Author: Anna & Mark

Copper Creek Ranch Making your chicken habit pay for itself

November 12, 2012 Posts No Comments
Copper Creek Ranch

Sheep and geeseIs your chicken habit breaking
the bank?  I was given the opportunity to tour Copper Creek Ranch a few weeks ago, and the
proprietor, Jane Hall, gave me some tips on scratching your chicken
itch while making a profit.



Jane moved to southwest
Virginia from Florida a few years ago and dove right into her 32 acre
farm.  Now she owns heirloom breeds of chickens, ducks, geese,
turkeys, rabbits, goats, sheep, and donkeys, providing the mixed herd
about 30 gallons of feed per day.  Despite rising grain costs,
though, all of her animals pay for themselves.

Pet rabbit

“We don’t get to eat any
eggs,” farm-hand Jeremiah said in mock complaint.  “They all go
into the incubator.”



Jane’s cabinet-style
incubator allows her to hatch 100 to 150 chicks per week, which she
sells on Craiglist and at the Animal
Swap she
organizes.  By zeroing in on the varieties that get snapped right
up, she grossed about $10,000 this year on chickens alone.



Chocolate turkeysChicken varieties on Jane’s farm
include three varieties of Marans (Black Copper, Blue-spangled, and
Blue), two kinds of bantams (Silver Sebright and English Game),
Buckeyes, and Ameraucanas.  She also raises Cotton Patch Geese
(the ones you
can train to weed your garden), Sebastopol Geese, and
American Buff Geese (the last two being flightless geese raised for
meat).  Ancona ducks are reputed to be good layers, and her
Chocolate Turkeys were definitely the prettiest birds on the farm.

Meat rabbits

Jane’s rabbitry will pay
for itself in about five years, she said, with young rabbits sold for
pets (Mini Rex and English Spot) or to start meat operations (American
Chinchilla, Silver Fox, and Creme D’Argart).  The friends we went
on the farm tour with fell in love with the Silver Foxes, who sat like
lap dogs in their arms.



Among larger livestock,
Jane is raising Barbados Blackbelly sheep, Boer Goats (not an heirloom,
but in high demand Heirloom livestockfor meat), and miniature donkeys.  Next
year, she wants to branch out into heirloom pigs.



While I could tell that
the farm was a lot of work, Jane’s model isn’t a bad one to mimic if
you love animals but can’t afford them.  I’d love to hear from you
if you’ve made your farm pay for itself in an innovative way. 
What’s the secret to your success?


Our automatic chicken waterer was a hit when we gave one
to Jeremiah to save time during his daily chore of cleaning
old-fashioned waterers in the brooder.

Even better PVC chicken feeder

November 9, 2012 Chicken feeders, Chicken Products 13 Comments

PVC chicken feederMy favorite of the automatic chicken feeder designs readers have submitted so far is Darren Simmons’ PVC feeder, which is like the second generation of the PVC design I’ve been pointing folks toward.  I’ll let Darren walk you through the construction in his own words.

“Before I built this auto feeder we were going through 100 lbs of food every 6 to 7 weeks.  We now can go almost 14 weeks for the same amount.
“My first try ended up being like a “trough“, which still wasted food on the ground.  My second attempt were eight 2 inch holes spaced every two inches apart or so.  What I ended up with is seen in the pictures.
“I’ve made our automatic chicken feeder out of 3″ PVC, if I were to do it again I would do it out of 4” but it wasn’t as easily found at my hardware store.  Supplies I used:
  • 1 – 10′ section of 3″ PVC (you could use any size over 2″).
    Cost $8.49
  • 2 – Long Sweep elbow 90 degree.  Cost $2.69
  • 1 – Street Sweep elbow 90 degree.  Cost $3.29
  • 1 – 3″ rubber flexible end cap (screw driver needed to
    tighten).  Cost $4.99
  • 1 – 3″ end cap.  Cost $1.39
  • Total Cost: $23.54 plus taxes

 

Chicken trough“Because I already had T-posts in the run, I just ran a 2×4 between two T-posts so I could have a support for the “trough” or where the chickens are going to eat the feed from.  The trough is about 9″-10″ off the ground, that way they don’t walk in it and scratch it out.
“I cut two pieces of the 3″ PVC one about 30″ and another about 40″ (this was the space that I had available).  In the smaller of the two pieces I cut four (4) 5″ to 6″ openings for the chickens to eat out of.  When I mounted this piece to the 2×4 I made it at a slight downward angle so the feed would slide all the way down.  I used the 3” rubber end cap and one 90 degree elbow.  I then connected the longer section of PVC to make the holding area of the feed.
“At the top of this piece I placed the two 90 degree elbows together and the other end cap.  I did this because I needed to go outside of a little fenced in run area.  I didn’t want to have to go inside the run every time they needed food. I also used no glue, this way if I needed to expand I could or to take it apart to clean out.

Rat-proof chicken feeder“To make it so the rats could not get in and feed freely as they leased I made a lid that has a section of 3″ PVC cut out, and screwed to the bottom of the lid to completely lock in the feed at night.  I also put a 2.5 lb weight on the top to make sure the rats couldn’t open it.  I tied a 1/4” rope to the lid so we could open and close the lid.
“I’ve also used something very similar for the water using your chicken nipples.  It’s great because it holds about 5 gallons of water and I can go for about 9 or 10 days without having to add water.”

Homemade gravity chicken feeders

November 7, 2012 Posts No Comments

Deep dish chicken feederTips for making cheap but
efficient homemade versions of the storebought
gravity feeders have been pouring in.  Here are some of my
favorites.



The deep dish feeder

Karen Juarez wrote
“Here’s the feeder we use — a 5 gal bucket with a lid bolted to an
aluminum pan.  Notches are cut out around the bottom of the bucket
which allows the grain to flow out as needed.  We use a similar
feeder for our chicks with a 3-lb plastic coffee container and a ‘pan’
cut from the bottom of a 2-gal bucket.  The lids keep it clean,
and both pans are deep enough to prevent the chickens from scratching
it out.”



Bouncing chicken feeder

Bouncing feeder

Sue Tengan’s feeder is
much like the deep dish feeder above, but she hangs it from a bungee
cord or chain.  “With a bungee, the bucket’s weight will stretch
when full and will retract when empty,” she wrote, “but chains need to
be at a certain length for chicken to reach food, as chain will not
retract when empty.”  I’ve found that a less-than-solid hanging
arrangement is actually good for preventing feed waste and chickens
perching on the feeder, so the bungee idea appeals to me.







Cabinet chicken feeder





Cabinet chicken feeder

Although it’s not going
to solve the spilled feed problem, Paul Alexander’s huge feeder will
let you store several bags of feed right in the coop.  If you’re
less interested in saving money and more interested in lowering work
and being able to leave your chickens alone for long periods of time,
this may be the way to go.




Funnel chicken feeder

Funnel feeders

Michael Kenner, inventor
of the low
budget automatic chicken feeder I posted about previously,
emailed me several more designs.  My favorite was this
bucket-within-a-bucket-with-funnel.  He wrote, “Here’s a feeder
made out of an old petroleum 5-gallon bucket (the walls are thicker
than regular buckets from Lowe’s or Home Depot), a two gallon plastic
flower pot, a screw-on lid, and a 6″ funnel (to keep the grain flowing
and from piling up in the center of the feeder).  The holes are
cut in the bucket and the 2-gallon plastic pot (with the bottom cut
out) is glued/caulked into the bucket.  The bottom of the plastic
pot is below the bottom of the feeder holes and a funnel is attached
inside to keep the grain flowing out to the birds.”



Retrofitted storebought chicken feederMichael went on to explain,
“I bolt funnels in all my feeders to eliminate that cone-shaped pile of
feed that collects in the feeders.”  This second photo shows “an
ordinary small flock feeder with the cheesy wires replaced with

3/16″ All-Thread, with
NY-Locs and washers”, plus a funnel, of course.  Michael concluded
that this retrofitted storebought option is “not a great

feeder, but commonly
available in feed stores and something to get a new owner
started.  It’s a little pricy but the birds use it and aren’t able
to poop in it but

it could have been made
better……”



Keep those ideas
coming!  The automatic
chicken feeder contest
continues until November 16 at midnight.



While you’re at it,
don’t forget to pick up an automatic chicken waterer to keep your flock hydrated
with clean water.