Chicken tractor!

Our poor hens, or chooks as I've taken to calling them, are sick and tired of their pen.  They're feeling quite cooped up, as it were...
Trouble is, green things are starting to poke up through the soil in the flowerbeds and and lawn.  And everyone with chickens knows that fresh green sprouts are chick magnets, so to speak.  A chicken tractor, or chook tractor (hee hee!) is the perfect solution.  It's a bit like a playpen for poultry.  We never used a playpen for Chirp-chirp, so I'm not sure if this means we're kinder or crueler to the birds than we are to our own offspring. 

Chirp-chirp, would, I think, argue crueler as she started her braces treatment today.  So far, she just has the little rubber o-rings fitted between her teeth that will attempt to make some sort of a gap for the metal bands that will go around her teeth to fit down into.  Yes, she would argue that we are cruel.  The joys of parenthood.  (And the COSTS!!! Oh my!!!)

Anyway, back to the chook tractor.

Using lumber we had on hand, we cut down one 2x4x10 into two 5 foot lengths.  These became the ends.  Two 2x4x8's became the sides.

We used 3.5" long wood screws to hold the boards together, and then use some small braces left over from another project to further anchor the corners together.

We bought six of these 1/2 inch electrical conduit braces for approximately 75 cents each.  These are at each corner, and one pair exactly halfway down the length of the frame.

Electrical conduit is made of PVC and cuts very easily with a hacksaw.  The common length of each piece is ten feet long, which includes a small bell shape on one end that we removed for this project.  We paid just a bit over a dollar for each section, of which we needed three.

The clamps held the conduit in very firmly, but to be on the safe side, we used a wood screw that went very easily through the conduit and into the wood.

As you can see, the conduit arched beautifully, and the ten foot length resulted in a nice height for the structure.

To add a little support, we ran a 1x2x8 down the length of the tractor, right at the apex of the arch.  We secured the wood to the conduit by drilling a small hole through both pieces and then tied them together with baling wire.  Is there anything you can't do with baling wire? 

The biggest expense was the chicken wire, which ran us about $20.00.  Ouch.  We do have several sections laying around, but we chose to buy a new roll and spare ourselves the hassle of trying to piece together scraps to make-do.  We could have used bird netting, which would have been much cheaper, but we wanted something a tad sturdier. 

The rolls of wire were exactly 4 feet wide, or one half the lenght of the tractor.  I'd like to say we planned that, but it was really just a very lucky accident.  We secured the chicken wire to the conduit with zip-ties (about $2.00 for 30), and then stapled the wire along the bottom to the wood frame.

Our original plan was to put wire at the ends as well, but we changed out mind and used 1/2" plywood instead.  We simply traced the outline of each end onto a sheet of wood and used a jigsaw to cut out the shape.  Wood screws hold one end onto the frame, and the other end is hinged to allow us to get the birds in and out.

Here they are in the tractor, working up the soil in one of our raised beds!  I put a bucket of water in there for them, and throw down a little bit of scratch to get them started.  After the beds are turned up nicely and have been planted, I'll just move the tractor around the yard so they can nibble on grass and bugs, and NOT on my vegetables or flowers.



Although, all this garden and yard talk may be a moot point.  We're looking at another house tomorrow.  Three acres!  A goatpen!  A woodstove!  A bigger mortgage!  Oh, wait.  That last one is a big downer...

I'll keep you posted.

I'm exhausted, so have a present!

What a crazy weekend!  It's only a little bit after 8:00 Sunday evening here, but my internal clock is striking at least eleven dongs in my head.

Yesterday, we (finally!!!) designed and built a chicken tractor for the ladies.  Their pen is quite a mess, considering a winter's worth of snow and ice in now trying to melt each day, but solidly refreezes each night.  Some Brussels sprouts erratics have emerged from the wintry mix, and I can't even tell you the last time we had Brussels sprouts.  Maybe mid-October?  Ewwww... Anyway, I feel bad for the hens.  They want to be in the flowerbeds scratching up the little bits of green trying to poke through. 

"Compromise!"  I keep yelling this at them. "You can have the lawn, but the flowerbeds are mine!"  The gol-durn chickens refuse to cooperate OR compromise, and my blood pressure keeps rising above healthy levels.  Thus, a chicken tractor.  I'll show you some pictures and our plans in a later post.  It's easy, effective, and fairly inexpensive.  Yay, for that!

Today was Mr. Boom's Grandma's 87th birthday.  We all went to lunch at a local restaurant, so I didn't get to make her a cake.  I might take her something later on in the week.  We'll see how the week goes, first...

Also today, we drove up into the hills for a little bit of turkey scouting.  Saw a good dozen or so down low on private property.  The yard of the house was totally torn up from the birds.  I started to mentally design a turkey tractor in my head.  I wonder if the landowners would be interested?

So, did somebody say presents?  Sure!  The Pollinatrix, one of my first readers (if not THE first reader?) of this blog got me into this happy mess. 

I promise to send something I make myself to the first 5 people who leave a comment on this post and who, in turn, promise to make the same offer on their blog. The rules are that you need to make the items personally and send them to your 5 folks within 2011.


So there you go.  Presents!  Just pretend the "strings attached" are ribbons!

FFwD: Basque Potato Tortilla

Did a whole week really go by again?  Every day I see things I want to share, or learn things I want to pass along, so why don't I blog more?  I don't know.  I really don't. 

I took a great hike on Sunday to retrieve a trail cam.  Of course, I forgot to bring my camera along, and there was nothing of interest on the trail cam itself. 

Also, the goldfinches and flickers have returned to my part of the world.  A cute little finch hit the window while I was out one day, so Chirp chirp brought the stunned bird into the house, provided a bit of seed and water, and there it recuperated in the music room.  I should have taken a photo, but I didn't.  One of it's feet was all fuzzy-ferny like.  I still need to look that up and see what the deal was.  It didn't seem to effect his flight, though, when we finally opened the window to release him back out into the cold.

I don't know.  I need to get myself in gear, I suppose.

I promise you this, though.  Sometime this weekend, or Monday by the latest, I'm going to post something really fun. You'll want to check back, it will be worth your while, and that's all I'm going to say about that right now.

So, this week's French Fridays with Dorie challenge.  Basque Potato Tortilla.  Yummy!

Oh!  Look!  Collages in Picassa!  I had a professor once who pointed out that every time a new theory came along in anthropology, every anthropologist tries to apply it to every single bit of new information they find, as well as apply to it every bit of old information already in their head.  He said that to a man with a hammer, the world looks like a nail.  Collages are my hammer at the moment.  So please do forgive me!  

I mean, have potatoes and onions ever looked so organized on this site before?

I love love love my cast iron pan.  The recipe called for cleaning out the pan after cooking the onions.  Everything slipped out of my pan and I didn't even need to wipe it out. 

Have I ever mentioned this pan was FREE?  I found it at a yard sale, covered in rust, in a "freebies" box.

Can't buy me looooooove.  Nooooooo, no no no, nooooo!

After adding the eggs and potatoes back to the pan, you practice your patience skills, and once the mixture has set up a bit you run a little knife or spatula around the edges to prevent sticking and to judge the doneness.

After a little stint under the broiler (I used my toaster oven on the broil setting), this lovely dinner awaits.

Yummmmm.  From start to finish the project took under half an hour.  It's like a quiche, but you don't have to make a pie crust.  And, it's like an omelet, but you all get to eat at once.

I'm not allowed to share the exact recipe with you (per Dorie's request), but this is the type of dish where the recipe is secondary to the technique.  Now you know the technique, so please do try this lovely fast meal.

(And don't forget to check back for the surprise!)