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One of our breeding coops and a Marans hen saying hello!
Having a chicken coop that meets your flock’s needs is a vital part of poultry care. Whether you are building a coop for the first time, purchasing a prefab coop, or already have your housing set, there are a few basic features that every coop needs. In this post, we'll talk about those chicken coop essentials so that you can incorporate them into your build plans or make adjustments to an existing coop.
Our coop cred: My wife Sarah and I have built eleven coops together on our farm, where we have a combination of stationary coops, movable tractors, and two small prefab coops. (Why so many? To maintain our clan mating programs). Over the years of building together, we’ve learned a lot about coop construction and what our chickens’ need--and we are still learning, even now.
Our coops might not make the cover of Martha Stewart Magazine, but we built them ourselves (affordably!), our birds are happy, AND not a single predator has ever breached our chicken castles!
Our coop cred: My wife Sarah and I have built eleven coops together on our farm, where we have a combination of stationary coops, movable tractors, and two small prefab coops. (Why so many? To maintain our clan mating programs). Over the years of building together, we’ve learned a lot about coop construction and what our chickens’ need--and we are still learning, even now.
Our coops might not make the cover of Martha Stewart Magazine, but we built them ourselves (affordably!), our birds are happy, AND not a single predator has ever breached our chicken castles!
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What is Clan Mating?
If you are interested in breeding your own flock for the first time, know that there are a number of different breeding methods you can choose, including line breeding, flock mating, and clan mating. All have their pros and cons, and some might be a better fit than others for your own situation and goals. On our farm, we’ve chosen to use a clan mating system for our Ameraucanas and Black Copper Marans.
In this post, we'll define clan mating and discuss how you can start a clan mating program on your own small farm or homestead.
Clan Mating (also known as Spiral Mating) is a system of breeding where chickens are separated into at least three different groups, or clans. You can absolutely have more than three groups if you wish, but three is the minimum. In the initial year of a clan mating program, chickens mate within their group, and in all subsequent years, males are rotated to the next clan over. (I was unable to discover where this breeding method originated, but I first learned about Clan Mating from Harvey Ussery’s great book, The Small-Scale Poultry Flock.)
In this post, we'll define clan mating and discuss how you can start a clan mating program on your own small farm or homestead.
Clan Mating (also known as Spiral Mating) is a system of breeding where chickens are separated into at least three different groups, or clans. You can absolutely have more than three groups if you wish, but three is the minimum. In the initial year of a clan mating program, chickens mate within their group, and in all subsequent years, males are rotated to the next clan over. (I was unable to discover where this breeding method originated, but I first learned about Clan Mating from Harvey Ussery’s great book, The Small-Scale Poultry Flock.)
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“What is the difference between hatching eggs and eating eggs?” A friend asked Sarah and I this most eggs-cellent question recently while we were hanging some flyers for our farm.
This is a great question. Producing eating eggs is pretty straightforward: eggs laid, eggs eaten. Far more goes into the production and selection of a hatching egg.
I thought I'd share some of the differences here. When we produce hatching eggs, we pay careful attention to:
Freshness: Eating eggs last for weeks, but a hatching egg should be a week old, max, when placed in the incubator. This week includes collection, shipping, and at least a day of rest after shipping.
This is a great question. Producing eating eggs is pretty straightforward: eggs laid, eggs eaten. Far more goes into the production and selection of a hatching egg.
I thought I'd share some of the differences here. When we produce hatching eggs, we pay careful attention to:
Freshness: Eating eggs last for weeks, but a hatching egg should be a week old, max, when placed in the incubator. This week includes collection, shipping, and at least a day of rest after shipping.
Selective breeding: This includes understanding genetics, knowing the Standard of Perfection for the breed, spending time evaluating each bird, knowing their individual health and temperament, keeping good records, and more.
Housing: All that selective breeding requires housing! Our laying flock can hang out in one big coop, but our breeding groups need separate coops and tractors so that we can guarantee pure breed chicks and keep good records. Since we use a clan mating method, each breed has three separately housed groups.
Quality: Not every fertile egg is a hatching egg. They need to be clean, well shaped, have a strong shell, and be free of defects or oddities.
Handling: There’s a live embryo inside! We handle our hatching eggs with care, making sure to store them air cell up in a clean, sanitized, dedicated space at the right temperature and humidity, until carefully packaged for shipment or delivery.
Fertility: Each breeding group needs a great rooster, and before sharing eggs we test hatch for fertility, to make sure that our boys are doing their jobs and that our chicks are hatching without issue.
Housing: All that selective breeding requires housing! Our laying flock can hang out in one big coop, but our breeding groups need separate coops and tractors so that we can guarantee pure breed chicks and keep good records. Since we use a clan mating method, each breed has three separately housed groups.
Quality: Not every fertile egg is a hatching egg. They need to be clean, well shaped, have a strong shell, and be free of defects or oddities.
Handling: There’s a live embryo inside! We handle our hatching eggs with care, making sure to store them air cell up in a clean, sanitized, dedicated space at the right temperature and humidity, until carefully packaged for shipment or delivery.
Fertility: Each breeding group needs a great rooster, and before sharing eggs we test hatch for fertility, to make sure that our boys are doing their jobs and that our chicks are hatching without issue.
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Introducing a new or recovered chicken into a flock should be done with care and planning, in order to reduce stress on all birds involved. In this post, we'll cover our best practices for integrating a chicken into a larger group.
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Why buy straight run? Here's some straight talk on straight run, the sexing of chicks, and the common poultry industry practice of killing male chicks at hatch.
A life in pictures: one of our roosters, Dumbledore's Baby, from chick to adult.
On our farm, all male chicks are grown out into beautiful roosters and have the opportunity to lead a quality life. At maturity, our extra boys are swiftly and respectfully processed. We often have friends and family over to help us with this, so that others may practice harvesting their own meat. It’s a powerful experience that has both challenged us and gifted us a completely new relationship with our food.
On our farm, humanely raised, pastured meat is a natural byproduct of producing hatching eggs and chicks. Because we are such a small farm, it’s easy for us to absorb our extra roosters, adding them to our freezer or sharing them with friends and family. But what happens in large scale hatcheries?
On our farm, humanely raised, pastured meat is a natural byproduct of producing hatching eggs and chicks. Because we are such a small farm, it’s easy for us to absorb our extra roosters, adding them to our freezer or sharing them with friends and family. But what happens in large scale hatcheries?
