The kids are all teenagers now, with one ready for college this year. The humongous fort that came with the house and land is no longer needed and just in time, as it's starting to get a little shaky! That has to come down and be recycled into other useful stuff like a portable chicken coop so the chickens can be moved around from time to time for composting purposes.
I like to think of my dear little flock of chickens as an integral part to our little farm. With the addition of the Americauna chickens, who like small bugs like ants and ticks, and the turkens (ugly as all get out, but tough!) who like to eat the crickets and grasshoppers, most of our pest control is taken care of! They will break down donkey and goat manure, and old straw and barnyard gradings - leaving behind tremendously useful compost that you can grow darned near anything in. They will also tear up the earth and pre-work your planting beds for you, just given the chance.
So one of the next projects must be a temporary coop, built out of reclaimed material from the fort. This will go in the garden patch, where they can break down the over-aged hay that is decaying on the bottom and soften up the earth while eating bugs and leaving behind their own brand of fertilizer. Hooray for multipurpose animals on a farm!
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