I'm completing the construction of a chicken coop/greenhouse. The coop is 6 x 19, the greenhouse 51 x 11. There will be two 4 x 51 beds in the greenhouse. The greenhouse is on a rotten granite base with no soil of any kind, so we hope to build the beds with Andy Lees chicken tractor concept, over the winter, using straw, hay, and leaves as the bed building material.

We've located a hatchery that will send us chicks this late in the year. We expect to use a larger dual purpose breed. We'll be getting 50 females and one rooster. We have 28 nesting boxes. Considering there is 114 sq. ft. of floor space in the coop, that works out to a little more than 2 sq. ft./bird. As youngsters, no problem, but as adults I'm wondering about crowding in the coop. In the beds, there will be roughly 4 sq ft per bird, which is the ideal according to Lee. Any thots, suggestions, advice to a rookie? Thanks John

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), November 02, 1999

Answers

Get a couple more roosters,if you want fertile eggs I try to keep 2 roosters for every 20 hens,chickens do die. For some reason the roosters seem to be the first ones to go,perhaps protecting the hens?

-- Daryll (twincrk@hotmail.com), November 03, 1999.

Just make sure you add plenty of bedding material. Last year I did a similar thing in an old shed, and the application of bedding made a real difference in quality of life. If you have plenty of ventilation and provide plenty of access to high-quality legume hay, sunshine, and grit, you should have no problems. For bedding, I would use any highly carbonaceous layer I could get my hands on for cheap. I use big round bales of hay because I can get old bales for free. The birds will wallow down in them on cold winter nights. What are you going to do about roosts? I try to only provide enough roost space for the birds and no more. I usually move the roosts around so I can make sure to get a lot of manure in a lot of places. Andy Lee's Chicken Tractor method just plain works. I have used my tractor in a daily rotation system and in the deep mulch system, and both methods work very well. Good luck.

-- Heath Oates (heathoates@hotmail.com), November 04, 1999.

You might try raising Buff Orpington chickens (breed) They are remarkably gentle and tolerate crowding. They are considered a meat breed.

-- Christina Florschutz (flrschtz@seapac.net), November 06, 1999.

Another good dual-purpose breed are Rhode Island Reds. We have a mixed flock of reds, Wyandottes, and Aracaunas. All three breeds are large enough to butcher. We also have a couple of mystery birds plus a Buffy. They all lay eggs, and they're all butcher-able. Try and keep one rooster for every 10-15 hens, and it's better to have extras than not. We started out with 2 roosters and 20 hens, and both roosters ended up dying. We brought in two more roosters from outside the flock (raised together, so they'd already established the pecking order) and they're doing fine, although one is destined for the soup pot, as he's turned mean (we have two tiny kids, can't risk a mean rooster even if he IS doing his job).

Sounds like a terrific setup, good luck.

-- Patrice (dldesigns@wave.net), November 07, 1999.

In response to the Buff Op.'s being a meat breed: They may be considered so in hatchery catalogs but they are also wonderful layers of brown eggs who take cold weather with nor frozen combs. They also are good mothers and will dependably raise a clutch of eggs.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), November 07, 1999.

Concerning Buff orpingtons. I agree they are very gentle birds. I had a rooster who was a true gentleman. He made sure his hens fed first and also his chicks. He was gentle in his demeaner towards me as well. In fact he was only agressive with my oldest daughter because she was afraid of him and he knew this. I had a speckled sussex rooster as well that was meaner than all get out. The hens were very gentle, but not the rooster. I have a new flock of chickens and made sure I have Buff roosters as well as white orpingtons. I decided to try dark brahmas as they are suposed to be gentle. We will see.

-- leeann ellenson (ellenson@paulbunyan.net), November 08, 1999.

I have raised Light Brahmas and they have great dispositions. They are good layers of brown eggs and do well in cold climates. We have had two roosters that would allow my sons to pick them up and carry them around. Never had a brahma rooster that was anything but gentle.

-- Lani Jacobs (mlrd@together.net), November 09, 1999.

We are also using a chicken tractor inside a greenhouse. Technically it is a hoophouse because it's more a glorified cold frame rather than a bonafide greenhouse. Anyway, use white film rather than clear. You get just as good light but the heat build up isn't so dramatic as with clear. My chickens are Australorps and they are doing a great job with improving our already good soil. We will removee the film but leave the structure to support climbing crops and grow shade loving things underneath. Next fall we will move the hoophouse to another area in the garden and repeat the process. Rather than build permanent beds, I am using cold frames in the style of Elliot Coleman that can also be moved easily. Our hoophouse is 12x24'. It's nice to be out of the weather while watching the chickens too! Good luck.

-- Marilyn Dickerson (rainbow@ktis.net), January 17, 2000.