The homestead's hens are happy out in the field at last. After spending the winter 'cooped up', the hens who are no longer little chicks have finally made their way out in the pasture.
Alex and I looked at many designs for DIY mobile chicken tractors, and this one seemed the best for our hens. It was mostly built out of salvage wood from our renovations and old construction materials we found in the barn. From the cedar shingles, to the chicken wire, screen door and rooster decoration, all these treasures were salvaged by the previous owners of the farm, and are now being put to good use once again. We did have to go buy a few 2x4 (and we
made sure it was local untreated FSC certified lumber) and some good screws, but we would say that more than 70% of the coop is recycled (Eli, there is even a recycled inner tube to waterproof the seam, just for you!).
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| a removable side wall for easy cleaning |
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| We get 2 eggs everyday now, from just 3 hens |
It's a simple A-frame structure, with a shelter and 4 laying boxes in
the back, and even though it's not completely finished, once it has its
wheels in the back and handles in the front, we will be able to move the
chickies to fresh pastures (and fresh new bugs!) on a daily basis. At the moment we use a
dolly to do the moving but that should be fixed by the weekend. For
this project, just like all our other projects, we wouldn't have been
able to pull it together so quickly and resourcefully without the help
of lots of friends, so thank you guys, we'll be saving some eggs for
you!
A lot is beginning to happen now outside: the fruit trees are in bloom, the hammocks are up and we have relocated the
vegetable transplants to the cold frames we found in the barn so that they can acclimatize to the outdoors
before we plant them in their permanent home.
Last weekend, five of our girlfriends from Montreal came down to visit and they were instrumental in opening up the first garden plot.
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| Is it a pear? an apple? a cherry? who knows! |
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And with this blog post we really wanted to share that we value the help and the resourcefulness of people who are here with us in the present, but also of those who came before us. Sometimes it can seem so easy to just discard the past, the old, the 'obsolete'. But thanks to the thriftiness (or common sense!) of the previous owners, we built a mobile chicken coop, we protect our seedlings from bad weather with old cold frames and windows, and everyday we discover a new (old) treasure, or a new fruiting plant... and for all of this, nothing or very little new was needed. There is something of a treasure inside everything, we humans just have to be patient and figure out what it is.
Until next time,
A lot is beginning to happen now outside: the fruit trees are in bloom, the hammocks are up and we have relocated the
vegetable transplants to the cold frames we found in the barn so that they can acclimatize to the outdoors
before we plant them in their permanent home.
