Chicken Coops for Sale in Bloomfield, New Mexico
Chicken Coops for Sale in Bloomfield, New Mexico
Eggs! Raise Your Own Hens In A Chicken Coop Built From Scrap
From a long line of egg farmers in Holland, Karin’s dad finally builds her a chicken coop
Where bylaws allow, or can be bypassed, I highly recommend building your own chicken coop. Imagine getting fresh, free-range organic eggs every day? When my parents came to visit me in Jaffa a few months ago, Dad found himself bored. Back in Holland, my family the Van Der Meers were one of the biggest egg producers in the country before the Depression. So you could say, eggs are in our genes. With Dad nothing to do for a few weeks, I brought up the idea of having him build me a chicken coop. That got him kind of excited. He foraged for wood in my backyard and came up with a coop that resembles a bus stop. The Chicken Express? Step right up and I’ll tell you how to build a coop in a few easy steps. And no you don’t have to invest much, unless you want to make your coop designer.
In warm climates very little is needed to keep your hens happy – basically a roof over their heads, a lengthwise pole for curling their toes around when they sleep at night (you might want to raise it high where feral cats might stalk your chickens), and some fencing to keep them from, well, flying the coop.
Here are our chickens before we bought them.
As it turns out, Bedouin chickens which we bought in the Negev Desert, are very agile creatures and even sleep in our blackberry tree some nights. The fencing doesn’t help them that much, but it does keep them contained somewhat, and out of the mouth of our crazy dog.
Here’s what you’ll need to build the coop:
- A corner on your roof, garden, or backyard for the chicken coop, a couple meters by a couple meters at least
- An old door or piece of plywood for a roof
- Some plywood for the sides
- Chicken wire, if you want to contain the chickens outside the coop (they eat weeds so consider letting them run loose)
- A wooden pole
- Some boxes, or crates for roosting. Throw in something soft.
- Feed
Find a corner to build against, saving yourself the need to build 2 extra walls. Be lazy. Make sure there’s a roof for the chickens to protect them against the sun, and rain, and in the winter if it gets cold, you can throw a carpet over the sides to keep the cold wind out. Make sure they have three walls.
We built a 2 meter or so pole, installed horizontally, down low about 50 cm off the ground but noticed some street cats were preying on our hens and raised the pole to about 1.5 meters off the ground. Most chickens can fly to this height but see what works for yours. It really doesn’t take much to make your chickens happy. But they do need a pole to sleep on at night.
What you feed your chickens:
- A basic seed/corn meal
- Compost – can include eggshells (ours really love labane cheese – could be because they are Bedouin hens)
- Garden weeds and greens (let them go wild!)
- Worms and bugs (they feed themselves while aerating the ground)
- Endless supply of water
Chickens do need basic feed, that which can be bought at a feedlot. Some inquiring around on where to find chickens and feed might be in order. Animal markets for livestock might be your best bet. Ask around in places like that. We bought a huge drum of feed consisting of corn meal and other seeds, and feed our chickens a regular diet of all the vegetable-based compost that would otherwise be composted. But don’t worry. Chicken doo makes an excellent compost too. One of my friends can’t eat eggs unless they are free-range and fed with organic oats. So it’s really up to you to decide how to feed your chickens, depending on your health needs and sensitivities.
We have five chickens and one rooster. The rooster is just for the fun of it. You don’t need one if you have neighbors nearby who will complain about the noise. And roosters DO make noise, waking us up as early as 1:30 am.
Bedouin women (crouching like crows) selling “bede” hens at the market
Unlike commercially-raised chickens, our hens don’t get “sunshine” 24 hours a day. Some parts of the year the chickens won’t lay. They will molt and take a break. And not every chicken will lay every day once she starts. We bought young chickens and it took them a couple of months to start laying. Now three of the five are laying, but like I said, not every day.
See a video interview with my dad about chickens
We bought our chickens at a Bedouin market (for about $10 each) because it was important for my husband that we have a “wild” variety – chickens that haven’t been genetically manipulated. Our eggs are on the small to medium size, the yolks absolutely huge compared to the white. One hen is laying eggs with the most delightful little beige specks on them.
Dad (left), the closest link to my family of egg people is determined that next time he comes to visit me in the Middle East he’ll be smuggling in white hen eggs – “the real good layers” – from Canada. He keeps asking me about building an incubator for these eggs to become hatchlings. Hopefully it will happen and when it does, I’ll report it here on Green Prophet.
Meanwhile, I am dreaming about how many eggs I will collect tomorrow. And how exciting it will be for my little baby daughter, when she gets bigger, to go out and collect them like I did when I was a little girl (that’s me in the top photo). My family had a coop in a suburban town outside Toronto until our evil neighbour complained and we had to get rid of it.
Before the complaints, I would go out and collect our eggs and sell them to our neighbors for a dollar a dozen, to cover the price of feed. Seriously, it was so much fun. If this blogger, and lazy environmentalist who is addicted to the computer can start a coop, you can too. Get cracking and join the new movement of urban farming.
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Chicken Coop Accessories in Bloomfield, New Mexico
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Bloomfield New Mexico" 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 Bloomfield New Mexico chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Bloomfield, New Mexico With the substantial boost in chicken keeping there has been a similarly large surge in the variety of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Poultry real estate is a situation in point. It's additionally a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as various prospective poultry real estate specialists peddle a variety of holiday accommodation claiming to be the optimal solution to your chicken real estate requirements. Frequently the rate looks appealing, your house looks desirable, hell even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they recognize a professional chicken house when they see one? There are numerous economical as well as nasty cages flooding the market. I understand this as I've checked a number of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed pail showed up. The result was only an expensive pile of fire wood and also a small group of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Guides in Bloomfield, New Mexico
Generally these mass produced versions are built of quick grown up hardwood - come the very first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a doorway that will not shut, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking occupants. The very first warm day means the timber dries out and also cracks, the felt roof covering bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not because of their frustration at the decline of their once desirable commercial property yet considering that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and also possibly crawling with, the fowl caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly fit four large chickens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as exactly what are you left with? A few hinges as well as some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you around ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a big space as well as the pop opening door allows enough for the breed you maintain, after that the primary demands of housing boil down to three factors which will certainly specify the variety of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. Many types of chicken will perch when they go to roost at night, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch must be more than the nest box access as chickens will likewise naturally search for the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they generate the most poo) resulting in soiled eggs the following day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries can take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is certainly less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your home they need to be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your home needs to have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds and also these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of the house. Your home needs to have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will build up every evening, also in the chilliest of weather. Be aware, air flow works with the concept of cozy air leaving with a high space attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of holes on other walls of the house and also at the same level, this is exactly what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the points above are still true, however you ought to also take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful stocking thickness for a totally free variety bird is (as well as allow's encounter it, among the inspirations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially improved or better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m squared. Take a close check out several of the bargain residences - it could well be your house has the ideal perches, proper air flow and also enough nest boxes for a practical number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You might think you've grabbed a bargain, yet you as well as your group could rue the day you did. Purchase the appropriate house and it will last for a couple of years, otherwise longer given the correct therapy. Eventually your fowl and your fowl keeping experience will certainly be considerably the far better for it.diy coops
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