grrr. chickens.

I am raising free range hard heads. not the chickens..my family..."No chickens until the place is ready for them." Meaning no place for them until I am ready to cope with them. because I will wind up being the one to cope with them.

I have to laugh, I guess. I got up this morning and caught my oldest daughter filling a shiny new poultry waterer in teh tub..."UMMM...WHAT is that for?" She trots out...."MOOOM! WE'RE BUSTED!"

Crap. now I have to scrounge materials and get a broiler pen built and a tractor/laying house built before the little buggers get big enough to be out. <sigh>

Oh well, I just sowed in a plot of buckwheat around my first hugel mound, and I think I have enough scrounged chain link top rail to make an entire chicken tractor with a steel frame. that ought to last a few years.

that and I will have a hundred or so tomato plants this year..might just have a few extras...chickens looove tomatoes.

no real point to this. I am just grumpy about it.

Sympathetic. Been waffling on whether or not to take the chicken plunge this year... until I found somebody just down the road who's got chicks available from the somewhat rare breed I want. So I wasn't really planning on chicks, or on having them right away, but now I guess I'm gonna.

<sigh> I <wanted> to get a chicken greenhouse and forage plot moving first..water catchment, etc...but nooo....I can see the squabbles coming about who is going to take care of them.

ahhh..kids.

thinking abut where i am going to scare up some wheels for this contraption. steel framed cage/tractor with a coop/nest boxes on the back end...counterbalanced to make it easy to move. in theory.

hmmf...old lawn mower I have will donate it's front tires to the cause.

might pony up for a couple of lamb panels for sides.

Important late note: Build chicken housing BEFORE acquiring chickens!

Thanks. <free range organic sustainable sarcasm.>

I think I am going to cheat and make the wife buy me some sheep panels to build the tractors out of. all metal, then I don't have to mess with it again. ever.

Fortunate that I own a sawmill..for the roofing and perches and whatnot. the best lumber...is relatively free lumber.

Sounds like a good idea. Mine tended to rot out at the bottom where the wood rested on the ground. Metal could be heavy though.....

eh..gonna use chainlink top rail for the skids...will likely make two layer houses, as I don't like to have more than a half dozen to cope with in one unit at a time.

we raised fryer chickens for Tyson when I was a pup...sixty five thousand birds at a time...I do >not< get excited about chickens. had one heck of a garden though..just downhill from the effluent drain..lol..maters the size of your head, and ten foot tall okra...