We recently described how we had constructed a couple of tractor-style enclosures for the French Black Copper Marans and American Bresse breeding groups. While we’d like to tell you that they worked exactly as intended, that wouldn’t be reflective of reality…

We should all be able to agree that no one likes it when projects don’t work out as envisioned, especially ones that require a fair amount of toil. Nonetheless, that’s exactly what happens sometimes. We think it’s important to share “lessons learned” as well as successes so that others may benefit from the identification of our mistakes and process improvements (and hopefully avoid making the same mistakes). Continue reading “Farm Project Update: Breeding Pens, Not So Much” →

Spring is in the air and it’s time to get those constructions projects completed. The weather is just right: not too cold and not too warm, conditions that likely won’t last long. We needed to get the American Bresse and Black Copper Marans pullets and cockerels into breeding pens, so we broke out the new table saw and starting creating a lot of sawdust.

We used our plans for rabbit tractors as our template, but as with the rabbit tractor iterations, we modified the plans slightly to better suit our goals. These pens are wider and longer than the rabbit tractors, though they share the same general design (plus, if the breeding pens don’t work out the way we intended, we can easily convert them into rabbit tractors). Another difference is that the breeding pens are open on the bottom so the chickens can scratch in the grass – the rabbit tractors are wired all around to prevent digging out. Continue reading “Farm Construction Project: Chicken Breeding Pens” →