I’m taking a large leap towards self-sufficiency in the next month—I’m getting a flock of chickens!
I’ve been gearing up and preparing to receive these chickens for the past few months now. My homestead came equipped with a chicken coop, but it hadn’t been properly cared for and it was essentially a mouse haven. Mouse poop covered the walls, shelves, and floors. I did a video tour of it BEFORE I finally cleaned it out, and it was absolutely terrifying! The smell was overwhelming, and it reminded me of one of those abandoned houses that was once full of life but is now dreary and desolate.
This past weekend, I FINALLY worked myself up to getting out to the coop. I masked up with an N95, latex gloves, a bleach spray bottle, a dumpster, and endless amounts of large black garbage bags. The morning of, I purchased a shop vac to suck up all of the gook that riddled the chicken coop, and there was A LOT of gook. My dumpster quickly filled up with insulation that once served as nests for mice, garbage, old hay, and more garbage. How much garbage sat here for years unnoticed, I wondered multiple times throughout the process. I used a spray bottle filled to the brim with bleach and blasted the entire coop with bleach before I began vacuuming. After I vacuumed, I also sprayed bleach everywhere lol.
Chunk by chunk, the coop started coming together. I could see the floor and discovered a region that needs to be replaced. Ugh, how the heck am I going do that? I don’t know how to replace floors lol. Live and learn, I guess. The nesting boxes, once riddled with mouse poop, cleaned right up and are ready for farm-fresh eggs to start dropping into them! I need to install hinges and a handle on the nesting box-overlay, but that won’t be bad at all—I can definitely handle that. You can see an updated video of the coop here on my Instagram Reels.
The chicken coop is divided into two sections and so is the run (the enclosed area used for the flock.) Because both of these areas are divided, I could have two separate flocks of sorts. Maybe some ducks on one side and chickens on the other? I’m not sure yet, but I’m happy that my options are open! I will start with chickens then work my way up to other avenues. I want pigs, goats, and cattle, but I think chickens are the perfect gateway farm animal.
I am pleased that the Gubba Homestead is advancing and beginning to transform before my eyes. A once uninhabitable chicken coop is now safe and inviting to walk in! All I need is to get some wood chips for the floor, a waterer, a feeder, a roost, and some hay for the nesting boxes and Gubba Homestead farm-fresh eggs will be right around the corner!
Preparing for a farm animal is daunting. I don’t know what to expect, but I just have to dive in or I’ll never know what I’m missing!