Keeping Chickens In Your Backyard Has Great Benefits.
I’ve been wanting to raise my own chickens for years now. I finally found time and built a medium sized chicken coop. The plans I bought over the internet made the process really easy. The ad for the book about how to build a chicken coop said that a 15 year old could build it. I guess that was meant to be a smart 15 year old! I can use a hammer, a saw and a screwdriver and that’s about all you’ll need by way of tools.
I want to tell you a bit more about my hobby of keeping chickens – I do it just as a hobby, not professionally, and see if I can help you to make some decisions if you’re thinking about keeping chickens in your backyard.
I remember as a boy, chicken was a meal for a special, celebratory occasion. Today of course chicken is very common and hardly special at all. Chicken factories produce so many millions of birds that the availability and price of the meat has come down. The way chickens are raised in batteries is also a major reason why I keep my own brood, in my own suburban backyard.
If you want to be put off eating eggs and chickens, visit a chicken factory farm. The cruelty these birds have to endure for their whole life is nothing short of a disgrace and a blot on our conscience. I had seen enough cancerous, deformed and deranged hens, picking at their own and others flesh out of sheer madness, that I stopped eating chickens and eggs for quite a while until free range products became readily available.
Then I discovered that free range did not always mean what I thought it meant – what it is supposed to mean – and I decided to keep my own chickens in my own chicken coop.
I did not intend to go on a crusade against chicken farms here so let me tell you of some other very good reasons to keep your own chickens.
Fairly obviously, the eggs and the meat come in real handy. The eggs from a truly free-range chicken are nothing short of spectacularly delicious. The yolk is not that washed out colour of a battery egg from a chicken pumped full of estrogen and growth hormone. Instead, it’s a bright, vivid yellow/orange colour with an absolute burst of flavour.
I know some folk who made the mistake of giving their birds names so they will never slaughter their chickens for the table. I keep my birds anonymous so that I am not emotionally distraught when I slaughter them. The meat from your own homegrown chicken is much better taste and quality than a supermarket chicken. It’s plump and has a taste that is just outstanding. The skin roasts to a delicious crispiness. I don’t know exactly how and why but it’s just markedly better tasting than a supermarket bird. I think it’s the chicken feed and whats in it the has a long term effect on the quality and taste of the meat.
The freshness of the meat and eggs from your backyard brood is a contributory factor to the improved taste of course, but the biggest influence on the taste of the products is the absence of chemicals in the birds diet. Chemicals fed to battery raised chickens destroys the natural taste of the eggs and the meat. The chemicals, by the way, also find their way into your system and so you have also probably ingested female hormones and steroids with every egg and piece of chicken you’ve ever eaten. Many factory birds are fed on fishmeal feeds and the flavour of the fishmeal leeches into the meat.
In times like these when most people are trying to save some household costs and also trying to be more environmentally responsible, building a chicken coop and keeping your own chickens is a fairly substantial step in the right direction and it’s very easy to do. So, I guess the environmental impact is another good reason to have your own birds.
The fertiliser produced by the chickens is fantastic for your garden. Gardeners can save money and use better, non-phosphate laden fertiliser.
Since the kids moved out there is often leftover food in our refrigerator that goes to waste. Well I should say used to go to waste because the chickens love leftovers. Onions and garlic are not good for them but all other foods are welcomed by them. Not just leftovers but all the scraps form meal preparation as well. They are little fertiliser factories taking the scraps and the peels and turning it into fertiliser that enhances the plants and vegetables we have growing. It’s lovely to see the cycle of nature as it should be. I let them out of their enclosure to trim the lawn every so often. Like little lawnmowers!
Some people look upon their chickens as pets, and for those people that is a true benefit of keeping chickens. For me – well I don’t see the chickens as anything other than foodstuff.
If you build the right chicken coop for your intended number of chickens and for the location then your chicken coop becomes a pleasure to maintain. The chciken coop should be large enough, well ventilated and comfortable for the birds. Happy birds produce more tasty eggs.
Let me tell you about building your own chicken coop. It’s not that difficult if you have basic skills. If you’ve used basic tools before, you will have no problem. That’s about it. The plans I eventually bought are step-by-step type plans so it was easy to follow. I was fortunate to choose a book of plans that also had other very valuable and useful information in it. Such as: where to place you coop, how to ensure that it doesn’t get too hot in the chicken coop and how to construct a coop that is easy to clean. Also, the book contained advice on how to choose the correct type of bird for your area.
This is very good value from a book that only costs about $30. I sourced all the timber required for my chicken coop at a local salvage yard. I built a medium sized chicken coop for under $200 and there is a local (major) hardware outlet that sells what I think is a lesser product for over $950. I saved a packet. My $200 investment was returned to me in under 6 months just on the value of eggs produced. By the way I keep 10 hens and I get 6 to 8 eggs every day. I sell 2-3 doz eggs a week and although I charge almost double the supermarket price, I have no shortage of eager customers!
You can buy the book that I used on the internet for only $29.95. Just click here. I really found it to be very useful – exactly what I needed. You get it as an instant download, as soon as you pay. The online payment process is 100% secure.
That’s it. I hope that this information was of some help to you and I hope you enjoy building your chicken coop as much as I enjoyed the task of building mine. It’s a good thing to do and the upside is substantial. Have fun!
How to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden
Hummingbirds are found all over the Americas including the Caribbean. Famous for their ability to hover and their skill at backward flying, hummingbirds can hover by flapping their wings up to 85 times a second.
The Bee Hummingbird is the tiniest bird in the world at only two inches long and weighing around 2 grams. The largest hummingbird is the Giant Hummingbird at 24 grams and approximately 8 inches long. Hummingbirds have the fastest metabolism of any birds and to maintain this they have to eat more than their own weight in food daily. In order to do this they have to visit five hundred or more flowers a day to gather the nectar. They have extended beaks and tongues to reach right into the blooms. They can reduce their metabolisms when still, in contrast to nearly all other animals with a high metabolisms. This increases their natural life, which may be up to 17 years.
Making A Hummingbird Friendly Garden
To draw hummingbirds to your garden you could plant brightly colored flowers and bushes. The sense of smell of Hummingbirds is very poor but they are attracted to bright colours. Hanging a hummingbird feeder in your backyard or on your patio will catch the attention of these beautiful birds. Some annuals to plant include petunia, salvia, beard tongue, jacobinia, firespike and impatiens. Perennial plants include bee balm, costa, yucca, canna, lupine, cardinal flower and foxglove. For trees and shrubs pick azalea, buddleia, cape honeysuckle, mimosa, weigela, flame acanthus, lantana, red buckeye and tree tobacco.
Don’t use any insecticides in your garden as you will eradicate bugs and insects that hummingbirds eat. They also leave residues on the blooms which the hummingbirds could ingest. Also provide a lot of roosting places as they spend approximately 80% of the time resting on twigs, clothes lines etc. Make available plants that will supply nesting materials to be a focus for female hummingbirds. Hummingbirds have a preference for soft nesting material from trees like willow and eucalyptus and from lichens and mosses.
Hanging vibrantly colored, specially made hummingbird feeders in your garden will be a focus for the hummingbirds. A good scheme is to fasten red streamers that blow all around the feeder. It’s also helpful to put out feeders at different heights as hummingbird species all have different preferences. Species that prefer plants that are low growing will go to a feeder positioned lower while species that feed on taller shrubs and plants will prefer to visit a feeder placed higher. Hummingbirds are also very territorial and a single hummingbird may well defend a single feeder and stop others from using it. Space no less than 3 feeders at assorted heights around your garden.
Hummingbirds love to bathe in the mist on plants so you might position a mister close to some broadleaved shrubbery to give them a bathing place.
Making Hummingbird Nectar
A sweet nectar can be made by mixing together a measure of sugar with four cups of water that has been boiled. Cool then keep in the refrigerator. Nectar that is unused can be kept safely for about seven days. Carefully wash hummingbird feeders every week by rinsing with a mixture of one cup of vinegar to four cups of water then rinsing with plain water. Fill with the sugar solution and suspend out of the sun. Don’t add food coloring or sweeteners. Also don’t use honey as it may ferment and produce a fungus that is harmful. Swap the nectar solution in your feeder at least every three days or oftener in hotter weather.
Conclusion
It is easy to make a garden that will appeal to these attractive birds. Give them the food they like and a secure setting and hummingbirds will pay a visit your garden regularly.
See more garden craft ideas at Easy Craft Ideas
Categories: Birds Tags: attract hummingbirds, easy garden craft, garden craft ideas, hummingbird feeder, hummingbird garden, hummingbirds
Preventing Window Strikes
The relationship between windows and birds comes in different degress of deadliness. Sometimes it’s just a quick peck of bird meeting glass. Others it’s a small series of crashes and a flutter of wings. The worst, however, are the jarring impacts that resonate throughout an entire house, leaving you and your family members startled and often crippling or killing the bird. Sadly, these impacts are far more common than you might think. An article in the magazine, Audubon, David Malakoff writes window strikes kill between 100 million and 1 billion birds every year. According to an NPR story, Professor Daniel Klem of Mulhenberg College things that Malakoff’s estimate is too conservative, and that the real number easily exceeds 1 billion birds in the United States alone.
Why do window strikes happen?
It’s hard to know for certain exactly why window strikes happen, but observation has granted some measure of insight. The first, and seemingly most common, rationale is that birds simply cannot see glass. The transparency of the glass makes the window look open, and this is often complicated further by a window on the opposite side of the house. This causes what is commonly referred to as the “tunnel effect,” meaning that the bird believes that the two windows lack glass and thus represent a clear tunnel to fly through.
Another big reason for window strikes by birds is related to reflections. Windows in homes and office buildings sometimes give a good reflection the area around them. So, while the house or building certainly appears to be a house or building, the windows look more like wooded areas which are perfectly safe for flying.
Ways to prevent window strikes
There are a range of possibilities for preventing window strikes. The best method is to take out a window, or to cover it with something dark and non-reflective like cardboard or wood. Sure, taking out a window is a big deal and not very practical for most home owners. Thankfully, with a little understanding as to why birds strike windows, home owners can reduce bird strikes with more people-friendly methods.
Covering Windows
While boarding up windows is an extreme solution, it does prove a point. Putting something between the window’s glass and the outside world can both alert a bird to a physical object and prevent reflection. The last line for many people seems to be when such a covering starts blocking views. Home owners have several options like summer storm screens, to heavier plastic “shade cloth” and even the commercial CollidEscape film, all of which help to remove transparency and restrict reflection to various extents.
Silhouettes and Obstacles
Another tactic is to prevent the bird from coming near the window. Some people put obstacles such as a bird feeder in front of the window, especially windows that are hit with any frequency. If you notice that your bird feeder is causing birds to strike your window, then moving the feeder further from your house would be a prudent move. Another popular method, which works to varying degrees, is to intimidate birds away by way of statues and silhouettes. A statue of an owl, or a cut out made to resemble a flying hawk can cause an errant bird on a collision course with a window to change course.
The Happy Medium
For many home owners, window strikes are infrequent happenings and thus can easily be remedied by merely moving a bird feeder or placing a hawk silhouette in a tree. For others, more permanent measures must be taken. However, for majority of home owners in areas with heavy avian traffic, there is a happy medium. Make part of the window more obvious with the application of custom window decals or stickers. PUtting decals and stickers on a window makes the glass in the window less transparent and can disturb reflections, minimizing two of the reasons why birds hit windows. Special sticker creating techniques can even make these stickers nearly-invisible to humans while birds staying perfectly visible to birds. Such stickers benefit birds while doing very little to detract from the value humans derive from said windows.
Custom Stickers used to prevent bird strikes can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Homeowners can make use of seasonal varieties like flowers for spring, snowflakes for winter, and even holiday images. These stickers can even be made in the images of predatory birds, thus mimicking the silhouette effects and adding to the sticker’s effectiveness.
The real key to preventing bird strikes is to change the status quo. This can be done through changing the locations of physical things – like bird feeders and trees – thus forcing birds to alter their flight paths. Or, it can be accomplished by intimidation, through silhouettes of avian attackers. Or, a home owner can change the bird’s perception of the actual window. Stickers, whether they are human-visible or not, make windows more obvious to birds, while screens and covering cloths negate the qualities (reflections and transparency) that make windows harmful to birds in the first place. The question for home owners is to determine which window strike prevention method works best for you.
Bird House Kits For Kid Projects
Bird house kits are fun projects that can be put together by an older child by himself, or can be constructed by the family together. There are also kits that can be used by boy scouts or girl scouts for certain projects, and can also be used by schools to help provide a fun way to teach children about the birds in the area after building homes for them to live in.These bird house kits are available in a variety of different styles and sizes.Some of the kits which are available are made for a particular species of bird while others are made to be more decorative for the individual to place in the yard. Other bird house kits are made for communities of birds or are a combination of a feeder and a nesting platform for the birds in the area.
Choosing a Bird House Kits
The benefit to buying a bird house kit as opposed to buying the materials separately and assembling according to a set of directions is that the kit already contains all that is required for the individual to put together the birdhouse. That is why these kits are such a fun purchase for children to put together. The instructions can usually be followed in a basic bird house kit by a child of the age of seven or older.More complex tools are not required as most of the time, the bird house kit can be assembled by the person with use of a hammer of a screwdriver.
Although these bird house kits are easy to assemble in most cases, they often do not offer the flexibility or variety of styles that some individuals might want for their bird houses. There are also individuals that might be more experienced in carpentry and want to experiment with designs of bird houses so that it looks and functions like they want it to do.Usually these bird house kits cost around fifteen dollars, but the more elaborate the kit, the more expensive the cost.
Five inches by five inches on the floor of the house is a typical bird house. The depth is usually around eight inches high to provide the depth needed for most birds to nest. There is usually some sort of ventilation slit under the eaves of the bird house so that air can get in while keeping the house protected from the elements. The bird house kits are often made to fit a particular size of bird, with the medium kits usually being adequate for chickadees, finches, nuthatches and other medium birds.
Categories: Birds Tags: bird house kits, Choosing A Bird House Kit
