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Raising Chickens In The Back Yard

Welsummer Rooster
Big Ed, the Welsummer Rooster.

We keep chickens in our back yard. As long as you don’t live in a narrow minded municipality, I encourage you to as well.

We mail ordered 25 chickens, the minimum order,  and they arrived in June. They were straight run. That means about half of them are roosters. I have built a coop for the flock we will keep and a chicken tractor for the roosters.

Ten Hen House Chicken Coop

Side view of the chicken coop.
Side view of the chicken coop.

The chicken coop is based of the ten hen house from the book Poultry House Construction. The coop shelters our laying flock. The first eggs were produced in November.

The coop features an automatic chicken door. I retrofitted the door into the coop in two phases and documented the process. Click here to read phase one. Click here to read phase two.

Chicken Tractor

Chicken Tractor Built with 1/2 in Electrical Conduit
The chickens enjoying their tractor.

I built a chicken tractor (moveable pen). I put it to use raising some meat birds this past summer. I put together a materials list for the chicken tractor that you can download.

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