Pastures and House Lawn,  Pastures, Gardens and House Lawn

The Chicken Coop – “Coop de Grace”

April 13, 2020 /
  • New door, with straw bedding and raked leaves.
  • First day in new home.
  • Showing them who’s top bird.
  • Tasty goodies!
  • Snow peas and new residents
  • “Help, Jimmy locked me in here” Black plastic tarp is now gone.
  • Our first egg!
  • Our second egg, in winter cactus greenhouse.
Since before I was born Ma wanted to have chickens, and thanks to two of our near neighbors her dream was realized. Out here in the country in Zone-Ag 1, there are no code enforcement chicken narkers or tattle-tale snowbirds across the fence to give us a hard time. The enclosure for either goats or chickens came with the house and was a handy surprise. Except for the door and a few wire holes that I repaired, it is pretty solid so it has withstood nightly visits from bobcats, coyotes and a momma fox with noisy kits. Late winter they kicked into egg production season and the nutritional quality is far better when compared to inexpensive store-bought eggs. Some came with names, others she named: light copper-Henny, grey-Ethyl, white-Whitey, two dark rust color-Brownie and Penny. They love mealworms and seed mix, and they’ll enthusiastically snap up any spent, bolted leafy greens or insects we toss in.
She regularly feeds the chickens Modesto Milling organic no corn/no soy layer crumbles feed, Wamsoft non-GMO Dried Mealworms and Manna Pro Oyster Shell for calcium.
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James V. Freeman is an established visual artist (oil painting) with a deep interest in natural history, plants and farming. He has had numerous solo shows, a solo museum show, an upcoming museum show and his work has been featured in many publications to date. He currently has a studio in Williston, Fl at the family farm and homestead, "Cactus Island", and as a farmer, specializes in growing columnar cacti of the Caribbean and Gulf countries as well as the aquatic Madegascar Lace Plant. James and his mom Sharon manage and develop the permaculture homestead.