Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Hubbell Bubble Chicken Coop!

I've written before about our chickens and their coop. We've adjusted the design a bit now & then, making changes as needed, as any good homesteader would do. Just because we're living in a tropical suburb, it doesn't mean we've lost our homesteader roots! Our vacation rental guests seem to really enjoy seeing a 'normal' yard being far more productive than the usual lawn & shrubs. We often hear comments like, "That's a good idea! I'm going to do that back home, too!"

Since we've become so involved with the
Natural Farming group, we've had even more people curious to see our backyard chicken set-up. One of these people is Mike DuPonte, our local ag extension animal specialist. He was so taken with our coop design that, at his instigation, UH-CTAHR (University of Hawaii - College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources) has decided adopt it as their model to promote backyard chicken-raising! We're a little dazed at all the attention, but hey, if it helps, that's cool. And it is nice to be recognized for a good idea when one rolls around. ;-)

A few days ago, several of us got
together to buy the materials and construct a 12'x12' display model of the coop. We put together the panels that will be assembled later at the Food Resilience Project in Kohala at the beginning of February. We'll be making another whole set-up for the Cho Global Natural Farm Seminar coming at the end of Feb.

UH-CTAHR is printing up a brochure with plans for distribution at both venues. I think they will also be available at the CTAHR offices after these events.

For those interested in learning about Natural Farming and Indigenous Micro-Organisms, here's a link to our local group's website, Natural Farming Hawaii.


So now you know what's been occupying so much of our time these days. I'd say our new year is off to a great start!

5 comments:

Ann Wurden said...

Liz, this is so awesome, I can't wait to come by and take a closer look. So are the girls happy in their new bubble? Are you planning to get more girls?

Liz said...

Thanks Ann~ Yes, they seem to really appreciate the shade & rain protection for the whole yard (not that it's been raining lately). And yes, more chickies on the way!

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Robert said...

Liz,

how many eggs do you think you get out of a chicken per day/week/month or year. Any idea that you think is representative.

Robert

Liz said...

Good question, Robert.
It all depends on the age of the chicken & the breed. Some breeds are better layers than others. You can figure somewhere around 70% production, roughly 4-5 eggs a week per hen, until they're about 2 years old. They'll still produce after that, but will slow down as they age... like the rest of us. ;-)