Chicken Coops for Sale in Blanchard, Louisiana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Blanchard, Louisiana
building our homestead | the chicken coop.
When Justin and I had been , he took me to his family’s farm for Thanksgiving. I was already nervous as it was – he was a new boyfriend and I was meeting his family – but by the end of the weekend they’d coerced convinced me to drive a skid loader, fire off a few rounds at some coffee cans, and forage for my own breakfast in the chicken coop. When we came back the next spring, there were a handful of baby chicks fluttering around the yard and I thought they were so precious. Uncle Bill handed me one, nearly weightless in my palm, all its hollow bones twitching against my fingers. It made me nervous, how fragile it felt and how anxious it seemed to get back to its Mama Bird.
But the eggs? The eggs I loved. I loved the plastic Easter egg sitting inside the nesting box (to encourage the ladies to lay there); I loved the varying shades of brown, the speckled pattern and the occasional pastel green egg that appeared. They made the white grocery store eggs look so bland, so boring. And when we brought the eggs inside to fry up alongside our buttered toast, their yolks were electric orange. I’d never seen anything like it before (they grow pumpkins on the farm and feed the chickens with the broken pieces, thus the late-autumn yolks are especially colorful). I slid two over-easy’s onto my plate and split them open with the prong of my fork and watched the yolk puddle out to my toast. I think about that breakfast a lot, about the smell of the barn early in the morning; how Justin and I were living outside our comfort zones and learning to love each other; how he casually mentioned that, one day, we might have a farm.
We don’t have a full-blown farm, not by a long shot, but after trying to and finally accepting this is where we’ll stay, we decided to start building our backyard homestead. Justin bought the blueprints for a chicken coop and set to work in our garage over the winter. We poured the concrete footers together before Christmas, before the frost would come, and Justin etched our initials into the last one while it was still wet. He spent hours under the fluorescent lights of the garage bay, hammering and nailing and sometimes painting. And finally, after months of work, we hauled it outside with a trailer and some extra manpower.
Most of the books we read said chickens were low-maintenance, that they don’t need much besides a cardboard box and some fresh water. But my husband, God love him, is an overachiever. So our chickens will have the Ritz Carlton of chicken coops to call home. And this coming weekend, our chicks will arrive! We have nine in total – three each of Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Red, and Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers). They’ll live in a brooder box in our garage for the first few weeks to stay toasty warm, and by the end of May or June we’ll move them out to the luxury hotel we call a chicken coop. It isn’t quite finished, we still need to add shingles and chicken wire all around, but I’m so proud of it. I’m proud of what we’re doing, how we live, how we eat, how we teach our kids about food and about life.
So cheers to the homestead! We’re finally doing it.
***
First few photos are iPhone.
Resources:
Baby Chick Varieties in Blanchard, Louisiana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Blanchard Louisiana" into any one of the numerous search engines and a wealth of information will pop up. This information will provide links to other websites that will be informative and will provide the right direction for finding Blanchard Louisiana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Blanchard, Louisiana With the massive boost in poultry keeping there has actually been a just as large increase in the array of fowl materiel for sale. Poultry real estate is a proceedings in factor. It's additionally a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential poultry real estate experts peddle a range of cottage declaring to be the perfect remedy to your chicken housing demands. Commonly the price looks eye-catching, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks eye-catching, heck even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are several inexpensive as well as unpleasant coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've tested a number of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed pail showed up. The result was only an expensive stack of firewood and also a tiny flock of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Plans For 20 Chickens in Blanchard, Louisiana
Generally these mass produced versions are created of fast grown up wood - come the initial drop of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a doorway that won't shut, or tearing the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking inhabitants. The very first cozy day suggests the lumber dries out and also cracks, the felt roof bubbles and also boils, and also come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not because of their disappointment at the decrease of their once eye-catching home however due to the fact that the hovel is now a sanctuary for, as well as most likely crawling with, the poultry caretaker's bane, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly suit four huge chickens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you entrusted? A few joints and some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run connected. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large area as well as the pop opening door allows enough for the type you keep, then the major needs of real estate come down to 3 points which will specify the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Many breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot sits pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly likewise naturally search for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they generate one of the most poo) causing soiled eggs the following day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need concerning 20cm of perch each (in little types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your home they ought to be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your home ought to have a least one nest box for each 3 birds and also these should be off the ground and in the darkest area of your home. Your home must have ample ventilation: without it then condensation will build up every night, even in the coldest of weather. Understand, ventilation deals with the concept of cozy air leaving with a high space drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a set of holes on other walls of your house and at the exact same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still real, however you should additionally consider the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a free range bird is (and also allow's face it, among the motivations for keeping some hens in the house is possibly boosted or much better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close consider some of the bargain houses - it could well be your home has the ideal perches, appropriate ventilation as well as ample nest boxes for a reasonable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you spend for". You could assume you've got hold of a bargain, but you and your group could rue the day you did. Acquisition the right house as well as it will last for a few decades, otherwise longer offered the appropriate treatment. Ultimately your chicken and also your chicken maintaining experience will certainly be considerably the better for it.for sale build
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