![]() The floor of the chicken coop and the chicken run are cleaned out in the fall once per year as most of the chicken waste is collected below the roost. Harvested/tilled garden to settle until spring. note: That would be roughly the 21 st of June, September, December and March.) The coop is cleaned out four times per year. I schedule my clean-out on the Summer solstice, Fall equinox, Winter solstice, and Spring equinox. This tray is the only thing you clean four times a year. Allowing the air to bubble for three days allows the proliferation of aerobic microbes to digest the goodies and create an excellent tea for the garden plants in approximately three days. The floor of the coop is covered with pine shavings as well.Ĭlean-up requires simply removing the roost and setting it aside, then removing the tray and carrying it to the garden or compost pile. I also use this in a five-gallon bucket full of water with an aquarium air pump and air stone in the bottom of the bucket. This tray has a 2″ lip around it and within this I place pine shavings. This roost perches atop a tray that is 16″ wide and long enough to reach from wall to wall of the coop with an inch to spare. Inside the coop I placed a removable roost made from a 2″ x 4″ with routed edges for the chickens to roost on. This keeps their water from freezing in the winter months. ![]() The water container perches atop a cement block in which I place a 50 watt light bulb plugged into a “farmers outlet.” This outlet has a built-in thermostat, which turns on at 35☏ and off at 45☏. This makes it easy to clean out once per year in the fall when I get the farm ready for winter. I simply spread pine shavings on the floor and provide a recycled wooden box for a dust bath. This way it prevents critters from digging under the chicken yard and getting to my hens. I was able to salvage some tin sheeting from what was left of the destroyed single-wide mobile home on the property and fastened it to the bottom of the frame of the chicken run. This frees up an enclosed run of 6′ x 12′. I elevated this house two feet off the run. What I came up with was an enclosed chicken coop. The coop measures 6′ wide, 12′ long and 9’ high. In fact, most of the building supplies had been collected over the years to reincarnate as this great chicken coop!Īfter measuring all of the material, I sat down at my desk and began drawing designs based upon the available material. The tin from a destroyed mobile home on the property serves as a critter-proof coop floor. The total cost of the coop was approximately $235. The result was enough material to build a small chicken coop and barn. In addition I had collected other free material and stockpiled it at the ranch nearby for use at a later time. ![]() After cleaning up the land and salvaging as much material as I could, I accumulated a pile of usable building material. ![]() Some squatters occupied the property and stripped, wrecked, disassembled, and demolished the site. The farm had been abandoned for some years. ![]()
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