One Hundred Dollars a Month

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have rock star gardens, chicken coops and adventures this summer. Keep them coming!

Hello, Mavis! My name is Angela and this is our chicken coop in central Wisconsin. My husband wanted chickens when we moved out to the country and his dream is coming true! We got our first flock in May 2014, just six in that flock. We call them the big girls, and have just added another flock of 15 chicks: the little girls (not laying yet.)

My husband and I knew next to nothing about backyard chickens and I researched quite a bit before we ventured in. The first thing we built was the broody box (hope I said that right.) We have a screened porch with patio doors connected to our kitchen/foyer and keep the chicks in there for the first 6 weeks or so.

This side of the box has a piece of Plexiglass and is set up against the patio doors inside our screen porch. That way, we can check on the chicks often, but we don’t get any smell or mess in the house. The box is cleaned out in this photo, but we have had success with covering the bottom with sand–very easy to clean, like a cat litter box. Also, the sand beneath the red light stays warm.

My husband is a Controls Engineer and so he made some improvements to the idea of using a red light for temperature regulation. This view of the back of the broody box shows a low-voltage digital programmable control. On the inside of the box, he installed a temp and humidity stat to maintain a setpoint temperature.

Using his computer, he programmed the red light to a specific temperature the first week. A relay switch turns the light on when the temp. drops below the set point; the light stays on for a certain amount of time and then goes off. He programmed the desirable weekly temperature to go down by 5 degrees each week, as the chicks got older and feathered out.
Neat, huh?!

The actual coop is a renovated corn crib on one end of our shed. We only have 15 chickens right now, but have room for many more! The above photo shows the side windows, which are covered with hardware cloth (wire.) They each have a shuttered door we close in bad weather.

In the winter, we put in Plexiglass, so the girls can still have plenty of light. On the back of the shed is the chicken run– all surrounded with the same hardware cloth. The wire is buried 18″ and so far we have not had any predators try to get in. However, the big girls BEG to come out each day and don’t spend much time in the run.

As it turns out, the new flock of little girls enjoys the run! Looking at the side of the corn crib/coop, please note that we built walls inside….had to, so the snow wouldn’t blow in! We regret not putting in at least a little insulation, though. There is a lot of ventilation up high inside the coop, all openings covered with protective wire.

The above photo shows the run and it’s Arctic entry to keep out winds. The little girls are still learning this is their home, so we don’t let them out yet. One of the big girls, an Easter Egger Bantam (she lays green eggs!) can be seen on the outside; her name is Prissy and she is our “tattletale” that alerts us when something is amiss!

Inside the coop, you can see we have separated the two flocks using chicken wire and a large sheet of vinyl screen that hangs down from the 8′ high ceiling. This has worked well. The two flocks are getting to know each other…the big girls still come and go through the “human door” and have access to their nest boxes. The little girls were still eating crumbles, not pellets, in this photo, which the big girls didn’t have access to.

This is the little girl side, with their own water and the Arctic entrance to the run. The milk crate and board on top is just to give them help up onto their “poop board/roost.”

This is the big girls’ side of the coop. We have been using PDZ (a horse stall product) on the poop boards and it has worked great! Just like scooping a cat little box. The water is set up on a heater that my husband programs to turn on when the temperature in the coop drops below 38 degrees. That is a very nice feature in the winter! (There’s a thermostat inside the coop.) The floor is covered in construction quality sand: $10 a ton, delivered, in our area.

This photo shows just how high the inside ceiling is…and a red light that is–you guessed it– programmed in the winter to turn on when the temperature inside the coop gets really cold. We have had problems with frostbite with our first flock: one girl lost all her toes on one foot! That would be Missy, Easter Egger Bantam sister to Prissy. We nursed her back to health and she is the sweetest chicken we have…a decent layer, too! (A tiny pinkish/ivory egg.)

In the above photo, the “human door” can be seen. The three nest boxes are cut into the wall and can be accessed inside the shed from the back of each nest. That way, I don’t have to risk messing any nice shoes going inside the coop when all I want to do is check for eggs. (My “coop shoes” are rubber restaurant workers shoes I got at Wal-Mart for $20–similar to Crocs.)

We also keep pellets and black oil sunflower seeds in galvanized steel garbage cans with lids inside the shed. Since this photo was taken, we have removed all the screen and wire and the flocks have mingled–somewhat. So far, no fights!
The last photo I have to share is a picture of our “broody breaker box.”

At times, we have a chicken go broody. Since we have no rooster, the chicken is sitting on a nest, day and night, not laying and not allowing the other chickens to get into the nest boxes. Online research led us to build this well- protected box with the intention of cooling off the chicken’s tummy to break the broodiness. The bottom is covered with hardware cloth and cardboard underneath to aid in cleanup.

We have two heavy boards we place on top and occasionally have to cover this with an old heavy blanket in cold nighttime weather. Can you tell this box is right up next to our patio doors? It’s technically inside our screen porch, which is not predator safe, but this location allows us to keep a close eye on any chicken that is in the broody breaker. Usually, it takes less than a week to “reset” the hormones…sometimes longer, if a chicken’s name is Prissy!

Although it was initially my husband’s desire to raise chickens, our three children are a great help in this venture! “My” chicken lays the largest egg–a standard egg carton won’t close over it because it’s so long–I named her Chicken Jane. When I go outside with some kitchen food scraps I just call out, “Janie-e-e” she comes running!

~ Angela

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go  HERE for the official rules.

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