Date eggs

I date my eggs to insure I do not leave the old ones while cooking. This way I know when they were laid. No guess work. Today I found my old date stamper and thought aaaahhhh haa!

Build your own chicken coop

To build a coop:
Frame, chicken wire, walls, floor, roosts, nesting box, heat lamp, and access doors (wheels, if you want it mobile)

It is easy and beyond beneficial to raise your own hens.

Eggs
Meat
Compost eater and producer
Bug and weed killer
Mini tillers
Lawn mowers

The chickens eat the compost and turn it directly into usable compost that they till into the ground all within a matter of hours. Also while they are weeding, what a great pet!!!!!!!!

My coop has 10 hens and 2 roosters which you would think would be too much for my tiny coop but it's not. All the hens huddle on the roosts together and use the same nesting boxes. No room is needed because the hens would not use it. I move my coop daily, slowly so I don't run over my pets.

The picture above they are out which they usually are not. My yard is not chicken proof which I learned the hard way. There are more pictures of the coop here.

I built a pen out of pallets to wheel the coop up to so the chickens could have a semi permanent location. I move this pen once a month and the grass always grows back.

Chicken coop

My dear friend Joe is a framer and bless his soul, he is helping me with my mobile chicken coop. My Father-in-law just tore out some was in his house and had available wood to use. My husband Kyle, helps us by stopping us from over thinking things.

Every weekend Joe stops by and donates a hour or two of his free time to helping me.
It is turning out way bigger than we originally planned. However, we have little tractor tires that we are putting on it so it should still be pretty easy to push around the property.

I am beyond excited with the way it is turning out. All of it so far has been made with free or donated material. I did misplace the hinges I thought I had so I may be buying some.
The ten chickens, feed, gravel, water container, feed tray, and heat lamp all cost $70.

I heard to use pine so I'm using 100% pine cat litter and it is working really well.
I moved the chickens in today. Now all we need is the wheels on next weekend and will be ready to graze in protection. For now they are still too little to go out so it does not really need wheels yet. The chicks are four weeks old today.