I enhance my chicken - keeping abilities when I scavenged a dog crate someone left at the AMEX . How ? Well , I call it the “ alloy kennel . ” My married woman , Chris , and I have used it to impound sitter chicken until they get over their moods . It has also temporarily housed Black Dahlia , an grownup Marans we adopted . Living in sight and aroma of the home team — but away from secondary pecking — she rapidly became an adopted , if low - range , teammate .
recently , we utilize the metal dog house as a halfway house for four frier : an Easter Egger named Violetta ; a Wyandotte , Stella D’oro ; and two Dominiques , Domenica and Mezzaluna . My wife raise them from day - former wench , keeping them in the shower bath stall in our mudroom . As they fulfill out , we planned to innovate them to their mentors , Buttercup and Poppy ( Dahlia had passed away ) , but we wanted to avert gore . As many of you lie with , Gallus gallus are n’t egalitarian , vegetarian or pacificist .
Just because we need new volaille did n’t mean our older wimp did . They see unfamiliar chickens as threat to their soil . They ’re not daydream of young protagonist to hang out with . Tossing some young frier into the pen can pass to serious pecking . It does n’t always pass to blood and feathers fly , but it can . And chicken respond viciously to sign of rakehell . If you do n’t want to light a civic war , a secondhand click crate can be your secure peacekeeping machine .
The Great Crate
face for a dog crate that ’s big enough for a medium or large pawl , with dimensions of about 2 - by-3 - human foot or bigger . If you ca n’t find one on a curb , you may certainly purchase a new one at any pet - supply or big - corner fund . You might find gratuitous or inexpensive unity online at Craigslist , Freecycle or other classified or societal medium situation . The U.S. is overproduction with people who have too much stuff and want to give it forth or sell it flash .
Most metallic element dog crates fold down flat so they do n’t take up much elbow room when not in use . As long as they are salt away out of the rain or do n’t get badly crumpled , they ’ll last indefinitely . usually , they have a door in one or two English . It ’s most important to get one with a bounteous lid on top that spread so you’re able to get to the metal kennel to refill the waterer and feeder .
We first used the dog house as a place for the growing bird to become accustomed to the open air . We placed it in sight of the pen but on the lawn to give the chicks a stead to scratch . Depending on the size of your chicks and the dimensions of the bars of the dog house , you might need to line the sides of the doghouse with chicken telegram or computer hardware cloth to keep small chicks from take to the woods .
Some kennel customizing might be in Holy Order . I used bolt cutter ( a metal cut blade on a orbitual saw , grinder or reciprocating proverb will work , too ) to remove the floor of the dog house so the growing chicks would have readable access to the lawn .
This alteration has another benefit . When the crateful is not in utilization , we flip it over and use it as a memory bin for chick / frier / contemplative biddy gear such as a big jounce waterer , galvanized tube tributary , heating plant lamp , chick - size water boy and feeder , among other item .
In the Coop It Goes
After two or three calendar month , when the skirt become pullet , it ’s metre to put them and the halfway business firm inside the playpen . We adapt one of the dog house doors with just enough of a gap so that the pullet can get in and out but the hens ca n’t get inside to excruciate them . A tent post or a landscape painting basic will do . Anything will work as long as it ’s sturdy enough to keep the door opening from being motivate and locking the fryer out or letting the hen in .
Because the pullets wo n’t have accession to the coop just yet , anchor a tarp or some other protection over the top of the dog house to keep the rain out . We use the lids from a couple of plastic totes anchor by bricks . We also enclose a stick or two through the bar of the doghouse to provide the biddy and pullets roosts .
After putting the pullets and their halfway house in the penitentiary , the grownup hen that ’s lowest in the pecking order will in all probability feel compelled to swan her dominance over her young neighbors . Our dominant hen , Buttercup , pay up them almost no care in her foregone conclusion that her deputy , Poppy , would remind them of their place .
When we tossed kitchen trash into the pen , we spread them farther than common , so the pullet could congregate in camera around a small pile of melon trimmings and overmature Cucumis sativus at one end of the playpen and depart Buttercup and Poppy to the bigger pile at the other terminal of the penitentiary .
For a calendar month or so , Poppy demanded lots of personal blank space for herself and chased the pullets around the pen frequently . But as the pullet got good about keeping their aloofness and Poppy became more confident that her No . 2 slot was safe , they all start up rubbing shoulders at the waterer during the class of the day . But whenever Poppy got excitable , the pullets would jump on top of or shinny into the refuge of the doghouse .
At the end of a 2d or third calendar month of using the crate , we ’ll deplume it out , hose it down , load it with crybaby supply , and then squirrel away it in the service department . Soon , we ’ll have six grownup biddy that will act like they ’ve always been a team , and perhaps , in their minds , they wo n’t think anything different — no line , no fouls , no errors . I wonder whether I can remember the destination of the somebody who put that dog crate on the American Stock Exchange ? Maybe I should write them a thank - you note .
This story originally appear in the November / December 2017 progeny ofChickensmagazine .
