Feed and Grazing

 

 

How to build raised garden beds to fit The Garden Ark mobile chicken tractor

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

How to build a chicken coop that fits a raised garden bed.

One of the nice things about The Garden Ark mobile chicken coop is that you can move it around your yard or garden to focus your chickens’ grazing activity where you want it — just roll it across your lawn or place it atop your vegetable rows.

But what if you prefer to garden in raised beds? How can you incorporate The Garden Ark into your garden rotation so that your hens can graze, till, and help fertilize your garden before or after harvest?

In this tutorial, I show you how to build a raised vegetable bed that fits The Garden Ark design perfectly.  (more…)

Tags: Materials, Raised Beds, The Garden Ark, TimberPro UV, Vegetables
Posted in Coop Aesthetics, Coop Construction, Feed and Grazing, Gardening | No Comments »

How to build grazing frames for your backyard chickens

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Free plans for backyard chicken frames to grow greens that will last for months.Allowing your chickens to graze on fresh grass is a good thing — not just for them, but for you as well. The nutrients in green vegetation enhances the quality of their eggs and meat. And since fresh greens can make up about 20-30% of a chicken’s diet, providing them for your chickens can save you on feed costs.

But keeping your chickens supplied with fresh greens can be a challenge. When chickens have plenty of room to roam, they will graze a little off the top, then move on. When forage space is limited, however, as in a small urban or suburban backyard, chickens will continue to graze and scratch in the same spot until the vegetation is torn down to the roots.

An easy solution? Grazing frames! (more…)

Tags: Chicken Feed, Chicken run, Feeder & Waterer, Grazing Frame, Hardware Cloth, Metric, TimberPro UV
Posted in Coop Construction, Coop Plans, Feed and Grazing, Food and Nutrition | 31 Comments »

Poultry nipples for making your own chicken waterer

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

These push in style nipples let you make a DIY chicken waterer easilyIn addition to fully assembled chicken waterers, we’re now also offering the push-in poultry nipples you need to make your own.

These are the same push-in style nipples we use to make our waterers, sold separately in packs of five. They are made of quality stainless steel parts inside a durable, hard, red plastic casing, and they’re sealed with a long-lasting silicone grommet. Made in China.
Use a 3/8″ drill bit to make a hole in your tubing or container. Insert the grommet first, then the nipple. Moistening it may help it go in easier. If you are going to seal your container, be sure to create a separate hole near the top (above the water line) so that air can enter as the water goes out.
These are the same push-in style nipples we use to make our waterers, sold separately in packs of five. They are made of quality stainless steel parts inside a durable, hard, red plastic casing, and they’re sealed with a long-lasting silicone grommet. Take a look.

Tags: Feeder & Waterer
Posted in Feed and Grazing, Health and Safety, Products & Supplies | 1 Comment »

Make It Your Own: Randy and Christy’s Garden Ark, Suisun City, California

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Baby Blue Chicken Tractor in Northern California

Randy and Christy used The Garden Ark mobile chicken coop plans to build a beautiful white and baby blue chicken tractor for their northern California flock. They also added an ingenious gravity-fed feeding system (made of PVC pipe) and a bucket watering system that mounts to the rear of the coop.

Take a look here, then visit their site for a detailed description of their mobile coop and instructions on how to make your own automatic PVC pipe feeder and bucket waterer for your chickens.

How to make a PVC chicken feeder

Thanks to Randy and Christy for sharing their ideas and pictures! If you have experience with a PVC chicken feeder or bucket waterer on your chicken coop, leave a comment below. What has worked? What would you do differently?

Tags: California, Feeder & Waterer, The Garden Ark
Posted in Feed and Grazing, Make It Your Own | 7 Comments »

New nipple waterer for chickens

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Several months ago on the advice of a customer, I decided to make a DIY nipple waterer for our backyard chickens. Our birds were just chicks at the time, and keeping them supplied with fresh, clean water with their jar-and-saucer waterer was a frequent chore.

So I fashioned a simple waterer from a used plastic jug and a poultry nipple I bought online. The chicks took right to it, and the difference was remarkable.

No more spilled water. No more poopy water. No more worrying that their water had run dry.

When the flock graduated to the coop, their makeshift waterer went with them, and I started working on a more permanent solution for their larger space.

Here’s the nipple waterer I came up with — which I now also make to sell — and some videos showing you what you get and how it works. (more…)

Tags: Cleaning, Feeder & Waterer, The Garden Ark, The Garden Coop, Visibility
Posted in Feed and Grazing, Health and Safety, Products & Supplies | 11 Comments »

Winter Chicken Coop Care, Pt. 2: How chickens keep themselves warm — and how you can help them.

Monday, November 15th, 2010

This is the second in a four-part series on preparing your backyard chickens and coop for cold weather.

Most standard laying hens are quite cold hardy (check this handy breed chart). Just look at their names: Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red. . . . These girls were bred to withstand cold climates well before the advent of electric heat. So how do they manage to withstand temperatures that send us scampering for the nearest cup of cocoa? (more…)

Tags: Chicken Breeds, Chicken Feed, Chicken run, Feeder & Waterer, Winter
Posted in Feed and Grazing, Health and Safety | 3 Comments »

Make It Your Own: Robbie Cape’s “Cozi” Coop, Seattle, Washington

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

The Garden Ark mobile poultry pen, Seattle, Washington

As CEO and co-founder of the free online family organizer Cozi, Robbie Cape appreciates keeping things simple. His company has helped countless families manage their schedules (without paper calendars) and find more time for the things they love.

So when Robbie decided to build a portable chicken coop for his family’s backyard flock in Seattle, Washington, he wasn’t about to waste precious time. He chose The Garden Ark mobile chicken coop plans from TheGardenCoop.com and started building his coop right away. (more…)

Tags: Cozi, Feeder & Waterer, Seattle, The Garden Ark
Posted in Feed and Grazing, Make It Your Own | 1 Comment »

Growing greens in the chicken yard

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

While we feed our chickens a high-quality organic feed, we also like to make sure that they get plenty of greens and grass. They love grazing, and fresh greens improve the amount of vitimins in the eggs as well as the fatty acid profile of the yolks. Yet it took just a few days for our flock of 8 to completely denude their daytime grazing yard, a 200-or-so-square-foot fenced area next to The Garden Coop. (more…)

Tags: Chicken Feed
Posted in Feed and Grazing, Gardening | 3 Comments »