Chicken House

[Edwin]

This afternoon I built a small chicken house. I made it out of concrete blocks. I made the chicken house 5 concrete blocks high so that a person can actually bend over and go in there if need be. My older sister, who is shorter than Crisi, wouldn't have to bend much! I made it wide enough so that I can put 2 pallets over the top for a roof, and I can also use one pallet for the chicken door. Now we have 2 banti hens and a rooster in one house, and they have been laying eggs all along, but of course not the rooster! , 2 turkeys in another house that our youngest daughter helped us put together, and the 3rd house that I just made we have 5 banti naked neck chickens in. The chickens are fun!

[adlena]

very funny , never heard about a chicken house

[Edwin]

Yes, Adlena, our kids who live near Spokane, Washington, USA gave Carol, my wife, 2 banti hens and a banti rooster. They are cute little chickens, that lay little eggs. We had a makeshift pen and house for them until winter came, and then our kids sent over a little house about the size of a huge box, and a little pen attached to it. Carol's health deterioration caused her to lose flexibility, so because of drifting snow I had to take care of them all winter, because I was able to stand on my head when I needed to and take care of them. They are fun for us, and we love them! We get 2 eggs at least every other day. I put a small heat lamp in their little house with 60 and 75 watt bulbs to heat their little space. This spring our youngest daughter started buying baby chickens of all kinds. I helped buy some of the feed, and we got meat chickens in return. She also got some small banti naked neck chickens with no feathers on their necks. She got other exotic varieties as well, and it has been fun. Carol bought 2 turkeys. We had a large dog kennel that our youngest daughter helped attach a pen to. We put the 2 turkeys and 2 banti naked neck chickens in that make shift house. Then she sent 3 more naked neck banti chickens home with us, and that make 5 chickens and 2 turkeys, so it was a bit crowded. Carol kept talking about them needing more space, so I built them a house out of concrete blocks, 5 blocks high, 3 blocks wide, and 6 blocks long, so about 4 feet high, 4 feet wide inside measurement, and about 8 feet long! It is actually a nice little house. I didn't do any mortor work, but just set the blocks one on top of the other, tying them in like you would do if you were mortoring them in. I put 2 pallets on top for roof/ceiling, and one pallet for the front door. Since last night the house held the chickens, but this evening we saw one out, so we thought they were somehow getting through the pallet spaces. Then all five of them were out! I discovered that Carol forgot to stuff one of the holes in the blocks that we turned sideways so that we could put handles through for roosts. Before we discovered that we put tarps and boards on top, but that is good, because if it rains they need more than just pallets to keep the rain water out. It looks like they have a concrete bunker for a house! I reminded me of that kids story, where the wolf said, "I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!" We'll they have one tough house! And it would hold a quite a few small chickens! The rooster has been crowing; I guess he thinks his new concrete block house is scomething to crow about!

[Edwin]

yes, Adlena, that is the house that the chickens live in! I built a far bigger house than I needed to build, but that is ok. I built it because they were too crowded in the other one. Carol left one hole without stuffing it with rocks by accident. It took those chickens took 24 hours to find that way out. When they did we first saw one chicken out in the yard. Then soon we saw a rooster on top of the chicken house! We put the one chicken back in, and it got out immediately, and then others followed until they were all out. When they got out, then went over to where the turkeys were! They missed the turkeys, so we put the turkeys back in with them in the big house, and everybody is happy!

[Edwin]

When we went to pick up the little goat, my son in law there said he thought we needed a chicken run/outside pen for the chickens so they could scratch, but he has not seen what I have rigged up. For 5 chickens and 2 turkeys they have more than enough room. The way I have the wood pallets on top and at the front open section for the door, it is almost like they are outside. The slats provide lots of ventilation and also give enough daylight. I think those slats also provide enough shade for them as well. I was looking and I could make them a duplex really easy, but just adding another wall, and then I can pull out a half block, and they can go back and forth between the two chicken house rooms. That would give us all the room we could ever want for as many chickens as we will ever want. The chickens are fun, as well as the doggies. The roosters are just learning/beginning to cow, and it sounds pretty funny! There is one rooster with the hens that lay the eggs, and at least 2 roosters in the other house, so they talk back and forth to each other. It is pretty cool!

[Edwin]

I am building the chickens and turkeys a duplex, or maybe it is an apartment house! Anyway, I am putting another end wall and side wall on the chicken house, and one outside wall will now be a partition between the two rooms. I was kind of thinking about doing that anyway, and Carol said because the turkeys are getting so big she wants to separate them from the other chickens. They will miss each, because they like each other, so we may put them together for periods of time so they can have time to visit each other! I have the ground leveled, and he bottom two layers finished, so it is well on its way!

[Edwin]

This evening I found some boards to work as the roof for the new addition on the chicken house, and then I found one more pallet to use for the front door. We moved the two turkeys in there, so now there are 5 chickens in one room, and two turkeys in the other room. The turkeys are getting large! The five chickens and the two turkeys really love the weeds I pull for them while I am on my walk. At first I was pulling strictly weeds with seeds on them, and then I started pulling alfalfa looking weeds, and I sometimes pull small wild sunflower plants as well as some grass.

[red]

It is good to have chickens you can save money from buying eggs in the market. We used to have Banti before and I like their eggs coz they are big size. One of the cons in having chicken house nearby is the flies..grrrr i hate flies. My father has chickens and turkeys in the farm too it saves them money sometimes from buying meat. I miss it a lot there. I miss the fruits there. His effort in planting fruit trees and coconut trees has been paid off.

[Edwin]

Red, your Dad must be related to Crisi! She loves to plant trees also as well as other things. I love fruits of all kinds, and I love coconuts as well, and mangoes! When I was in the Philippines in year 2010 they sat some fruit in front of me, and I think they wish they would not have, because I just kept eating and eating and eating. I didn't know the name, so when Carol's brother came to our house I described the fruit and asked him what the name of that fruit was, and he told me it was jackfruit, and boy do I love jackfruit!

Before I was born my parents raised pigs, cows, and chickens. They milked the cows, and sold milk and cream. When I was in high school I worked for my Dad and my brother. My brother farmed many acres of wheat, ran 3 tractors, 3 combines, and sometimes we ran those tractors day and night, one person sleeping in the day, then driving tractor at night. The mechanic building/garage we used was huge. It would probably hold 6 cars all at once or maybe more than that. I did not know the history of that building when I worked on farm machinery in it. It was my Mom and Dad's chicken house, huge, huge, huge, and lots of chickens. My Dad sold his farm/ranch to my Mom's brother, and my uncle moved that building to his place, pouring a concrete wall to set the building on, making it a tall building instead of a shorter one. I learned this all just a couple of years ago.

We kept maybe 20 or 30 hens to lay eggs, and we had lots of eggs! We would buy 100 chickens each spring after I was old enough to know what was happening. We would butcher those chickens in the fall, and put them in the freezer to eat later. I was my Mom's hatched man; I cut their heads off, and I did that when I was just barely old enough to swing and ax. A chicken is the only animal I don't mind killing. I don't like to kill or see any other animal killed. I left that to my Dad and older brother, and I went to the house, laid on the bed, covering my ears so that I would not hear the gun shot that was going to kill the pig or the cow!

[Edwin]

Our kids who live near Spokane, Washington, USA, gave us 2 banti hens and a rooster. Then they brought us a nicer chicken coupe so that the chickens would survive the winter better. We had a heat lamp for them, and I had to stand on my heat, because of deep snow, to take care of them. They have laid a lot of eggs for us, and they are good eggs. I youngest daughter started buying baby chickens, and and she bought some bantis for us, so Carol says we are going to give the three back to our kids near Spokane, when our chickens start laying. Then we have 2 turkeys, and they are big. We put the turkeys in the second chicken house built by the first one last night!