Green Acres Someday

Our first farm animals will arrive this weekend.

Chickens!

This is First Monday Weekend in Canton and I'll go to Dog Alley and get some chickens.
Spent this past weekend with my son David and grandson Calvin building a chicken coop. Or maybe it should be called a hen house. Sunday, Eddie, my stepson pitched in also. This is our not quite finished hen house sled. It is made to be moved weekly to a new spot in the pasture. A clean spot. I liked the idea of not having to clean up chicken poop. You just hook it up to your pickup and pull it about 20 feet and the chickens have a fresh spot to fertilize.

This is the back side of the hen house showing the 14 compartment nest box. The nest box was a craigslist find from a man over in Fruitvale. I'll put the doors on the back of the hen house this weekend which will allow access to the nest box for egg removal.
The hen house is 4' x 8' x 6' tall. The chicken run in front is 12 feet and covered with cattle panels in hoop house style and cover with chicken wire. The entire think is sitting on 4 railroad ties. The front of the railroad ties are drilled and a cable passed through the holes to attach to the ball on the trailer hitch.

We spent a lot of time discussing how things should be done. This is about 2 hours into the project and we assembled about six 2 x 4's. But Calvin to the rescue, he did all the work.
We've had so much rain, it's been dificult to get any outdoor activities done. Hopefully this Saturday it will be nice and I can get the finishing touches complete.