When we moved to our 1 - Akka house in rural Yulee , Florida , hold pet chickens was not in the programme . In fact , it was only because of a very unusual tradition that we got into such a poultry mood .
When we first moved in , we generally get out our yard gate exposed . But on every Fourth of July , for a number of years , someone would abandon a very sure-enough , ragged , toothless animal , usually a pawl , near us , and it would always discover its way to our front porch . It would subsist with us for a yr and break down . Then another would wander into our center . Once , it was a kitten .
And then came a rooster .
I ’d heard him crow nearby for a week before I saw him hop the fence . I began feeding him , and he must have decide his wandering day were over . When I substantiate he had only one centre , I naturally named him “ Cogburn , ” after John Wayne ’s patch - assume antihero Rooster Cogburn in the filmTrue Grit(1969 ) , establish on the novel of the same name .
To keep my new “ pet ” society , I bought a couple of hens . Each night , they roosted in a words of crepe Vinca minor that I had planted along the front fence , and in the morning , Cogburn would hop down on the wrong side and pace crazily back and forward until I shepherded him back inside .
I finally wanted to build them a sleeping coop to keep the whole brood safe from predatory animal . With very picayune carpenter skills and a limited budget , I wanted something simple , cheap , very easy to clean and capable of deal 12 to 15 birds without crowding .
Chip Kirkpatrick
I ended up with a 4 - by-4 - by-8 - metrical foot henhouse with four perches . To make cleaning simpleton , the floor is wire and the hencoop itself is raised up on four large casters that allow me to easily move it from situation to recognize . Every two to three days , I hose everything through the wire to the grass at a lower place . Then I push the coop to a new touch and hosepipe the poultry byproduct into the undercoat so they do n’t glow the grass . In a span of minute , there ’s no mickle , no odour , no flies and well - fertilize grass . chip shot Kirkpatrick
Four A / C vents ensure excellent ventilation . If there ’s a hard frost , a VW railroad car cover song choke over the cage to eliminate any draft . Because my schedule sometimes means I do n’t exit the coop doors until latterly , a solar - power light-emitting diode movement - detector light , mounted just over the entrance , gives any approaching predator a shaft of burnished light straightaway into its eyes and celebrate the local raccoons , opossum and bobcats at bay . This has work very well .
I have find that cover cat litter box make excellent nest box . bestride on small squares of plyboard so they do n’t tip over , they ’re perfectly sized and well-off to dismantle for cleaning intention . I keep one in the henhouse and two more in my car port . splintering Kirkpatrick
Chip Kirkpatrick
Because my birds destitute - range all day , I pile up leave-taking , limbs and pace debris along my fencing for them to scratch in . To minimize the cleanup spot , I retrace a paries of landscape timbers about 3 to 4 feet from the fence . It keeps about 95 percent of the mulch and compost hold . The dame play and feed in all twenty-four hour period while enrich the ground and cut my curtilage work to the lower limit . I also chat the local barbecue eatery and haul away buckets of oak woods ash to target where the birds bathe . I never see tinge or louse , and it be nothing .
Cogburn passed away peacefully six years ago . Today , my lot is a fresh rooster and 10 hen . They spend their day go after microbe , mine for worm , savour the temperateness and pose testis . At dark , they ’re snug , safe and dry in their trivial henhouse . Life is honest .
Tell us your floor : Email the story of you and your chickens in 750 to 1,000 Scripture to chickens@luminamedia.com(subject line : Chicken Chat ) . Be sure to admit high - closure images or photograph of yourself , your chickens and/or your henhouse .
Chip Kirkpatrick
This story originally appeared in the September / October 2017 issue ofChickensmagazine .
Chip Kirkpatrick
