Monday, February 18, 2008
Get to bed!
Well, I never thought it would happen. It's taken several weeks, but I don't have to go outside in the dark to carry chickens into their henhouse any longer. They've figured out how to strut up their ramp and into their house when it gets dark....finally! Yay!
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3 comments :
This is a weekend of "firsts". They finally identify that big wooden structure as "home" - that's great.
How close is your coop and hen house to your actual home? You're either using a telephoto lens or it's pretty close. I read somewhere that one should put their hens at least 75 (!) feet from your house, due to smell, etc., but this seems just too dang far away. What do you think?
farmgirl,
Yes, I've read the same thing and been told similar from a few people as well.
Most of what I've read and the people I've spoke to, though live in more hotter/humid/wet places than we do here in the mountains.
We have dry, cool, breezy summers up here above 7,000 ft, so we don't tend to be as plagued by odoriforous and buggy problems.
We orginally got the idea to place our coop closer from several of our friends up here, who have their coop close, not just to enjoy their amusing and pretty chickens, but to protect them from predators, and to fetch eggs during our cold and windy weather only having to walk a few steps outside.
In building our coop, I did much research from many resources, one of which was Riasing Backyard Chickens: http://successwithpoultry.blogspot.com/2007/05/chicken-coop-and-run.html
There are many pictures of coops located close to homes. In addition, City Chickens is another helpful website, because most people do not have lots large enough to place their coops 75 feet away from their house.
I think it all really depends on your climate, how many chickens you intend to keep, and most importantly, how clean you intend to keep your coop and henhouse.
Around here, I clean out and compost the soiled shavings and scrub down the henhouse every week-(every 2 weeks in the winter) and I rake and scrape the ground of the coop every few days.
One of the joys of having chickens is being able to watch them and enjoy their amusing antics. It's such a treat being able to do that from the comfort of your own house sometimes.
Good luck!
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