Even though we knew it would slightly overload the new chicken tractor with docking run, we put all nine coop hens inside so we wouldn't have more than two chicken areas to monitor each day. That was a bit rough on the flock since the skies opened up and proceeded to pour for the next several days, but the girls seem to have stayed pretty dry while coming out to graze between showers.

The roll-out nest box, to our surprise, has been the least successful part of the undertaking. Without straw or a nest egg in the box, most of the hens have been ignoring the structure and laying on the ground instead. Mark's thinking of glueing a golf ball inside in hopes we can talk the hens into utilizing the roll-out option. In the meantime, we've been gathering muddy eggs out of the yard.

Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.

Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.