The first blog! This is an interesting experiment for me, having never created a blog before. About me: I am fairly new to raising poultry, started with 14 chicks last April, and after they were out of the house, I got three turkey chicks. What fun!

I must have done something right, because all of the chicks lived! They went outside to a 6X8 dog kennel that was completely encased in chicken wire, even on the bottom. This was a bit of overkill! It was very VERY difficult to keep clean, and heavy to move. We put a dogloo inside so they could stay warm, a couple of roost poles, a feeder and waterer, and covered the whole affair with a tarp.

They did pretty well for the summer, and unfortunately, well into the fall. I had hoped to install them in the chicken coop much earlier, but we didn't get it finished and enclosed until it was starting to get cold.

What will I do differently this year?
1. I will remove the chicken wire from the bottom of the kennel so that poop doesn't get stuck in it, and the chickens can scratch happily into the dirt.
2. I will move the kennel more often. built up chicken poo is pretty nasty to clean up, but frequent movement allows the poo to break down faster.
3. I will NOT use the expensive galvanized waterer. What a piece of JUNK! It leaks, it is hard to fill and move, and it is basically a pain in the neck. I really like my plastic waterer much better.

I am sure that there are other improvements I can make, but off the top of my head, those are the big ones. Will have to post some pictures soon.