Greetings!
So I've been searching for plans for chicken coops. In our search for a home here in NYS, I'm trying to keep in mind we'd like some land in the country to have chickens, goats, etc. Sounds silly to those of you who know doug and I in real life, BUT we've always had this dream.
Thing is, he works in the city limits and finding a small homestead or a home on a small piece of land within our budget, has proved to nothing more than trying.
We won't let that get us down though. If the good Lord wants us in the city limits, then we should plan accordingly. Some cities allow chickens. In fact, some allow chickens, just not the loud roosters within the city limits.
With that in mind, I've been looking for regular chicken coop plans AND small city type chicken runners that can move. You can imagine my surprise when I found a site by OMLET that sells Eglu's. Yup, IGLOOS for chickens are made from energy efficient polymers using modern construction techniques and at the end of its life it can be 100% recycled.
Take a Look at their Brochure online in PDF
Above you'll see a guide to keeping chickens. The little girl is SO CUTE and the eglu is in the picture. I just found the little girl to be so precious that I had to post this.
My one true concern with this is in the harsh Upstate NY winters, how the chickens would get on and not freeze to death.
This is where you avid homesteaders come in. What do you think? Have any ideas on what to do in the wintertimes? Have any other ideas or plans? How bout plans for bigger size coops if we do find a home with some land?
Let me know your experience and feel free to comment.
Blessings!
Rebekah
Oh, yes, it's part of this whole self sustaining lifestyle we are trying to lead. Well, the pigs are getting bigger and they love and I do mean love to try to get out of their pen. My honey built them this nice big pen in our barn that keeps them sheltered from heat and rain. Do they appreciate all of his hard work? No. I guess the grass is greener on the other side , as they say. So honey has been doing all sorts of fence mending, LOL, to try to keep these little devils in. They are still so small that they can squeeze their little bodies through the hog wire. So yesterday hubby wove barbed wire through the holes. Well, this was the scene this morning.
I think Betty and Wilma were getting the best of him.LOL
So now the love of my life, has wood pallets lined up all over the pig pen. It looks horrendous but oh well. It's just until they are too big to squeeze through the holes. We will soon have our garden spot fenced in so that they can graze on it. We will have a door on the side of the barn for them to go in and out. That way they will have shelter and be tilling and fertilizing my garden spot.
We fared very well from the hurricane. We got lots and I mean lots of rain. My yard is a sopping wet mess but it could have been so much worse. Here's a pic of the horses yesterday. I think they were just tired of the rain but they wouldn't get out of it.
We have had so much going on here since the buying of the new homestead. We love it so much here. Here is the hammock that my DH put up for us before the rain came in. The kids love it!!! They will take their pillows and blankets out and read a book in the hammock. I hope to see them out there a good bit between now and winter.
Since the purchase of the house, groceries and gas have tripled. This has really dipped into the budget. We have not had the resources to buy all of the supplies that we have wanted for the new homestead. However, we did read in the Market Bulletin this past week that a guy wanted someone to come and take down a shed and do the cleanup and you could keep the materials from it. Dh went over to look at it today. It was an old smoke house. So he and our son will go start to take it apart in the morning. We are so thankful. We will be using the siding for our garden shed and hopefully the roof will be used for a new chicken coop this spring. We hope to triple our flock but we will need a new coop. This will put us on our way.
Like I said, we have had a lot going on. One thing as of late, is our muscadines and pears are ready and I have been making jelly and jam. I am so thankful for what the Lord has provided. These will make wonderful Christmas gifts on a very tight budget.
I hope you are all doing well and bless you!!!
All my hens are laying now. I just love all the different colors I get each day. I knew I'd be getting pastel blue, green and pink, and of course brown and white, but I'm loving the deep olive green eggs. Those were a surprise to me. Look at that tiny brown egg in the basket! I put it in the pot when I was boiling eggs for potato salad and egg salad today and snapped a picture of it in a teaspoon right before it got salted and peppered and popped in my mouth! Mmmm-good!
I was beginning to get quite a number of eggs in the refrigerator so I knew it was time to freeze some. Recently I have cracked bunches of eggs into a big bowl and scrambled them, added a little salt and poured them into a freezer bag to keep until I needed them for a scrambled egg breakfast. (or supper!)
Today I wanted to freeze them individually to use in recipes like cakes, cookies, pies, so I emptied out my ice trays and cracked an egg into each section and this time added a pinch of sugar and broke the yolk of each egg. {Always remember to add a bit of salt or sugar before freezing.} Once they're good and frozen solid I'll just pop them out and put them into a freezer bag. This will keep me in good supply of farm fresh eggs even if my hens stop laying for a time. Just eggcellant!
The sun has come out today and it's pretty hot. We're still without electricity. I hear there are places here and there getting power back on. Walmart had power yesterday but someone told me there was no fresh produce or frozen or refrigerated food or bread, etc. I got out and picked up a few limbs in the front and some around the chicken coops today. It will take a lot more work plus a power saw to get all that mess cleaned up. This sunshine will dry things up I hope. Thank you for your prayers and kind words and thoughts everyone. It does cheer me up. And it was great hearing Kitty was alive and well and she asked that I let everyone know here at HSB and asked for continued prayers during her very trying circumstances. My daughter was able to be admitted into a hospital ast night thankfully and her doctor has started another IVP and has called in a Urologist. Please keep her in your prayers.
I was able to talk to Kitty today. She and her family are doing okay. Her house withstood the storm and I think they lost a shed and maybe some things outside. She is fortunate to have a generator but they are only running it a little while at night. As we are finding out too, the gas to keep one of these things running is very expensive. She said where she lives took a direct hit from the hurricane and they are without power and may be without for 6 weeks. I sure hope that's not the case!!
Her mother is in need of prayer. She is not doing well at all. She is considering calling an ambulance today. It's very hot in her house, yet she's cooking a lot of food, rather than it going to waste. I think others in the area are coming over and eating at their house.
Let's all continue to keep Kitty and her family, her mother especially, in our prayers. They are going through such a terrible time.
