely quote a paragraph that really speaks to me (I got my degree in Linguistics from UC San Diego, so all things word-y appeal to yours truly):
Watching chickens is a very old human pastime, and the forerunner of psychology, sociology and management theory. Sometimes understanding yourself can be made easier by projection on to others. Watching chickens helps us understand human motivations and interactions, which is doubtless why so many words and phrases in common parlance are redolent of the hen yard: "pecking order", "cockiness", "ruffling somebody's feathers", "taking somebody under your wing", "fussing like a mother hen", "strutting", a "bantamweight fighter", "clipping someone's wings", "beady eyes", "chicks", "to crow", "to flock", "get in a flap", "coming home to roost", "don't count your chickens before they're hatched", "nest eggs" and "preening".In the essay, Lennox makes great observations about chickens' environmental preferences and territoriality, their personality traits and behaviour and their inquisitiveness, teaching and learning.

If you have (or had) your own flock, you'll find yourself nodding your head in agreement with many of Lennox's observations.

If you've yet to experience a flock of your own, you'll see why we urban chicken farmers so love our hens.

So, grab yourself a cup of tea or glass of wine (depending what time it is and how early you crack open your bottle) and enjoy the Pecking order essay. Then come back and share with us your favorite bits and how your own flock is similar or different.

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Reason # 372 to keep urban chickens: they make us self-sufficient

This week has been a great example of why I love writing this blog. Readers know the other day I posted about how efficient chickens are as composters in our backyards.

In response to that post, I got a delightful comment from Pat Foreman going deeper into the issue of chickens and sustainability and how, by raising urban chickens, we're actually doing quite a bit to help sustain this big green planet of ours.

It turns out Pat has written a book based on another book written over 50 years ago, The Have-More Plan: A Little Land – A Lot of Living which inspired millions of people, recovering from World War II, to be more self-sufficient. (NOTE: I haven't read the book yet, but it's on order)

Pat and I exchanged a couple messages and she agreed I could re-post her comment here so we could all benefit. Here it is:
City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-recyclers and Local Food Supplies

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Friday, September 2, 2011

Backyard Bunnies are NOT the Next Urban Chickens

An article appeared over on the GOOD blog this week proclaiming backyard bunnies to be the next urban chickens, and it seems this proclamation has some resonance amongst the sustainability crowd, as it was tweeted and retweeted quite a bit over the last few days.

Let me set this straight. Backyard Bunnies are NOT the next Urban Chickens for one simple reason: you don't kill your chicken at harvest time.

Urban chickens will provide a regular supply of protein-packed eggs for at least three years (sometimes much longer) and there's no blood on your hands. Raising chickens means entering a nurturing relationship with an animal that rewards you sustainably and over time.

Bunnies, on the other hand, only give up their protein once: and that's after the slaughter. And I'm not so sure mainstream America are ready to have a bunch of slaughter operations going on in the suburbs. (Heck, they're having a hard enough time with the chicken poop).

Sure, there are many reasons why rabbits are, indeed a good source of meat, as the GOOD article details, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

If you want to know how difficult it is to kill a bunny, I recommend reading Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

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Urban Chicken Coop Tours in 2010

Spring is almost here!!! I've started to see news of urban chicken coop tours float through the internets, so I'm going to list those I know (and ask you to help me grow the list):
April 3, 2010: Austin's Funky Chicken Coop Tour April 11, 2010: Pioneer Valley (Western Mass) Local Chicken Coop TourApril 18, 2010: Dallas, TX A Peep at the Coops tour   May 8, 2010: Bend Oregon's First Annual Chicken Coop Tour May 15, 2010: Raleigh's Hen-side the Beltline Tour d'CoopMay 22, 2010: Davis (CA) Tour de Cluck
June 6, 2010: Southern Illinois Coops du Jour June 27, 2010: Salt Lake City Tour de Coops
July 10, 2010: Seattle Tilth's City Chickens Tour July 24, 2010: The Portland (Ore) Tour de CoopsJuly 24, 2010: Everett, WA Coop TourSept 11, 2010: Los Angeles, CA (Westchester area) Cluck Trek October 30, 2010: McClellan, SC Eggstravaganza  Cities where there were tours last year but I've not yet seen news about 2010: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Madison, Spokane, Tucson. As soon as I can confirm dates for this year, I'll add them to the list above.

As I said last year, Whether you're still at the planning stages of urban chicken farming or have had your own coop for years, going on chicken coop tour is a great way to see how others look after their chooks, get some inspiration for changes you might make to your own urban chicken setup or just meet your fellow backyard chicken fans on a beautiful day around the city.

If you know of a coop tour I've missed, please drop me a line or add it in the comments and I'll update this post to include it. Thanks, and have fun on your tours!

Photo credit: aehack on Flickr

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The Hen Cam: Raising Urban Chickens Vicariously

If you are one of the unfortunate many who can't keep chickens on your own either because they are illegal or you don't have room or you simply don't have the time, there's still a way for you to get your urban chicken on! 


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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Exploring the human-chicken relationship

Spend two minutes talking to any urban chicken farmer, and you'll hear the tone of voice and see that sparkle in the eyes indicative of the special bond between any human and the animal they care for. (Well, except for those cold-hearted lizards, but that's another post entirely!)

Lee Zasloff, and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at American River College in Sacramento, has a professional interest in human relationships with animals of all kinds, and she's very interested in learning about the experiences of people and their chickens.

Zasloff is conducting a survey of chicken owners to promote greater understanding of the human-chicken relationship, and I thought this would be a great opportunity for you, dear reader, to help out!

To take her survey, please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/chickens. (I took the survey this morning and it took me about six minutes to finish it).

Zasloff will be presenting the information she collects from the survey at the Veterinary Social Work Summit at the University of Tennessee this coming May.

She'd also like it if folks would send her photos with their favorite chicken (or with any chicken) and some stories about their chickens. You can send these direct to chickensurveyphotos

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Martha Stewart Chicken Show to Air April 2

At last! This Friday, April 2, urban chickens get their moment in the spotlight on the Martha Stewart Show (check local listings).

While it seems the actual raising of chickens is only part of the territory the show covers (in addition to egg decorating and the requisite cooking of eggs), the chickens are the most important part, right?

Here's the official description of the chicken show (taped just yesterday!) from her site:
Discover how easy and rewarding it can be to raise chickens in your own backyard with a guide to getting started from "My Pet Chicken" owner Traci Torres. Then, decorate farm-fresh eggs for Easter with children's book author and chicken owner Jan Brett, and make a mini egg and sourdough bread dish with Tini executive chef Darius Salko. From the looks of it, our urban chicken interests will be well-represented by Traci of MyPetChicken.com (the sponsor of this blog).

I wanted very much to be at the taping myself, but what with jury duty Monday and helping a client launch their new web site today, I just couldn't make it east to be in the audience. Lucky for me, I've got a DVR so I can watch this show over and over again!

Photo credit goes to Ori on Flickr

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Urban Chickens and Conspicuous Consumption

The most often-asked question I hear from reporters or other curious folks is "how expensive is it to raise urban chickens?" My answer is always the same: it all depends on how much you want to spend on your coop.

The hens themselves are cheap, their food is cheap, straw/woodchips/water is cheap. The coop is ususally, decidedly not cheap.

And why is that? As long as our chickens have a dry, draft-free, safe place to sleep and a box to lay their eggs in (more for our convenience than theirs), they're fine.

We humans are the ones who insist on aesthetics. And the cost curve for aesthetics is steep as soon as you move away from the "homely, but it'll do" point and toward the "I'd be proud to show this off on a coop tour" end of the spectrum. So why bother?

The clue to this answer comes courtesy a blog post by Seth Godin (author of Linchpin

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Secret Gardens of the East Bay Follow Up

I had the pleasure of talking all things urban chickens with a group of people who were participating in the 24th Annual Secret Gardens of the East Bay tour over in Oakland yesterday. It was a delightfully beautiful Spring day outside (sunny, mid-70s) and I was impressed that the group of about 30 or so people actually chose to cram into a small classroom to listen to me and ask good questions.

I promised I'd provide them links here on the blog to the urban chicken resources I listed in my blog, so without further ado, a shout out to the following people/places to get your urban chicken on:
BackyardChickens.com - a strong online community of backyard chicken enthusiasts and just about any question you have about the cluckers, someone at BYC will know the answer.MyPetChicken.com - a wonderful online source for small quantities of just the breed of chicks you're looking for. They've got lots of other good chicken supplies and paraphernalia, too, and don't forget to consult their Chicken Selector Tool to help you narrow down your choice of chick!FeatherSite.com's Poultry Page - While it hasn't been updated in over a year, the content about chickens is timeless (and rest assured chickens haven't evolved enough in the meantime to warrant any updates).Yahoo! Groups related to chickens (like San Mateo Chickens and Silicon Valley Chickens)4-H ClubsMeetupsAnd a big thank you to Nina for coordinating the speaker series and the gift of the awesome Slice of Organic Life

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Animal Sanctuary Coalition Hoodwinks Mankato City Council

I've blogged about the urban chicken goings-on in Mankato, Minnesota before because it's such a rich source of perplexity regarding the evolution of anti-chicken laws, the hysterical anti-chicken sentiment and the schizophrenic actions of the City Council. The Council rejected an ordinance last year that would allow urban chickens to return to the city for the first time since 1949.

Lucky for wannabe urban chicken keepers, the Mankato City Council has decided to give the chicken issue another look in 2010! Good, right? Read on...

Unluckily for wannabe urban chicken keepers, the council is referring to a staff report that contains more hysterical fiction than fact. From Dan Linehan's article in the Free Press:
A staff report on this issue brings up some predictable negatives like smell, proper care and protection from predators.

It also says between 20 percent to 50 percent of chicks sold as hens turn out to be roosters.

“These unwanted roosters are often given to animal shelters, released into the streets, and, in a growing number of cases, sold for cockfighting,” the report says.

Companies that sell chicks typically ground up the newborn roosters for feed or fertilizer, according to the report. Wait a minute! We've seen these scary (and still unsubstantiated) facts before somewhere, haven't we?

Oh yeah, it's the same crap that Animal Sanctuary Coalition who blasted their outlandish Position Statement on Backyard Chickens last December. And it would appear this coalition has managed to brainwash the Mankato staff with a single sensational press release. It smacks of laziness on the city staff's part that they'd take the claims lock, stock and barrel. Yet, the council is able to say (with a straight face) it's "open to revisiting the issue" even though they'd get better inputs from perusing the menu at the local KFC. (or Church's or Popeye's or whatever fries up the chicken parts near you).

I'd love to get my hands on this staff report to see exactly what it claims. But I don't hold out much hope that the Mankato City Council changes their mind if what's described by Linehan in his article is indicative of the kind of preparation they're doing.

Such a shame.

If you could write a press release to help the folks at the pro-chicken Mankato HENS (Hens Enriching Nutrition and Sustainability) what kind of material would you include to counteract the sanctuary coalition's claims?

Photo credit: A.Myers on Flickr

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Friday, August 26, 2011

take a video tour of a large-scale egg farm

If you're keeping a small flock of your own, you know what it's like to collect a handful of eggs from your coop each day.

So, what's it like to collect and process over 1.7 million eggs a day!?

There's a fascinating video posted over on the USA Egg Farming site that gives us a behind-the-scenes look at large-scale egg farming at Willamette Egg Farms in Oregon.

You can see a breakdown of the difference between raising hens caged versus cage-free (they do both), both in terms of hen health and production costs.

I found it quite educational to see and learn about the inside of their modern hen house that holds 188,000 egg-laying hens in a clean, cool environment. It's a far cry from the stinky houses of old that are permanently etched into the brains of anyone who's against the idea of urban chickens.

Yes, this video is clearly part of large-scale agriculture propaganda, but that doesn't take anything away from my fascination of the process by which so many eggs are produced for the population at large (at least until everyone has a chicken in their own backyard!)

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Eggstravaganza: The Art of Living with Chickens

I'm accustomed to coop tours and chicken talks happening in the spring and summer months, so it's a bit of a surprise to discover that there's a coop tour appearing on the calendar just before Halloween this year in McClellanville, SC.

The McClellanville Arts Council ("Where everyone is an Artist") is holding the on Saturday, October 30, 2010.

The day-long schedule includes the following activities:
a morning panel discussion on raising poultry and a craft workshop: Chicken Art with Chicken PartsAn afternoon Tour da Coops, a self-guided tour of local chicken coops and poultry sites.And things wind up with a photograph exhibit featuring local poultry and coops and a raffle of a hand-crafted coop/tractor in the shape of a chicken. People will be able to vote on their favorite poultry and coops and there will be door prizes throughout the day from local businesses.
If only I lived on the East Coast, I know where I'd be spending the day before Halloween. I look forward to hearing the recap from the event and you can rest assured I'll be posting it here.

Anyone know of any other Fall/Winter coop tours or chicken talks? Let me know and I'll add them to the list.

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Happiness is knowing where your eggs come from

Photo credit: Wombatunderground1 on FlickrA store-bought egg recall? Again? Well, thank goodness for our own backyard egg producers!

It's staggering to think that Wright County Egg is recalling 380 million eggs since improper handling at several of its facilities has been suspected of sickening hundreds of people with salmonella. For now, I'll leave the "how did this happen?" story to be told over on the news web sites.

I imagine we'll be reading a lot about federal regulations and industrial processing plant working conditions and distribution chains in the coming days before this story dies out.

What I hope people think about is the plight of the millions of hens who actually laid those 380 million eggs now recalled (for destruction if they haven't been eaten already). Thanks to human negligence and mishandling, all the energy expended to create and deliver those eggs into the industrial system has been wasted. And this coming from a creature that spends its life laying eggs in a space only as big as a standard letter-sized piece of paper. It hurts to think about it.

If you've had to buy eggs at the store since May, please check to see if you need to return your eggs.

And the next time you step out to the coop to pick an egg from the nesting box, please give your hen a hug.

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How many of us have road-side chickens?

I visited my parents new house in Seattle this weekend, and wouldn't you know it, a neighbor just two doors down from them has chickens!

How did I know he has chickens? Because he keeps his coop along the side of the house, just a few feet from the sidewalk. This isn't to say he doesn't have a backyard to keep them in. He does, but his girls are there for all the world to see and (like me) admire and wonder about.


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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

What to do when chickens no longer lay eggs?

Photo courtesy Flickr user fooferkittenSo what do you do when your hen no longer lays eggs? Keep her around out of gratitude for all those years of eggs? Put her out to (someone else's) pasture? Or do you (gulp!) "process" her?

There's been some traffic on the Silicon Valley Chickens mailing list recently about what to do with old hens, and it seems there's a general agreement that processing an old hen is a rather cruel way to show thanks for eggs well laid.

While some urban chicken keepers seem content to keep the old chooks around for amusement, the more economically minded chicken farmers seem less than enthralled with the idea of all those extra mouths to feed.

And those of us who live where there are tight restrictions on the number of hens allowed in a backyard can't really keep a flock of non-layers around if we're in it for the omelets, can we?

So it seems there's two strategies for mercifully coping with the inevitable aging of hens:
Once she stops laying (at age 3 or 4 or 5, depending on your hen's productivity cycle), offer her up  to someone who's got a much larger patch of land and is willing to keep a large non-laying flock. Or,Sell her while she's still in her laying prime, commanding a higher price and making room for another fluffy chick in the coop to start all over again.What have you done when your chickens stopped laying? Or if you haven't gotten there yet, what are your plans for hens d'un certain âge?

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Another beautifully sculptured urban chicken coop

I'm a sucker for creative, cleverly designed and aesthetically pleasing coops.

So when a friend sent a link to the nogg, I got all warm inside thinking how cool it would be to have this cedar coop placed in the corner of my yard. From their press kit:
The nogg is a modern chicken coop that has been designed in the shape of an egg. It has been designed to house from 2-4 chickens and is to encourage domestic farming while adding a touch of playful elegance to sit beautifully in any garden, urban or rural environment. The nogg is designed to enhance and compliment its surroundings and fit sculpturally with this aesthetic assumption.In a sign of true chicken design pedigree, the nogg folks hail from the UK (just like the Omlet design folks did before them).

And in a sign of just how design-minded the nogg manufacturers are, you can download over 100Mb of high resolution pictures of the nogg "sculpture" (aka "coop-porn") from their one-page website. Tip: you can also see the same images in a much lighter weight PDF by downloading the press kit.

So here's to delightful coop design! Sing your praises to nogg folks on twitter

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Garden chicken coop

Filed under . There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

I have an allotment which me and the kids have our own and grow our own vegatables you know the normal thing patatoes,carrots,peas etc . They love it and its a great way to spend time with them. Seeing there faces as they pick their veg for the sunday roast is very rewarding for me and them.


The chicken coop is a new addition as we had decided to keep chickens so we can get fresh eggs every morning and the kids are so excited about it. we went to buy a chicken coop but nearly fainted at the prices and have been putting this idea off for a while trying to trick the kids into thinking its a bad idea,but i have stumbled over some great plans to make my own chicken coop.


Its great, and the bonus is there is so many to choose from that the kids are getting involved from the very start. They know what size, shape and even the colour (which by the way is going to be painted like a rainbow as they couldnt decide!) There choice not mine obviously. I know that letting them choose all these option will make them feel like its their project and then they will keep up the work after the chicken coop is finished.


So we have watched the video and fetched our wood, nails, sweets and drinks, (well we need to keep focused don’t we!) The chicken coop took no time at all really, proberly half the time if i’d done it myself but where’s the fun in that.


The kids chose the chickens and they all have names, so now all we have to do is wait for our fresh eggs. Oh and try and convince them that the colour of the chicken coop is proberly a bad choice.

For the best easy to follow how to build a chicken coop plans you will not go wrong with the build you own chicken coop video guide.


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Buying Cheapest Chicken Coops Online Where?

Filed under cheap chicken coop. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.



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How to build a chicken coop

Filed under Chicken Coop Construction. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

The Funkis Chicken Coop by The Urban Conversion. Step-by-Step instructions on how to build an urban chicken coop.
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Get all the tips and secrets for building chicken coops in fast and sturdy. You can make taking care of chickens a breeze with the right chicken coop conditions.

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Fancy Restaurant Almaden Sonoma Chicken Coop offers

Filed under Chicken Coop Restaurant. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

A restaurant catering business is a lot of work, and demands a great deal of organizational skills. We have found that our catering businesses are the best ways to get the word out about what we do.

We would like to think that our Almaden Sonoma Chicken Coop is one of the best restaurant in San Jose, and feel it is only fair to pass on to our customers and future catering customers what our capabilities are. So we have outlined some of our organizational catering capacities so you can better understand of what we have to offer.

Almaden Sonoma Chicken Coop offers:



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Monday, August 22, 2011

CHICKEN COOP IDEAS 2

Filed under Chicken Coop Ideas. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

COOP
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COOP IDEALS

Get all the tips and secrets for building chicken coops in fast and sturdy. You can make taking care of chickens a breeze with the right chicken coop conditions.

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Chicken Coop Ideas For The Diyer

Filed under Chicken Coop Ideas. There are methods for building chicken coops that will do the job intended and help you build chicken coops fast. It is important to get it right so you can have happy backyard chooks from the start that won’t go off laying eggs for months at a time.

If you decided to build your own chicken house, you may be pondering chicken coop ideas. There are many things that you need to decide when building your chicken coop. Having a set of plans can help you decide what type of chicken house you want or may give you some ideas how to proceed with your project.

Chicken coop ideas can impact how difficult it could be to raise your chickens. One idea could be to make a movable chicken house. This is a coop that could be moved around the yard. There are many reasons why you may want to do this. The direction of the sunlight could change according to the season or big trees could block sunlight in the summer. You can move your chicken coop to areas of your yard that allow maximum sunlight. Another reason why you may want a moveable coop is to move it closer to your house in the winter months. You would have a shorter distance to access the coop when it is cold outside.



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