Cheep Chic

Parade Magazine ^ | 11/14/10 | Joane Kaufmann

[Bean Counter]

Elizabeth Lampert’s daughter, Siena, wanted a horse. “But that would have been expensive,” says Lampert, the owner of a public-relations agency just outside San Francisco. Instead she went to a local hay-and-feed store and bought the 10-year-old a pair of chickens. “Then Siena thought they were getting lonely, so we got three more.” Lampert pays her daughter $2 a day to feed them, herd them back into their coop every night, and collect their eggs, generally two or three a day.

“The eggs are amazing,” Lampert says. “They taste rich and creamy. The yolk—it’s very orange. Siena used to ask for cereal for breakfast. Now she wants a veggie omelet.”

*SCHNIPP*

[Bean Counter]

Great little article in the Sunday morning Parade Magazine that's worth sharing. It amazes me how there are still some areas in the country that outright ban or at least heavily restrict owning chickens, because when done properly it is a lot of fun and a valuable fresh food source.

So far since July this year my micro-flock of six hens has produced over 600 fresh eggs, and by spring will have helped produce about 4 cubic yards of finished compost for my gardens.

For those who are interested, here is a link to my main coop construction thread at Backyard Chickens; there are several links to other threads that detail different parts of the Chicken McMansion. It's a bit over the top for the average chicken coop, but it was built to last and is working out far better than we first imagined.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=283812



Cheers!

[Bean Counter]

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=283812

[oldbrowser]

It’s a great idea. I have a cat that does produce anything but poop.

[JimSEA]

Har har har. One of my least favorite memories of childhood is cleaning out the chicken coop my Dad and next door neighbor kept for a couple of years.

[Ditter]

I have a friend who lives in the middle of the city but on a bayou with plenty of space. She is trying to keep laying hens but varmints keep killing her flock. She had a nice wire coop built but I think the last time something dug their way in. I think she needs a cement apron around the exterior of her coop. She said she is waiting until spring to try again. We have an amazing array of wild life (animals) right here in the city of Houston because of the bayou that runs through it.

[This I Wonder32460]

Neat coop. My Dad made a similar one when I was a kid. Only it didn’t have the window vents. That’s neat. We had one row of laying boxes on one end with a small door on either side to reach in and gather the eggs as well as a front door for the chickens to walk down the ramp to the penned in area. We had a 1/2 dozen bantum hens, a bantum rooster and one rhode island red hen. Sometimes we let them run loose and they loved roaming our large back yard. One year we let the hens set on some eggs and we ended up with another 1/2 dozen bantum hens and one 1/2 bantum/rhode island red rooster, who grew up to be quite beautifully colored with various shades of red, white, and teal feathers. We probably had them about three years and then my Dad gave them to his Dad to replenish his coop. I will have to share your design with my son who is thinking about raising some some chickens.

[etcb]

We had a setup somewhat like you describe and it worked great until that day I reached in to get the eggs and encountered a snake having breakfast. I learned to look at each box before reaching in.

[peggybac]

Her daughter is paid $2.00 per day to feed the chickens? Heck, my parents would have made me do it with no payment.

[nmh]

Yes, the Obama reign is making PRIMATIVE, Chic.

No thanks. I’ll keep my civilized lifestyle.

[nmh]

To be IMPVERISHED and live a primative lifestyle is no Obama chic. Obama is PROUD of our decline. I see others celebrate decline in odd ways.

[9YearLurker]

The kid wants a pet—and then gets paid to take care of them? Good deal!

[Mercat]

LOL, I read some of the posts. One was a woman who had decided that it was up to her to build a chicken coop because her husband had started back to work and she was tired of having the chickens in the house. “I sit with one on my lap and watch TV.” I watch TV, she thinks her chicken thoughts.” But she said that they stink and create “feather dust.”

It has never occurred to me to have them in the house but we do have a small shed on our little hobby farm. I figure we buy the chicks in the spring, eat their eggs all summer, freeze some for the winter and off the grown birds for the stock pot in the fall. Then start over again in the spring. Only flaw is that it was be hard to off the chickens after feeding them all summer. Maybe not though.

[fight_truth_decay]

I always buy fresh eggs produced locally. I crack the shell and admire the color of the yolk--!!!Call me weird that way. Real "Organic" does make a difference. I never bought supermarket eggs after the DeCoster stories over a decade ago. Made me start paying attention to where my food comes from. I Buy Local.

DeCoster corporation laying hens were in the news in Iowa back in '94, then in Maine in '96--, then the Midwest salmonella outbreak reported this year [why it took so long to show his business connection to the Midwest facility I found was odd)and recalls continued.

In Maine at the time, it was a focus on the "shantytown" living conditions of the immigrants who work for him, raw sewage runoffs, sweatshops, more fines, etc. The govt was still not doing their job to protect our health and welfare-there was a history. In '97, Robert Reich was Labor Sec. He denounced DeCoster. Reich's successor, Alexis Herman, later called the state of the farms "simply atrocious".

Years of alleged animal cruelty continued (hogs as well), a settled lawsuit against DeCoster Farms on behalf of Mexican women for rape, sexual harassment, abuse, many immigration raids and business still continued. One has to ask how he could still continue to be in operation.

DeCosta Farms to Wright County Egg and Quality Egg. Wright is being sued by Dutch Farms for unauthorized use of their cartons to package and sell eggs under its brand without its knowledge.

Cool hen condo!

[LibFreeOrDie]

Elizabeth Lampert’s daughter, Siena, wanted a horse.

Siena can put saddles on her chickens!

[Kirkwood]

A flock of chickens is incorrect (let alone a micro-flock - har!). Flocks refer to groups of birds that fly, such as seagulls or geese. It is a brood of chickens or a clutch if they all come from the same hen.

[SuziQ]

Bock Bock!!

[Bean Counter]

We have a high predator load here that includes at least 2 coyotes; so I took that into account for the design. I buried a 2’ wide apron of 1/2” mesh welded hardware cloth all the way around the perimeter. The inside edge of the wire mesh is attached to the timbers that form the foundation. Inside the run was filled with a yard of tamped gravel with about 1 1/2 yards of coarse sand, watered and tamped. The back piece of buried wire mesh is most vulnerable since it is along the fence and out of regular view, so I buried it with soil, then covered that with large rocks.

As a result, Wyle E. Coyote couldn’t dig into the coop, at least not quickly. I used 19 gage welded wire for the walls, which is really strong stuff, and I attached it solidly with screws and grometted washers.

I have neighborhood cats, ‘possoms, and the coyotes; and no problems yet. I did catch one of the local squirrels inside the coop yesterday, checking things out. The hens were out in the yard and he just waltzed right in like he owned the place...

[Ditter]

I never thought of suggesting to my friend to bury 2’ of hardware cloth around the outer edge of her coop. I was thinking of about 18” of concrete there. The hardware cloth would certainly be cheaper. How deep did you put it?

Her first flock had their heads chewed off by something that could reach through the wire and and get them. She covered the coop with finer wire after that. Something equally awful happened to her 2nd flock. She wants to try again.

I think it would be fun to have a few chickens but Jack Russel Terrorist would not go well with them I fear. (I can see it all now WOOF WOOF SQUACK!

[trimom]

We raised pheasants and found that owls and hawks would take the heads off when the pheasants pecked outside their flight pens after greens or bugs that were more tempting than what they had in the pens.