Saturday 4 February 2012

What To Do First

Big plans this weekend and the snow has stopped them all!
Still It means I can draw up some plans in the warm. I've decided that the first smallholding job I should do is to build a chicken pen and coop. I left my old coop at the old house as it was built for the pen that its in. I'm thinking of having around 8-10 laying birds to start with, hybrids probably, as we had 9 before and it seemed a manageable number to deal with. Also with this amount we can sell the surplus eggs to the neighbours and passers by to help pay for food and bedding.
Any one got any ideas on the perfect coop. I'm going to raise it off the ground by 18" to stop rats and give the birds something to shelter under and have some nest boxes on the side.
I've also got to think about the work to be done on some of the trees. Many of the large oaks need their crown raising as there are some heavy lower branches on them and it would benefit the trees if they were removed (also benefit the firewood pile!). Good job I've got a kind hearted brother to help me with this!

No comments: