Thursday, December 9, 2010

End of the line for the chickens?

My generic brown layers have reached the end of their egg laying life.   Shortly they will meet their maker.

My plan is to rebuild the coop and chicken run for the spring.  Having done this for several years now, I have a much better idea of what I would want in a chicken enclosure.

I want it a little bit larger though it does need to be quite as tall.  I want to build a better laying box that one could access from the outside.  I also want a place that the food could be stored.  A bigger door would help as well in being able to muck out the enclosure.  

My plan is to have this new enclosure built for early May and then bring in eight or nine chickens this time.  I would get point of lay hens again but it would be nice to get a mix of some different breeds.  I suspect the brown layers I got through Borden Mercantile will be the least hassle.  I found out the other day that Borden brings in hens more often than I had known, hens are available almost all year round.

This not having our own eggs and having to buy them at the store is an odd situation after several years of having our own.  I had no idea how many eggs we go through every week but it came home to me lately since I have had to buy eggs.  

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