Congratulations Jacob , you and your Dad have built a fine Hen House for CHICKEN FEED , with no FOWL ups !!This should move you up the PECKING order of egg producers.Regards David
Nicely done and well thought out. Healthy skepticism re information on the Internet, respect for that. Love those buckets. If I found a place selling those buckets for 50 cents apiece, I don't think there'd be any left there when I left. :)
That is one of the secrets of farming , How to reuse things for something new. Anyone can throw money at something and make it work, But a farmer can do the same thing dirt cheap and have it work just as good as the store bought stuff ! Keep up the great work and video's. Bandit
Yep, if it can't be done frugally, I am not doing it. Such as right now, I am savaging grain bin floors, buying smaller ones to piece together for one of our bins.
@@boehmfarm4276 Not a thing in the world wrong with that... Grandpa used to tear down old houses for the lumber... built his house with the lumber he got. For decades the wood flooring in Grandma's and Grandpa's house had these random little stripes across the wood in places, even some of them curved slightly. That's because the hardwood floors were old school gymnasium hardwood flooring that he'd salvaged from a school that was being torn down. It was put back together wherever the wood would fit, so of course the various lines and markings for free throws or foul lines or volleyball court lines were still on the wood in places and ended up at random on the floor... which worked well when I was "floor farming" as a kid because I had "trees" or "holes" to work around or other stuff I pretended them to be. Grandma had a lot of work done to the house after Grandpa died and had the floors sanded, stained, and refinished so all that's long gone now unfortunately... gave the place character IMHO. The neighbor who was a friend of Grandpa's but kinda a joker used to say Grandpa's house was built out of old apple crates... but it's still there while the neighbors is long gone... so so much for that theory anyway... LOL:) Later! OL J R :)
Great job and I have only one suggestion for you, if you change the way you flip the door towards you to open away from you that way you could reach right into get the eggs out. The only thing would be the chickenpoop would go into the bucket. I just modified my nesting boxes and now they lay eggs in the ones I still have straw and have not modified. Basically the same principle. I heard you say that 12 inch square is the best well mine are bigger and I have noticed 2 to 3 chickens are in at a time, I will have to consider making them smaller. I only have a dozen layers not like you. I don't have the room. You did a nice job. Looks aren't as important as efficiency.
@@boehmfarm4276 Ya know you'd be surprised what you can get with a little research and travel time invested... Buddy of my Dad's he used to work with, his family truck gardened but being close to Houston they could sell WAY more than they could ever grow... SO they started making runs down to the Rio Grande Valley, which is about a four hour drive or so down the coast of Texas, and pick up a truck and trailer load of vegetables, and haul them back up to their roadside stand (which was a little portable building). They would sell out and were basically making a LOT of money doing that! Might pay to see where you could sell stuff for a better price, even if it meant a four or five hour drive in the wee morning hours now and then to get to distant farmer's markets or whatever, if you can haul a lot down with you and sell it out at a superior price! OL J R :)
Good functionality! Have you thought of putting drawer pulls of handles on the covers you seem to have to use two hands on to open? maybe a pair three feet apart or so would make it easier to open.
Yes, handles would be nice. In time, that will happen, but building this thing was a losing race against the timeline I had in my head. There's still finishing touches I can make while the hens are inhabiting the coop.
I remember back when we had chickens, had about 70 some.. only about 10 or so nest boxes... and sometimes there would be an empty nest box... guess they have favorites...
I never saw more than one in a box at a time... and usually they weren't in the box at all... there would be 10 or so eggs in every box every day, about 3 layers deep in a 5 gallon bucket.
Really like this efficient and cost effective solution. Where did you get those lovely buckets for such a great price? And what breeds of chickens are using them?
Jacob check out (Our Wyoming life) their latest video has a realy neat little egg washer that's inexpensive . I hope your ex cage birds appreciate all the trouble you've gone to on thier behalf .Thanks for the guided tour .
You REALLY jacked me up! Watching your video and wife heard the hens and is now bugging me to death to get more chickens for my chicken house and lot at my factory :) Kidding aside: you're not "cheap" but you are thrifty.Not a dang thing wrong with that as you still do good work that won't fall apart like something cheap. If you haven't already done so why not fence in 4 lots with gates between instead of moving the fence each time you want to move the chicken house to greener pastures?Looks like you have the room and opening and closing a gate is easier than moving a fence.If the area recovers quickly enough you may only need 2 or 3 lots. That is done in Texas for cattle. Called pasture rotation.
Yeah, I know all about pasture rotation and read a preachy Virginia farmer's books. Right now, I am running the chickens across areas that will be planted. The goal is too spread the chicken manure and let the chickens eat off all the weeds, as in, make it bare before planting. There's may be two acres of permanent grass here at the farm, and that is in smaller pieces. I would love to have permanent fencing for the hens, but right now, they are using area in between uses, maximizing space. I think I'll make a video about my grazing plan soon.
it depends on what the land is used for. If it's permanent grass, a week or ten days between moves. When I am on craopland, the goal is weed destruction, so until the area is about bare. that's in the two week range or longer.
Very nice work. ..i just have 1 question. ..any reason why you didn't make the doors open the other way?...hinges on the other side?..you would be able to see the bottom easier
The bottom would be fantastic if it was turned a round. Originally, I planned on the whole top of the egg collection area opening, and a full door tipping back would cover the box openings, which I didn't like since I might have to reach on a box for eggs possibly.. The roll away feature doesn't work the best if parked on a hill the wrong way.
I don’t know how cold it gets there. But if it’s freezing there through the winter, it’s going to ruin the plastic buckets and you’re going to be replacing them. It makes the plastic fragile and they crack. I know from experience.😒 I love how you have your setup though!
Great setup. But I had problems visualizing your build to use as an idea for mine because of the panoramic view (or whatever it is) on your camera that put a curvature on everything.....
Thank GoPro for that... all their cameras are "super wide angle" for action sports, they make everything look curved if it has any length. They've gotten better about it over the years, and now have software to help correct for the fisheye lens as well. Later! OL J R :)
We milked Holsteins so I know very little about chickens. Do they get locked into the coop at night to protect them from coyotes or other vermin? Looks like you and your dad did a great job. Good video, thx
The are inside electric netting. I will make a video on the netting and charger when i finish the building the solar charger. As I start moving the coop farther from the house, I will make the coop lock up at night, but right now, the human door is always open. I still need to cut a small chicken door. There's a chicken door timer available to open and close the door so I don't have too.
I don't know where you are at, but here in Montana if you don't keep your birds safe at night, you don't have birds. Skunks, fox, yotes, bobcats, not to mention raptors. I'm wondering since it's been 10mo if you have had predator issues. I also noticed your nose is a bit red so I'm guessing it's a little cold. How cold does it get there and what have you done to keep your eggs from freezing
you said washing eggs in the end I read that you should not wash eggs ,I have few back yard hens going to build a new coop and was going to put in roll away nesting boxes that have roller paint tray in for the roll away lined with same carpet that I can take out an wash
Look at the floor joints you'll see the pointy ends of the tobacco stakes are overlapped and interlocking, screwed down to the joists... so 1x1 on a 1 inch spacing... OL J R :)
That's a great thought. During planning, i didn't foresee much structural material near the buckets to place a hinge. But I could possibly do that now. Everything looks better in hindsight.
I sell them, mostly wholesale because the local egg market it weak and undercut but by many people having a dozen chickens and giving away the extra eggs to their neighbors.
I found an ad on craigslist. A food service company was selling them. They had many thousands of buckets to sell. These are four gallon square. About nine and a half inches wide.
Very very nice. Where you get all those buckets from?? Great price at 50 cents each! Only thing I see that sorta makes me cringe is the sharp ends on the sticks facing the boxes... course I'm a fatboy and gotta squeeze between everything, life's easier when you're a skinny guy but still, gotta figure sooner or later on backing into one of them points or getting one in the tookas when you're bending over working on something like the lower boxes. One other question?? You mentioned wanting full width lids; why not hinge them at the back so they opened up out of the way, rather than hinged forwards? Otherwise it's a terrific looking rig! Later! OL J R :)
Where did you get your buckets for nesting boxes? The cheapest I can find is $8.50 CAN. I bet you are in US but the exchange is not that crazy. I am doing something similar. I will send you a link when I am done.
I have a couple five gallon chicken fountains for them. I plan on setting up that blue tank with a couple gravity flow bell waterers. Mom sells some at her work, some people come to the house.
@@boehmfarm4276 Thanks for responding. I have searched online companies and have found very few to fit my needs. I want to use square buckets for horizontal water nipples. I know "they say" round will work but I think square would work better!! Just my opinion, of course. Thanks again!!
I just looked it up. Based on their claims, adding a touch of reality, I can probably keep pace with it by hand. But it would save me from getting carpel tunnel.
Suggestion: put your hinges on the other side so you can open the door to check your eggs more easily!
Great content well presented, thank you.
Wow, you made great construction.
You think about things and then do it, great.
Thank you
Looking good. Well designed, and we'll built. Doing things correctly for cheap is the best.
Thank you
Congratulations Jacob , you and your Dad have built a fine Hen House for CHICKEN FEED , with no FOWL ups !!This should move you up the PECKING order of egg producers.Regards David
hahaha, i see what you did there.
Nicely done and well thought out. Healthy skepticism re information on the Internet, respect for that. Love those buckets. If I found a place selling those buckets for 50 cents apiece, I don't think there'd be any left there when I left. :)
Pretty cool set-up!
Thank you
I saw a vid where the fellow used paint trays so they could be easily removed for cleaning and they are already sloped :)
Yeah and they make some REALLY cheap throwaway ones now... very thin but really cheap compared to 'regular" paint trays... OL J R :)
Pretty crafty, looks good.
Thank you.
Nice system!!
Don't need anywhere near as many buckets but I love your idea.
That is one of the secrets of farming , How to reuse things for something new. Anyone can throw money at something and make it work, But a farmer can do the same thing dirt cheap and have it work just as good as the store bought stuff ! Keep up the great work and video's. Bandit
For all that reused wood, I had to pull tons of nails!
Well that's worth $130 at the junk yard ! LOL Nothing like getting paid to use scrap wood for something else ! LOL Bandit
Bandit farmer you right on👍
Nice job of the nests Jacob they should work well for your coop .
They are wonderful. They stay fairly clean on their own.
Very nice, I wouldn’t say cheap, I’d say frugal, there’s so little profit right now it’s a smart way of doing things
Yep, if it can't be done frugally, I am not doing it. Such as right now, I am savaging grain bin floors, buying smaller ones to piece together for one of our bins.
@@boehmfarm4276 Not a thing in the world wrong with that... Grandpa used to tear down old houses for the lumber... built his house with the lumber he got. For decades the wood flooring in Grandma's and Grandpa's house had these random little stripes across the wood in places, even some of them curved slightly. That's because the hardwood floors were old school gymnasium hardwood flooring that he'd salvaged from a school that was being torn down. It was put back together wherever the wood would fit, so of course the various lines and markings for free throws or foul lines or volleyball court lines were still on the wood in places and ended up at random on the floor... which worked well when I was "floor farming" as a kid because I had "trees" or "holes" to work around or other stuff I pretended them to be. Grandma had a lot of work done to the house after Grandpa died and had the floors sanded, stained, and refinished so all that's long gone now unfortunately... gave the place character IMHO.
The neighbor who was a friend of Grandpa's but kinda a joker used to say Grandpa's house was built out of old apple crates... but it's still there while the neighbors is long gone... so so much for that theory anyway... LOL:) Later! OL J R :)
Great job and I have only one suggestion for you, if you change the way you flip the door towards you to open away from you that way you could reach right into get the eggs out. The only thing would be the chickenpoop would go into the bucket. I just modified my nesting boxes and now they lay eggs in the ones I still have straw and have not modified. Basically the same principle. I heard you say that 12 inch square is the best well mine are bigger and I have noticed 2 to 3 chickens are in at a time, I will have to consider making them smaller. I only have a dozen layers not like you. I don't have the room. You did a nice job. Looks aren't as important as efficiency.
very impressive
Thank you
Love the floor also
Thank you
Very innovative! Btw, their roosting woods look so sharp/dangerous
That's only a look.
Very cool.
Thank you
Great setup/design JB, if our grocery store raises the price again, I'm getting chickens! Over $5/dozen & 1/2..
Really??? That's outrageous. Are those the cheapest gmo, fully caged kind???
Boehm Farm just you run of the mill eggs!
I'll come to your area to sell eggs then.
@@boehmfarm4276 Ya know you'd be surprised what you can get with a little research and travel time invested... Buddy of my Dad's he used to work with, his family truck gardened but being close to Houston they could sell WAY more than they could ever grow... SO they started making runs down to the Rio Grande Valley, which is about a four hour drive or so down the coast of Texas, and pick up a truck and trailer load of vegetables, and haul them back up to their roadside stand (which was a little portable building). They would sell out and were basically making a LOT of money doing that! Might pay to see where you could sell stuff for a better price, even if it meant a four or five hour drive in the wee morning hours now and then to get to distant farmer's markets or whatever, if you can haul a lot down with you and sell it out at a superior price! OL J R :)
First! And great video keep of the good work!
Thank you
Good functionality! Have you thought of putting drawer pulls of handles on the covers you seem to have to use two hands on to open? maybe a pair three feet apart or so would make it easier to open.
Yes, handles would be nice. In time, that will happen, but building this thing was a losing race against the timeline I had in my head. There's still finishing touches I can make while the hens are inhabiting the coop.
You did good.....
Thank you
I remember back when we had chickens, had about 70 some.. only about 10 or so nest boxes... and sometimes there would be an empty nest box... guess they have favorites...
Yep, and they would squeeze three to a box??
I never saw more than one in a box at a time... and usually they weren't in the box at all... there would be 10 or so eggs in every box every day, about 3 layers deep in a 5 gallon bucket.
Really like this efficient and cost effective solution. Where did you get those lovely buckets for such a great price? And what breeds of chickens are using them?
Nice construction. Can you explain the type of slatted flooring used and overall tour of the shelter. Thanks
The floor is tobacco sticks.
Jacob check out (Our Wyoming life) their latest video has a realy neat little egg washer that's inexpensive . I hope your ex cage birds appreciate all the trouble you've gone to on thier behalf .Thanks for the guided tour .
You REALLY jacked me up! Watching your video and wife heard the hens and is now bugging me to death to get more chickens for my chicken house and lot at my factory :)
Kidding aside: you're not "cheap" but you are thrifty.Not a dang thing wrong with that as you still do good work that won't fall apart like something cheap.
If you haven't already done so why not fence in 4 lots with gates between instead of moving the fence each time you want to move the chicken house to greener pastures?Looks like you have the room and opening and closing a gate is easier than moving a fence.If the area recovers quickly enough you may only need 2 or 3 lots.
That is done in Texas for cattle. Called pasture rotation.
Yeah, I know all about pasture rotation and read a preachy Virginia farmer's books. Right now, I am running the chickens across areas that will be planted. The goal is too spread the chicken manure and let the chickens eat off all the weeds, as in, make it bare before planting. There's may be two acres of permanent grass here at the farm, and that is in smaller pieces. I would love to have permanent fencing for the hens, but right now, they are using area in between uses, maximizing space. I think I'll make a video about my grazing plan soon.
Great job, it’s working well. How often would you move it around to fresh ground for the hens?
it depends on what the land is used for. If it's permanent grass, a week or ten days between moves. When I am on craopland, the goal is weed destruction, so until the area is about bare. that's in the two week range or longer.
That will save u lots of work.should serve u long time.think I will have some eggs and bacon
Very nice work. ..i just have 1 question. ..any reason why you didn't make the doors open the other way?...hinges on the other side?..you would be able to see the bottom easier
The bottom would be fantastic if it was turned a round. Originally, I planned on the whole top of the egg collection area opening, and a full door tipping back would cover the box openings, which I didn't like since I might have to reach on a box for eggs possibly.. The roll away feature doesn't work the best if parked on a hill the wrong way.
I don’t know how cold it gets there. But if it’s freezing there through the winter, it’s going to ruin the plastic buckets and you’re going to be replacing them. It makes the plastic fragile and they crack. I know from experience.😒 I love how you have your setup though!
It's survived a couple winters now without issue.
Great setup. But I had problems visualizing your build to use as an idea for mine because of the panoramic view (or whatever it is) on your camera that put a curvature on everything.....
Thank GoPro for that... all their cameras are "super wide angle" for action sports, they make everything look curved if it has any length. They've gotten better about it over the years, and now have software to help correct for the fisheye lens as well. Later! OL J R :)
Call it the Chicksy Wagon
We milked Holsteins so I know very little about chickens. Do they get locked into the coop at night to protect them from coyotes or other vermin? Looks like you and your dad did a great job. Good video, thx
The are inside electric netting. I will make a video on the netting and charger when i finish the building the solar charger. As I start moving the coop farther from the house, I will make the coop lock up at night, but right now, the human door is always open. I still need to cut a small chicken door. There's a chicken door timer available to open and close the door so I don't have too.
I don't know where you are at, but here in Montana if you don't keep your birds safe at night, you don't have birds.
Skunks, fox, yotes, bobcats, not to mention raptors.
I'm wondering since it's been 10mo if you have had predator issues.
I also noticed your nose is a bit red so I'm guessing it's a little cold. How cold does it get there and what have you done to keep your eggs from freezing
Hello Boehm Farm.
you said washing eggs in the end I read that you should not wash eggs ,I have few back yard hens going to build a new coop and was going to put in roll away nesting boxes that have roller paint tray in for the roll away lined with same carpet that I can take out an wash
What size boards are the floor? I noticed in the other video you talked some about it, but not size. Great Video!
The floor is tobacco stakes, so roughly 1x1. Those sit on 2x6 floor joists.
Look at the floor joints you'll see the pointy ends of the tobacco stakes are overlapped and interlocking, screwed down to the joists... so 1x1 on a 1 inch spacing... OL J R :)
I almost bought some easter baskets for my hens at $0.30 each but I don't have any easter egger chickens and my hens would be offended ;)
If they could lay better, I would have a whole flock of easter eggers.
Looks nice. Where did you get the buckets at?
A food supply warehouse. They were used and had cherries in them.
Nice build why could you just put the hinges on the back ? on the lower boxes .
That's a great thought. During planning, i didn't foresee much structural material near the buckets to place a hinge. But I could possibly do that now. Everything looks better in hindsight.
Is there a reason you dont want them to roll to the outside? Seems like it would make collection easier.
It was just a construction complication. Outside could be easier to collect, but I built the coop too solid with too many studs in the way.
Nice job on the coop. Question for you, I used to date a girl that lived in Carlisle. Is that near you?
Oh, sorta maybe 30 miles up 123.
I know you've been asked this before but what do you do with the eggs?
I sell them, mostly wholesale because the local egg market it weak and undercut but by many people having a dozen chickens and giving away the extra eggs to their neighbors.
Thinking if you would have put the bottom row of hinges on the opposite side egg removal would be easier.
Yeah, it would be easier.
Where did you get 4 gallon square pails for 50 cents each? I'm looking online and in UK all I can find is nearer £12 per bucket!
They came from a food company processing bulk ingredients. They had thousands of these buckets that were only used once for cherry filling.
@@boehmfarm4276 Nice idea, thanks for the reply :-)
Where can the 4 gallon buckets be purchased? Tim
I found and ad on Craigslist. A person in commercial food manufacturing was selling them used.
Yea, i like rice tires and duct tape too. Can we roll that egg a few more times? Physics experiment 😁.
I may hard boil it first.
Boehm Farm lmao
where did you get the buckets and what is the bucket size
I found an ad on craigslist. A food service company was selling them. They had many thousands of buckets to sell. These are four gallon square. About nine and a half inches wide.
Any relation to the Devon boehm channel?
Nope
Very very nice. Where you get all those buckets from?? Great price at 50 cents each! Only thing I see that sorta makes me cringe is the sharp ends on the sticks facing the boxes... course I'm a fatboy and gotta squeeze between everything, life's easier when you're a skinny guy but still, gotta figure sooner or later on backing into one of them points or getting one in the tookas when you're bending over working on something like the lower boxes. One other question?? You mentioned wanting full width lids; why not hinge them at the back so they opened up out of the way, rather than hinged forwards? Otherwise it's a terrific looking rig! Later! OL J R :)
Found an ad on craigslist. Came from a food distributor.
Where did you get your buckets for nesting boxes? The cheapest I can find is $8.50 CAN. I bet you are in US but the exchange is not that crazy. I am doing something similar. I will send you a link when I am done.
I found an ad on Craigslist for the buckets. They were used to hold cherry pie filling.
Hi great job! I just wanted to no how u provide water to them? And who buys your eggs? Keep up the good work!
I have a couple five gallon chicken fountains for them. I plan on setting up that blue tank with a couple gravity flow bell waterers. Mom sells some at her work, some people come to the house.
Do hens still go broody?
I haven't had any do so in the trailer.
How did you make them
With screws, wood and buckets.
How many chickens do you have in total?
About 200 laying eggs right now, then I will raise about 500 meat chickens in a summer.
Where did you buy your hens?
The used hens came from near Urbana, the rest of them I started from chicks that came from rural king or TSC.
I like free, clearance and things people no longer want at curb side. No shame in it.
Question: WHERE do you find the square buckets? ha ha
I found an ad on Craigslist. They were used to contain cherry filling.
@@boehmfarm4276 Thanks for responding. I have searched online companies and have found very few to fit my needs. I want to use square buckets for horizontal water nipples. I know "they say" round will work but I think square would work better!! Just my opinion, of course. Thanks again!!
PS. the egg washer on (our Wyoming life ) latest video is at 8 Mins in to save you some time.
I just looked it up. Based on their claims, adding a touch of reality, I can probably keep pace with it by hand. But it would save me from getting carpel tunnel.
Your fish eye lens makes watching the video difficult.
Why do you wash your eggs? That isn't good for them.
Not bad for an amateur , keep up the good work, cheapskate
You could get a bad reputation for saying you are "cheap".....how about thrifty?
Then I'll get a reputation for being a thesaurus.
But that sounds better.
dk johnson recycler today is Earth day by the way I got a big brush pile to burn 👍
Camera 🤮🤮 deslaik