Chickens' new home is ready!
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| Chickens' new home. |
New coop sits right next to the old one.
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| Next to the old coop (center), you can see the new one (right). |
The interior (read "perches") and the fence around chickens' new pasture are not finished yet, so they have to stay in their old coop for a few more days.
If the two coops were likened to human dwellings, the old coop would be a tattered one-room apartment while the new coop a brand new luxury home designed by a distinguished architect.
In reality, the old coop was built DIY by two amateurs (Nobuo and me) and the new one was built by a professional carpenter specializing in Japanese-style homes.
The difference between the two in terms of appearance, functionality and strength is huge.
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| Carpenter at work. |
I fully understand some people's reaction: Isn't it a bit too much?
The old coop was good enough, wasn't it? Why do you waste resources on an overly luxurious new one?
Here's why: The old coop is indeed doing a good job right now, but when thinking about the future, we arrived at conclusion that it's wise to build a proper coop. For example, now in the summer when it's hot outside, a coop with all four walls made of metal mesh is fine, but when winter arrives in a few months and temperatures drop, the coop will be unusable (= too cold). Another example, chickens will start laying eggs in 2 months, but the old coop has no nesting boxes.
The original plan was to refurbish the old coop on the way （make wooden walls, build nests etc.）, but we stumbled on a offer to have a coop built by a professional, so we jumped at the chance. The result is a chicken coop that far surpassed all our expectations.
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| Inside the new coop. |
What is so special about it?
The new coop has several super useful features that will be appreciated by both chickens and their people.＊＊＊ Space ＊＊＊
More floor space and higher roof means more space for chickens to run and fly around. (During the day they will also use outdoor playground, but it's still good to have spacious coop.)
＊＊＊ Roof insulation ＊＊＊
Roof is made of corrugated iron sheets with thermal insulation material attached under.Corrugated iron is famous for becoming frypan-hot under the summer sun. When the roof gets hot, temperature inside the coop rises as well. This causes great inconvenience to heat-vulnerable chickens. The old coop was quite like that.
But! The new coop has thermal insulation sheets under the roof and upper walls to keep it cool. When you step inside on a hot summer day, you can feel it's cooler than its surroundings. The effect of thermal insulation is astounding.
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| Thermal insulation material under the roof and upper walls. |
＊＊＊ Waterer ＊＊＊
We installed a water faucet in the new coop.Digging a trench to install new water line required some superhuman qualities. Obviously some of our neighbors are semi-gods.
Water comes from our 60 m deep well.
The faucet will be slightly open and water trickling all the time so chickens can take a sip of fresh water any time they want.
Chickens drink a lot of water, especially (quite unsurprisingly) on hot days and they also (quite naturally) prefer fresh and clean water. In the old coop we had to change water in their waterer twice a day and it would still get tepid and dirty.
So the new faucet will kill two birds with one stone (this seems somewhat inappropriate metaphor for this blog): Chickens will have permanent access to fresh and clean water and we will save time.
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| Faucet and the water tray |
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| Water runs down to the drainage ditch outside the coop. |
＊＊＊ Feed storage & work space ＊＊＊
On the northern side of new coop is feed storage and work space, under the same roof but separate from chickens' area. This is extremely convenient as the tiny shed we've been using so far for storing feed was always crammed to bursting. Finally there's more space! |
| View from the north. You can see the passage behind the open door. |
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| View from inside of the coop. You can see the passage behind the open door. |
＊＊＊ Nesting boxes ＊＊＊
Looking from the front, they look like standard nesting boxes： |
| Nesting boxes: 12 separate rooms. Hens like to have privacy. |
Looking from the back, you can see doors attached.
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| Door on the back side of nesting boxes. |
This means we can collect eggs from the back, without stepping into chickens' quarters. Chickens won't be disturbed by humans and humans will have easier job collecting eggs. Another win-win solution.
＊＊＊ Leaf mold carpet ＊＊＊
In free range farming it's important that the floor of the coop is dirt floor. Reason: chickens' poop falls directly on the ground where it quickly gets dry, decomposes and returns to the soil. So it won't become smelly. (Of course the density of birds must be low.) However, there are times when the poop won't dry so easily (e.g. streak of rainy days), and then you have to be prepared for some smell. But we got an advice how to prevent this: leaf mold carpet.The poop will decompose by the power of fermentation.
What we made is not a real leaf mold (which is made of actual leaves), but as far as I know there's no other name for the fermented mix of rice husk and rice bran, so I call it leaf mold.
Recipe: Pile up layer of rice husk and rice bran (we got these from a nearby rice farmer who we got to know via our semi-god neighbor). Sprinkle a lot of water over the mass so that it's well soaked. Tread it well with your feet. (It feels good!) Let it ferment for a few weeks.
When ready, we'll move the mass to the new coop and spread it over the floor.
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| Making the leaf mold: Nobuo sprinkling water and treading on the mass of rice bran and husk. |
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| Leaf mold (rice bran and husk) in the midst of fermentation process. |
These were some of the new coop super useful features. They are based on the ideas of our semi-god neighbour and chicken advisor Mr. Kojima.
The last step: paint the walls and the coop is ready. Paint is necessary to preserve the wood.
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| Nobuo painting, part 1. |
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| Nobuo painting, part 2. |
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