Thursday, July 23, 2009

Did anyone go to this city chicken workshop?

Out of curiosity, did anyone go to the NMSU Extension workshop that taught about raising chickens and building mobile coop? “Chickens are an easy animal to raise,” said Del Jimenez, an expert poultry, farming and agriculture specialist at New Mexico State University’s (NMSU) Cooperative Extension Service. In the workshop, Mr. Jimenez taught attendees all they needed to know about raising backyard chickens and building a mobile chicken coop, colloquially known as the famous chicken tractors, on June 30th at NMSU’s Sustainable Agriculture Science Center in Alcalde. The cool thing? This educational community program only cost $10 and included some yummy snacks and lunch. If you went, what did you think about this urban chicken workshop? Chickens have definitely taken off in popularity!

15 comments:

Tony said...

Here is the exact process that I used to build my coop:

The first thing that I did was to place about 2 pallets on top of one another. I made 2 stacks, side by side, and nailed them together. Then I took plywood and nailed over the pallets to close any holes that the chickens could fall into. At that point, I started constructing the walls of the dwelling. I placed pallets on their end around the perimeter of the floor that I had just built, leaving one side open for the entrance and exit. After nailing them all together, I nailed plywood on the outside. However, these left spaces between the planks on the pallets open, so I attached chicken wire around the inside of the dwelling. This provides double protection from predators. At this point, I was ready to finish the dwelling. I took 2x4's and placed them across the top of the opening. This left the roof with a tilt. At that time I took more 2x4's and ran them perpendicular to the first set, completely making up the roof with no spaces or gaps left between the lumber. After this step I shingled the roof with spare shingles that I had lying around. After I built the enclosure for their shelter, I then wanted to give them a yard to run and peck in. I simply stood pallets on their end and nailed them together. This process made a wall with a dirt floor. Then I took chicken wire and ran it on the outside of the outer wall that I had just built. This step took the longest because the wire was not tall enough to completely cover the pallets, and provide enough space for the roof of the yard. I had to run the wire 3 times around the outer perimeter walls. After that was done, I nailed uprights from the pallets in the corners to hold another round of wire. Then I ran wire across the top to make up a wire roof to keep out hawks. The last step was to make the door to the entire coop. And I used, you guessed, another pallet. I went to the store and bought 2 heavy duty hinges and a hasp. I connected the pallet (door) to the wall. I covered it with wire, all the way up closing up any holes. The second to last step was to attach the hasp to keep the door closed tightly. This took readjusting, but I made it work. The final, and probably most enjoyable step, was to set the chickens free in their new home along with some straw for bedding. The whole structure probably had a price tag of fifty dollars, and it took one day to complete.
Anthony Williams

Chicken said...

Nice information. Anybody can raise chickens. Its an easy task. The only thing required is the space.There is a lot of informative websites available in this regard.

B.Hicham said...

Thank you for this article
i want to share with you a website talking about (Chickens)

http://www.poshchicks.co.uk/

coop said...

the workshop cost only 10$?
I haven't tried the process yet but I am thinking of building my own mobile chicken coop and I am willing to attend this workshop
it would help me a lot with no much time to lose

coop said...

you can also see this site for more information about chickens
http://www.poshchicks.co.uk

Chickens said...

how many hours of learning for $10?

Anonymous said...

http://roostershamblin.wordpress.com/ please take a few minutes of your time and read my chicken blog. I have been raising 50 breeds of chickens for 40 years.

ChickenHousesPlus said...

It's always good to learn as much as you can.

Dennis Daryl Shamblin said...

Please check out my poultry website

Tubal Reversal said...

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zahirul said...

First time I see this site.Yes I believe that site very helpful for poultry business.

LeAnn said...

The University of Maryland is hosting the Mid-Atlantic Small Flock Poultry Expo on Feb 4, 2012. It has classes like the ones mentioned here and lots more. If you live in the area, check it out. They have details posted at http://carroll.umd.edu/ag/poultry.cfm I'm looking forward to going

Anonymous said...

Essential part of life????
http://poultry-consultant.blogspot.com/2012/02/egg-market-situation.html

Farm Manager Steve said...

Here is a link to download detailed plans to build a very unique chicken tractor called the Chicken Chuckwagon Coop-DéVille chicken tractor.

http:FarmLifeAcademy.com/chickentractor.html