Take one rabbit hutch...

Last night (after a glass of wine) we decided to take the plunge and carry out a plan we have been musing over for some time- raising chickens for meat.  Why just for meat?  Well, we don't really have the space to keep birds all year round, plus they are an additional species to add to our 'needs babysitting' list.  However, meat breeds can reach full size in 3-4 months which leaves the garden with time to recover. Plus, we will have the satisfaction of knowing exactly where our meat came from, and that it had a good life!

After ordering an incubator online (a Brinsea mini advance ex) - because the plan is to take them from egg to plate- we set about converting the large rabbit hutch in the garden into suitable sleeping quarters.   The hutch was bought a temporary accommodation for our house rabbits Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte (now sadly buried in the garden) when our kitchen was being fitted, as the workmen needed to leave the front door open and our house is so small that there was nowhere else for the guys to be.  Now entering middle age, Charles generally dislikes spending extended periods of time in the garden (with its attendant goats), and - more problematically - refuses to go to the toilet outside(!), so the hutch has been sitting empty.



The hutch has three levels, ground, a mid-height rabbit sleeping area, and top terrace.  As a chicken house the sleeping area was too small; however, the pitched roof of the terrace meant that this was a lovely high space with room for perches- if the chickens can reach it.   The hutch already had a ramp from the ground to the sleeping area, but the rabbits hadn't needed a ramp to reach the terrace- they could just leap up.  We were less convinced that a chicken could leap the required height, so after adding strips of bamboo cane 'steps' to the bottom ramp, Ian set about making a shallow ramp (made out of an old kitchen cupboard door) from the old rabbit sleeping area to the terrace and new chicken sleeping area.   This process was significantly hindered by Tiberius and Sibelius sticking their noses under the hammer, next to the saw (they were licking the sawdust!) and at one point both getting into the rabbit hutch.

Health and safety at work guys

Sunbathing Tiberius

Meanwhile I set about making some moveable perches from bits of wood on the log pile.  My smallholding manual recommends that all perches are the same height, otherwise chickens will fight for the highest one.  Unfortunately, nature can't have read this manual because every piece of wood in our log pile was a different diameter.  Much mocking up of perches later and I'm fairly happy that they are roughly the same height.  Our incubator takes seven eggs but as you can tell from the number of perches I'm expecting that we won't have a 100% hatch rate!

chicken perches

Perches in situ