Chicken Tractor number 2

The twenty chicks we bought are growing quick.  They about five time the size they were when we brought them home from the feed store.  If I don't get the split up soon they will be pecking each other to death.  The last time we bought chickens the dominickers and road island reds tore the other kind to shreds even though they had plenty of room.  This is the second chicken tractor and I will probably build one more after this.  This time I went shorter and wider with a door in the middle of the back.  This took a couple hours this afternoon and I should have it finished tomorrow.

You don't really need much to build a chicken tractor.  Any saw will do,  a hammer comes in handy, and the most helpful thing would be to have two five foot pipe clamps which is about forty bucks including two fittings and two lengths of pipe.  Most people would reach for the cordless Makita or DeWalt, but being as cheap as I am when it come to buying junk I use this 1950's Porter-Cable Homemaster drill that I bought at a flea market for ten bucks.  I put the whole thing together with 3" screws, but If I had one I would use a finish nailer with 2 1/2" 16 gauge finish nails and it would take half the time.

My list of materials:

10     8' 2x2's  Get the straightest ones you can even if you have to make the guy get down a fresh bundle
         to pick through.
1       4' x 8' sheet of 1/4" plywood
2       26" x 8' sheets of corugated plastic (we were going to use salvaged tin, but didn't want sharp edges)
1       Box of 3" screws used about 1/2 box per chicken tractor.
6       1" lag eyes to use as hooks for bungee cords to hold top on.
1       Roll of poultry netting or chicken wire ( you could make a bunch  of these from the same roll since
         really only need about 15 feet) 

I have looked through plans for chicken coops and chicken tractors online and this is my attempt at making this as cheap and simple as possible.  The chickens seem to like it so far, but then again they like eating bugs so what do they know.

Can I deep fry em yet?

Twenty new little pooper's came home with us this weekend. We took the kids to Tolars feed store and bought some new chicks and bag of starter feed. They chicks will stay in the house in a couple dog crates for a few days till they are able to deal with the temperature changes a little bit. The kids are very excited and want to play with the bunch of em. After a while I found the girls sitting in front of the cage trying to come up with names for all twenty. I told them that pets have names and live inside. Farm animals live it outside anonymously. I told the girls if they wanted to give names they could be things like "and dumplings" or "noodle soup" or "fried" anything you throw the word chicken on either side and come up with dinner.

We are not sure how many of these will be laying hens and how many will be lunch. On the same day we brought these home Luci found someone wanting to sell twenty broilers for a buck each to get rid of them. Next weekend we should be getting those. How many of those will go straight to slaughter is not clear yet, but the soil at the LongBranch Ranch may run red with blood. The only real question is should we let the little guys watch so they know what's coming or leave them in peaceful ignorance.

The October Easter Egg Hunt

We haven't had any eggs for a three, maybe four days now. The chickens ussually lay there eggs in the corner of the chicken coop, but for a few days we haven't had anything. Once and a while they pick a spot and make a nest to lay in. Sometimes it is in the middle of the yard, last time is was under the Ford Explorer we don't drive much anymore.

Normally it is pretty easy to find, but I can't seem to figure out where they laying this time. So now I have to head outside and dig through the bushes and the overgrown fence line to see if I can find anything. wish me luck.

Meanwhile I will keep the chickens cooped up for a few days till they get used to laying inside again.

Guard Chickens On Duty

We have seven chickens. When I got home from Vegas three years ago Luci had twenty four chicks. A few were killed by other chickens, some died from unknown causes or wandered off, and a bunch were eaten last when the hurricane busted up the chicken coop. They spent there nights hiding in the bushes until the coyotes found them and quickly began thinning the herd. The coop is made of PVC pipes bent over in a hoop covered with chicken wire and a tarp. When it was intact we could move it around to let them plenty of grass and keep them in the coop all the time. Now that it is busted up it has to be staked to the ground and stays in one place, so in order for them to have grass we let em out every day.

What we did not know in the beginning was that the chickens would simple return to the coop every day when it got dark outside. If one straggler does not return you just don't put any food out the next day. The day after that they will all come running when you put the food out. So tonight as the sun was setting and we started to put the kids to sleep we heard the chickens clucking like crazy. Since they usually only make noise at night Luci figured something was trying to get at em before we closed them inside the coop. I grabbed the shotgun and headed outside. Standing in the middle of the yard,neck stretched as high as it could go one the big brown chickens is clucking like mad. As I stepped off the porch I see a big brown deer staring right at me. For a second I thought about taking a shot, but deer season doesn't start for another month or so. Then he took off running followed, by a second deer that I hadn't seen coming from the direction of our peach tree. They were out there looking for some fruit to eat. The peaches are just about ripe, but I am willing to bet they will be gone one morning when we wake up.

It's not really worth the money to buy fencing material to protect twenty dollars worth of peaches, but I am considering moving the chicken coop right next to the tree to keep a beek on it for me. I guess it's is only fair if they eat the peaches this year since I am hoping to eat one of them this year.