Chicken coops plans

A recent query from keeping chickens newsletter subscriber Staci : “Thanks for the newsletter. I have enjoyed it very much. I did a little searching through it, but have not seen mention of ‘winter mashes’. A friends’ mother told me she remembers that her father used to feed his hens a mash of some sort to keep them laying through the winter. If you have any recipes for such a thing …

Now it’s sometimes said that I’m lazy, whereas I prefer to think of myself as ergonomic with exertion. I like fast recipes that require a minimum of preparation and take just a few minutes, but I also want these fast creations to be tongue tingly tasty. It’s a side affect of living with a wife who can cook the most marvellous gastronomic marvels with what appears to be just the shake of …

Keeping chickens warm in the winter can be a bit difficult but they are pretty hardy creatures that come dressed in their own feather duvet.

When it comes to the colder weather you need to make a few basic checks of your coop or ark that your poultry are being kept in dry draught free conditions.

Make sure ventilation is above head height and that there are no draughts coming through …

In the world of pop music, the remix is often better than the original. When it comes to the panini on this blog, the same holds true.

My tastes haven’t necessarily changed that much over the years, but the more I learn about food the more I find my philosophies about it are evolving. Take, for instance, the Barbecued Chicken Panini I made two years ago (cut me some slack on those old …

I’ve gone mobile! It was my good friend Karen’s birthday and another good friend, Gillian, and I decided to prepare lunch for her to celebrate. So I packed up my Breville, a bunch of tupperware full of fixins and my 6 month old and transported Panini Happy up to the OC.

As supermom to four active-yet-endearing kiddies ages 5, 3, 2 and 4 months (she writes a most humorous blog , …

Jesse J. Lyons Department of Animal Sciences

Maintaining a small poultry flock can be rewarding and will provide an opportunity for various family members to participate in animal care. Chickens are best maintained as a flock and are well suited for such management. Other species of poultry are also well suited for family flock management; however, mixed flocks (mixed ages or species) are not …

Recently, I was shocked to learn that tightly closed, Nineteenth-century-style chicken coops are back in fashion, in spite of being unhealthy for your birds and foul-smelling, besides! I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, since there’s something about Nineteenth-century superstitions that makes them immortal, but this one is particularly bad for your chickens.

The fallacy goes like …

CHICKEN COOPS GENERAL INFORMATION So you’re thinking about building a chicken coop but don’t want to spend a fortune on coop plans and building materials? This was my thought when I built my own coop a few years ago. I’ve read that the average person spends $300.00 to build their coop and I didn’t want to spend that much – I scoured the internet to find free (or cheap) but well made …

We all learn to coddle day-old baby chicks: we keep them warm and protect them from floor drafts that might chill them. It’s easy to carrythis too far when the chickens get older. Chickens have sensitive lungs and need good air quality to thrive. If we shut up our chicken housestoo tightly, the houses will be dark, dank, and smelly, and the chickens will do poorly.

Since adult chickens …

Two of the most important aspects of building your own chicken coop is having adequate ventilation and insulation as it directly affects the health of the chickens. In order to maintain proper air quality in the chicken house, significant venting must be incorporated into your chicken coop design. At the end of the day, your proper coop ventilation and insulation will keep the chickens …