Chickens
The chicken project has been moved from the house and garden project to the allotment project as we now have 2 allotments shared between John, Dave and my self.
Over View and goals articulation
Chickens and man have a long history stretching over milena, chickens originally came from south east Asia spreading to India the middle east and Europe, a subspecies of the red jungle fowl. The chicken has the largest bird population in the world 25-30 billion and egg production at 50 billion tonnes per year and growing.
Small scale animal integration is recommended in many permaculture design literature however the reasons for my initial interest were generated by friends who started keeping chickens. They described there experiences and after visiting them I plan to have chickens in my garden. With the allotment group of 3 it made sense to keep chickens on the allotment sharing the costs and other duties. We agreed that it would be small scale egg production with room for expansion later using as many recycled materials as possible for the run and coop.
Small scale animal integration is recommended in many permaculture design literature however the reasons for my initial interest were generated by friends who started keeping chickens. They described there experiences and after visiting them I plan to have chickens in my garden. With the allotment group of 3 it made sense to keep chickens on the allotment sharing the costs and other duties. We agreed that it would be small scale egg production with room for expansion later using as many recycled materials as possible for the run and coop.
Grid
The chicken area is in grid G/H 3/4. The rational for this had many influencing factors which had to be adapted as the plan were finalized after a period vandalism on the allotment site where a poly tunnel was slashed, we wanted to make the area as secure as possible in the long term.
The boundaries at the East and South side have a hedges of privet hawthorn and brambles. There is a gate between the chicken run and the shed, the poly tunnel encloses the chicken run on the North side and fencing will be added later.This site for the run has level ground and good drainage also protects against the prevailing westerly wind.
The boundaries at the East and South side have a hedges of privet hawthorn and brambles. There is a gate between the chicken run and the shed, the poly tunnel encloses the chicken run on the North side and fencing will be added later.This site for the run has level ground and good drainage also protects against the prevailing westerly wind.
Analysis and resources
We have been collecting resources materials before we started the allotment project when working on gardens and workshops, with the extra storage capacity and John buying a transit van it became easy, however a large pile of unused building material raised concerns from the allotment manager who thought we were using the allotment as a dumping ground. The design of the poly tunnel, shed and chicken run were heavily influenced by the materials we could find because of our desire to use recycled materials and keep the cost to a minimum. The design for the chicken run didn't change however the size of both the coop and extended run did as extra materials were sourced. The only items we would need to buy were zip ties and screws for the construction, a water and pellet feeder for the run and coop. The build would be straight forward however more time may be required when using no standard building materials as they would have to be adjusted to size.
List of materials
Coop
12 pallets
4 sheets of ply board various sizes
Metal locker sides for cladding
tarpaulin cover for roof (from old lorry curtain)
Door and lock
Screws
Run
Scaffold pipe and key links
Lock mash fencing
Pallets x 2
Scaffold boards
Curb stones
Chicken mesh
Old fencing panels
Screws,nails wire and Zip ties
Water and grain feeders
List of materials
Coop
12 pallets
4 sheets of ply board various sizes
Metal locker sides for cladding
tarpaulin cover for roof (from old lorry curtain)
Door and lock
Screws
Run
Scaffold pipe and key links
Lock mash fencing
Pallets x 2
Scaffold boards
Curb stones
Chicken mesh
Old fencing panels
Screws,nails wire and Zip ties
Water and grain feeders