Have you ever heard of the term "chicken math"? It is a phrase that describes the phenomenon of the inherent multiplication of fowl that can take place on your property. We have fallen victim to this mathematical circumstance.
Here is our story.
Once upon a time, our family decided to purchase a few chickens. We wanted the fresh eggs and found the cute creatures at the farm stores irresistible temptations to our young children. So, we purchased eight baby chicks.
The hubby built a coop, and we enjoyed the life of raising chickens. We enjoyed the eggs and ignored the cost of the infrastructure and feed because we loved the quality of the product and the entertainment of the chickens. So, we purchased more chickens.
Chickens and eggs come in a variety of colors. The color of an egg is determined by the breed of the chicken that laid it. It has nothing to with the nutritional contents of the egg. If we prepared two different colored chicken eggs for you, side by side, you would not be able to distinguish a difference in taste. Despite knowing that the color really doesn't matter, it is still fun to collect eggs of various colors. It's like collecting your own personal rainbow at the end of the day!! So, we bought more chickens.
Life was good, the chickens were good... until they weren't. We began to experience predator issues. A neighbor dog decided that chicken was a fun treat. He never got into the coop or chicken run, but whenever the chickens would get out, he didn't give them long to find their way back in. He caught them and delivered them to another neighbor's doorstep. She was shocked and we were upset about the loss. We knew that if the silly birds would have stayed inside their enclosure, the dog could not get to them. However, the chickens did not understand our reasoning and didn't always stay in their run. We considered clipping their wings to hamper their ability to fly over the fence, but we never lost enough of them to resort to this solution.
Next, we encountered another predator, a raccoon. This raccoon climbed over the fence and entered the coop. It was a tragic chicken murder scene when it was discovered. There were a multitude of scattered feathers, random chicken body parts and several of the fowl had found refuge in the neighboring woods. We cleaned up the mess, returned the cowering chickens and became more vigilant to ensure that the coop was secured each night. After we felt the threat was over, we purchased more chickens for replacements.
Then, we purchased a new home and needed to move our family and animals. We had been researching other methods of raising birds and discovered the concept of a mobile coop. We knew that with our new property, it would be the time to try this option given that we had no current outdoor infrastructure. We also needed a way to transport the chickens (and our rabbits) to the new location, so the hubby built the Chibbit. We used this mobile coop to transfer the chickens to the new property and setup runs with electric netting fences. It worked well and we continue this method today.
We acquired more land with our move to the new property, so of course, this would necessitate the purchase of more chickens.
Eventually, the new chicks grew into laying hens. We were being blessed with a lot of healthy, delicious eggs. We began to give them away to family and friends. It was nice to produce something that we could bless others with.
Later, my son decided that he wanted to sell his worm tea at the local Farmer's Market. We set up a booth and allowed him to educate and sell his products to the local customers. After we started the market, he discovered that there were customers looking for eggs. We had eggs, so he reasoned that we should sell our surplus. It turned out that we couldn't keep up with the egg demand of our home, family and the market, so we purchased more chicks. We even added a few ducks for good measure.
Our interest in chickens grew and we purchased an incubator. We enjoy the process of hatching out our own eggs. The chicks that are produced this way are a barnyard mixture of breeds, but they seem to be stronger at birth than the ones that we obtain through the mail or at a farm store. We continue to hatch out a few chicks each month.
As the farm has grown, we have expanded our market to more urban and suburban areas. We discovered a need for farm fresh eggs in these areas and have been struggling to meet the demand. We are slowly expanding our flock in hopes to provide our customers a constant source of product.
With the expansion of our flock, we ran into another problem. We had more laying hens but not enough boxes for them to lay as our coop, the Chibbit, was now too small. Due to our coop being mobile and continuously rotating our flock through new pasture, we weren't having any issues with waste. Our biggest issues with outgrowing our coop were dirty eggs from lack of laying space and decreased shade and protection for a larger number of birds. We developed temporary measures to shade the birds through the summer and provide additional laying boxes, but it wasn't an ideal solution. We needed a new coop.
The hubby enjoys designing and building things. He is able to take our needs, wishes and my rough (and I mean ROUGH) sketches for a design and create something useful. He created the Little Red Hen House. He did most of the work, but the girls and I painted it red, so we took the liberty of naming his creation.
This larger coop was built on an old wagon base to allow for easier moveability as we rotate our flock. The space under the wagon provides protection from aerial predators and shade.
The interior has an open floor to allow waste to fall through to the ground and eliminate the need for constant floor cleaning. The wire mesh also provides good airflow. The chickens can roost inside the coop during the night or hide from predators if necessary.
The gutters on the side of the coop captures rainwater and stores it in the barrels. This provides water for the fowl and decreases some of the labor required to haul water from the house.
The rollaway nesting boxes allow for cleaner eggs and decreased labor during packaging.
The hubby did a video series on the details of this build. Here's the first one:
Now that we have a new, beautiful and larger coop, we may need to consider adding a few more chickens...