Chicken Coops for Sale in Santee, South Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Santee, South Carolina
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:
Chicken Coop Ideas in Santee, South Carolina
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Santee South Carolina" 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 Santee South Carolina chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Santee, South Carolina With the huge rise in chicken keeping there has been a similarly large surge in the range of fowl paraphernalia on sale. Poultry housing is an instance in point. It's also a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being got on as numerous potential chicken housing professionals peddle an array of accommodation claiming to be the excellent option to your chicken real estate needs. Commonly the price looks appealing, your house looks attractive, hell even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they recognize a quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous cheap and also awful cages swamping the market. I understand this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed bucket appeared. The result was nothing but an expensive pile of fire wood and also a little group of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Baby Chickens For Sale in Santee, South Carolina
Typically these mass produced versions are constructed of fast grown up lumber - come the very first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that won't close, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking inhabitants. The first warm and comfortable day indicates the hardwood dries and cracks, the really felt roofing system bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not because of their frustration at the decline of their once attractive residential property however because the hovel is currently a haven for, as well as most likely crawling with, the poultry caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly match four big chickens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also what are you left with? A number of hinges and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you around ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a large room and also the pop opening door is big sufficient for the type you maintain, after that the major needs of housing come down to three points which will certainly specify the number of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot rests easily on it. The perch must be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly also naturally look for the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they generate the most poo) resulting in dirtied eggs the following day. They should not nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could occur when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is undoubtedly less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your home needs to have a the very least one nest box for every single 3 birds as well as these need to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your home. Your home must have adequate ventilation: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, also in the coldest of weather condition. Be aware, ventilation works on the concept of warm air leaving via a high gap drawing cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a collection of openings on other walls of the house and also at the same level, this is what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still true, but you ought to additionally think about the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking density for a free array bird is (and also allow's face it, one of the motivations for keeping some chickens in your home is possibly boosted or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close consider some of the deal houses - it could well be the house has the best perches, right air flow and adequate nest boxes for a practical variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you obtain exactly what you spend for". You may believe you've got hold of a bargain, yet you and your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house and it will certainly last for a couple of years, if not longer offered the appropriate treatment. Eventually your poultry and your chicken maintaining encounter will be considerably the much better for it.diy chick
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