Capable of Living Green.
I blog about simple everyday ideas, products or steps you can easily incorporate into your life to live a healthier, "Greener" lifestyle.
So, chickens need a coop.
My daughter and I researched quite a few different coop designs. Several of the pre-made coops we could purchase from the local feed store we to be blunt... BORING and cost around $400 plus tax. Many of the others we found online go for much more and then there's shipping. Being an architectural designer, I couldn't just let our chickens reside in any old coop. Chicken coop designing is right up my alley and there was no way I was going to settle for some bland off the shelf model. I employed my design skills and this was the result.
3d model view of our chicken coop design
Below is a really quick fly around animation I did just for fun.
Some of the main ideas I designed into the coop included...
Natural light- The roof is made of corrugated clear acrylic. Since we knew the coop was going to be located under our large avocado tree and would be shaded year round, I choose the clear roofing material to let in lots of natural light. In the morning we often find the chickens sitting in their nesting boxes looking out. My wife refers to it as their "penthouse view".
Ease of entry for cleaning- The entire side of the coop is on hinges so it can be opened entirely for ease of cleaning. I covered the floor of the coop and the area above their nesting boxes with some closeout vinyl flooring. It keeps the chicken poo from sticking and is very easy to scrape off. It also allows us to periodically scrub the floor with mild detergent and water for that extra good cleaning.
Access to the nesting boxes- The rear of the coop has been designed to accommodate a sliding panel. The panel can be removed to access the eggs without entering the coop...but in reality my daughters prefer to go in the coop and get the eggs. I don't know why for sure but I think they like the way the inside looks. I originally conceived of the panel as clear acrylic, but we were afraid the chickens may not feel safe being exposed at the rear, so it's a solid panel.
Ventilation- The angular or peaked shape of the actual enclosure helps to allow hot air to escape. As the hot air rises it escapes out the open corrugations at the top of the peak and cooler air is brought in from below. Our chickens are out all day, but this helps to regulate the heat so it doesn't overheat during the day. If it gets too hot, we will just open the side door for a while an vent it.
Enclosure- The vertical "pickets" create a small enclosed area where we can keep the chickens enclosed for the day if need be. One weekend not too long ago, we went out of town and our neighbor girls were checking that our chickens had food & water and putting them away for the night. It was easy for them to do this because the chickens were in the enclosed area for the day. all the girls had to do was convince the chickens to go into the closed in part of the coop and close the small door on the front. This was far easier for them than chasing chickens around the yard in order to catch them and put them away. We don't use this penned in area often, but it is nice to have the option.
Color/Pattern- We wanted to make the coop unique and we wanted it to have a textural quality. The
3 different shades of blue were some of the left over paints from a mural my wife completed over the summer. My wife and 2 young daughters (2 and 7) painted the majority of the coop the two solid colors and I went back, masked off with tape and added the final color blocks. Our Rhode Island Red (Ginger) stepped in some of the blue paint, and my oldest daughter swears that the blue paint on our chicken's neck was from when it walked into her paint brush. We were able to wash Ginger's foot off but some of the blue paint still remains in her feathers.
Well, here are some photos of the early construction and a few shots of the completed coop.
Ginger dining
View from above (notice fine vinyl flooring)
Completed coop with front gate / door open.
Completed coop with front gate / door closed.
Completed Modern coop design $294.86
I have to admit, this has been one of my favorite design challenges. My daughter was a great helper and my wife was a tremendous supporter. I really enjoyed doing the research with my daughter, and teaching her a little about construction. Actually, she learned quite a bit about fractions while helping out.
I enjoyed designing this coop so much I have been sketching and designing more of them just for fun.
Last summer I wanted to plant some potatoes. I went to our local nursery to buy some seed potatoes but the nursery staff told me that they did not have any in stock because they usually only carry them when the weather is cooler. I was disappointed at first, but as we got to talking more, to the gentleman gave me a tip that has been invaluable. He told me you can take a potato from the store and let it begin to sprout. Once sprouting, each eye can be cut off into a chunk and planted. The chunks will then grow into their own potato plant. OF COURSE! Once I heard his words, it totally made sense to me and I knew I had to try it. I went to our local market and bought some of my favorites...the baby reds and goldens. I put them into a brown bag in our cupboard and left them. After about 1-2 weeks, I opened the bag and there were the potatoes with their little eyes staring back at me. I planted them in an are in our garden and sure enough...they grew into potato plants, and flowered. One afternoon my daughter and I dug them up. We had a lot of fun...it was kind of like a treasure hunt. We would dig and then sift through the soil and pull them out. We scrubbed them thoroughly, and boiled them with the skins on. We mashed them with a little butter and heavy cream. They were the absolute best potatoes we had ever had. Even though they were mashed they still had what I can only describe as a touch of crispiness.
Well, imagine my surprise when this weekend I looked in our lower cupboard and found that some of our russets had sprouted. Thus far we have only done this technique with Reds, Golden and Purple Potatoes, so this is kind of an experiment...based on the same principles.
I cut the potato into chunks, leaving a major sprout on each of the chunks.
Quartered potato
After cutting the potato into chunks, I went outside and prepared the soil. Potatoes prefer a loose soil so I prepared a mixture of my general purpose soil that is in my beds with about 1/3 part potting soil mixture and I also added a fair amount of wood shavings. I like to add these to the potatoes soil because it seems to hold moisture longer, is lightweight and breaks down back into soil very easily. Also, we have the shavings on hand because we use them as bedding in our chicken coop. I mixed the parts together thoroughly and roughly formed a mound.
Notice the green leaves on the left hand side.
They belong to two potato plants that I planted in a few weeks ago.
I transplanted them into this mound to give them a little more room.
After forming my mound, I pushed the potato chunks about 4" into the soil and lightly compacted the soil around them. I them added the transplanted guys and lightly watered them all.
Above is my completed mound with soaker hose...when needed.
I think planting the potatoes in this location at this time of year is great because they get full afternoon sunlight and the concrete block wall behind them absorbs the heat from the suns rays and radiates that heat back in the evening and into the night. Even here in southern California, at this time of year we can get down into the low 40's at night.
So there you have it...This is how I have been harvesting healthy, homegrown vegetables from something that most people may consider a few days away from the compost bin.
So it's March 1st...20 more days until the equinox...that means it's probably time to start planning a vegetable garden. I know in a lot of the country, spring still seems far away but garden planning is something to get you excited about spring and summer and maybe lift you out of that winter funk! I am fortunate enough to live in Southern California so I can grow plants and vegetables outdoors pretty much year round. Many people think that they need to have a green thumb to be good at gardening, but I honestly believe that anyone can grow at the very least, some herbs in a few containers on a porch or patio. There are a few herbs that my family grows and we use for cooking quite often in our home. They are, Cilantro, Oregano, Basil, Rosemary and Parsley (Italian or flat leaf). If you enjoy cooking, and do it fairly often, you know how many recipes use at least one of these herbs. You also know how quickly they go bad if not used right away. The benefit for sure of growing some of these everyday herbs, is that you will have them when you need them and they won't go bad on you before you use them...which of course equates to saving money.
Well, the TED talks are going on down the street from my office in Long Beach, and this got me thinking about a short video from one of the previous TED conferences I had seen quite some time ago.
The video is of Kamal Meattle, a business owner and environmental activist in New Delhi. He talks about their strategy and findings for improving indoor air quality. Based partially on findings from NASA, they incorporated three different types of plants over 15 years at Paharpur Business Centre and Software Technology Incubator Park and found significant reductions in eye irritation, lower respiratory symptoms, headaches, upper respiratory symptoms, lung impairment, and Asthma.
Here is the 4 minute youtube video...
Here is one of the slides from his presentation showing the three plants...
Now, I don't honestly know if most Americans would be able to incorporate his strategy into their homes...
4 Areca Palms shoulder high per person, 6-8 Mother In Law's Tounge (per person), and an undisclosed number of Money Plants, planted in Vermi Manure or growing hydroponically?
For my household, that would be 12 Areca Palms, 18 Mother In Law's Tounge, and I'm just guessing at least 6-18 Money Plants. (calculations based on 2 adults and 2 small children, which I am combining and counting as 1 adult)
That's a lot of room for plants. Now, don't get me wrong, I love plants, especially houseplants, and I live in the LA area where the air quality is pretty crappy, but as much as I think I should, I don't realistically think I can make it happen in our small house. Never the less, I do believe that these plants would significantly aid in removing the VOC's and impurities in the indoor air that can cause us to become ill.
Through additional research. I have found this list of fifteen of the most common houseplants for reducing indoor air pollutants.
It's funny, so many of these plants are really "low maintenance" and also, plants that I remember always having in mine and my Grandparents home as I was growing up. Did they know something we don't? I love the look of Spider plants when they get their "hanging babies" and Peace Lilies always remind me of my beloved Grandmother's indoor plant room.
I do believe that any plant can improve air quality to some degree, and the more the merrier, but perhaps more importantly, plants enhance the aesthetics of any room and greatly help to improve ones mental state of being. So, go ahead and add a new plant to your home today.
B.C. “Bill” Wolverton published his findings, (based on numerous technical papers while he was with the Space Agency), about using plants to improve indoor air quality.
You can view preview or purchase How to Grow Fresh Air at Amazon...well, it really only lets you preview the contents page, or better yet, walk on down and purchase it from a local bookstore.
If your concerned about impurities in your drinking water, purchase a good water filter rather than continually spending money on water in plastic bottles that get recycled or end up in the landfill or incinerated.
According to the Container Recycling Institute, almost 8 out of 10 of the plastic bottles that water is supplied to consumers in, end up in the landfill or incinerators. By far the most efficient and least energy intensive means of a water delivery system is through the existing municipal water infrastructure.The findings in an Environmental Research Letter by P H Gleick and H S Coole estimate that bottled water is up to 2,000 times more energy-intensive than tap water. Similarly, bottled water that requires long-distance transport is far more energy-intensive than bottled water produced and distributed locally.
The most common impurities that are often found in municipal drinking water are Chlorine, Fluoride, Aluminum, Lead, Copper, Calcium, Phosphates, Nitrates, Sodium, Radium and Arsenic. Chlorine is added to tap water to kill bacteria that can cause illness, and is fairly easy to remove. Inexpensive carbon filters (such as the ones made by Britta or PUR) remove the taste of chlorine and some other impurities but don't remove some of the most difficult ones.
The one that my family and I are most concerned about is Fluoride.
"The main fluoride chemical added to water (hydrofluorosilicic acid) is an industrial by-product from the phosphate fertilizer industry. Unlike the fluoride used in toothpaste, hydrofluorosilicic acid is not pharmaceutical-grade quality. It is an unpurified, industrial-grade, corrosive acid which has been linked, in several recent studies, to increased levels of lead in children’s blood" (from the fluoride action network). Fluoride, unlike chlorine which is added to water to make it safe to drink, does not to make water safer to drink, but is added as a medication...to prevent tooth decay. I don't know about you but I don't think it's right of any municipality to FORCIBLY medicate people. Water and food are two necessities that no one can live very long without, so by adding fluoride to the tap water, municipalities are essentially forcing people to ingest this poison...unless they take measures (often costly) to remove it from their water. Some people may claim that calling Fluoride a poison is inaccurate but if you look at the Warning on a tube of toothpaste, it clearly states if more than a pea sized amount is swallowed, contact a poison control center immediately.
The other issue is, we drink a lot of water in our home, and the more water you drink...the more fluoride you ingest. We have two young daughters, 2 and 7, and they drink a lot of water as well, but they are expected to ingest the same amount of parts per million (PPM) from the tap as an adult? The amount if fluoride put into water by municipalities varies according to whether you live in warmer or cooler climates. The assumption is if you live somewhere hot you will drink more water, therefore, you get a smaller PPM dose. It seems as if it were perfectly safe to consume, then the amount of water you drink shouldn't have any bearing on the PPM added to the water. Well, I am probably not going to convince most of you in this short post to feel the way I do about fluoridated water, but I strongly encourage you to do some reading and research on your own. I will include some links to resources and you can go from there.
Another reason my family has a water filtration system is because we live in Southern California and earthquakes are not IF'S but WHEN'S. The Berkey water filtration system we have is easy to fill and use on a daily basis and will do a superb job when there is an earthquake that disrupts the city water supply. We collect rainwater that we store in rain barrels primarily for watering our outdoor plants, BUT in an emergency, we could in fact run that water through our filter and have 100 gallons of water for drinking and cooking. Family disaster preparedness is something that we take serious in our household.
The filtration system we have has what I would consider a fairly high upfront cost but when you calculate the cost per gallon and all of the impurities it removes, I believe it is WELL worth the $238 investment. The Black Berkey filter elements ($107 replacement cost) are supposed to filter 6000 gallons of water before replacement, which equates to $0.017 per gallon. If I include the fluoride elements at $45 and they filter for 1000 gallons, that adds $0.05 per gallon to the nearly $0.02 gallon for a grand total $0.07 per gallon. Before we invested in the Berkey water filter, we used the Brita pitcher ($33) and carbon filters. The carbon filter 6 pack costs $38 or $6.34 per filter. Brita recommends changing the filter after 40 gallons or once every 2 months. This equates to $0.158 per gallon...and it still leaves the fluoride in the water.
Well, no matter where you stand on the fluoride issue, getting any sort of water filter for home use reduces the unwanted impurities, and helpes make the water taste better which usually means you will drink more water. It also reduces the energy required to transport the bottled water and decreases the number of plastic bottles that get tossed into landfills, incinerated or even recycled.
Anyone familiar with the local food movement knows the first level entails growing food at home. Our family subscribes to this belief and besides some of our own fruits and vegetables we decided to raise hens in our backyard for their eggs.
To many people, raising chickens in an Urban environment may seem a little crazy, but many of our grandparents had victory gardens and knew how to grow vegetables, can food, and raised their own chickens. Unfortunately, this valuable knowledge and these experiences seem to have skipped a generation or two. My wife and I are anxious to bring these skills and experiences back, so that our children will not be so far removed from them. We feel it is extremely important our Daughters know where food comes from... and not simply the grocery store shelves.
Raising hens in our backyard is a tremendous opportunity for us to not only teach them about where eggs come from, but also the responsibility that comes with caring for a pet. Due to the small size and friendly demeanor of hens, young children can easily handle them.
Our Rhode Island Red: Ginger
We got our chickens as week old chicks at a local feed store. The chicks had to grow to maturity before they began to lay eggs, and to be honest, 6 months seemed like a pretty long time of feeding, watering and cleaning up after without the benefit of fresh eggs, but once they started laying it began to really pay off.
We have a good sized area in our far backyard with lots of shade from an avacado tree for our chickens to roam free. The remainder of the time we let our chickens pasture in the main back yard. They pretty much have free range of our entire backyard when ever they want it because all they have to do is fly on over a 6 foot high concrete block wall to get to the lawn...and thats really not too difficult for them.
We have read that the average laying duration for a chicken of 26-30 hours and our chickens do not dissapoint. The third hen that we have recently began laying eggs, so now we are getting about a dozen and a half eggs a week. The brown eggs are probabbly considered a size medium. The shells are thicker than store bought eggs and the yolks seem larger and are an amazing orangish-yellow color.
One study showed free-range or pasture-raised chicken eggs have four to six times more vitamin D, three times more vitamin E, two-third more vitamin A, and seven times more beta carotene. They also have two times more omega-3 fatty acids, a firmer texture, and superior flavor.
We have found chickens are very low maintenance (you dont have to take them to the park to play frisbee) and they are very entertaining. There is nothing funnier than watching one run around the yard flapping its wings fearing for it's life as it's being chased by a song bird not 1/10th its size.
Our family has really come to love them as pets (that provide us with egg-stensive benefits) and we know that the eggs they produce are not hormone ridden, they are as fresh and local as one could possibly get, and that our chickens are free to live a happy chicken existence, scratching for bugs and picking clover out of the yard.
If you have questions about backyard or Urban chickens, the website below has a tremendous amount of information. And, if by chance, you cannot find what your looking for there, you can get an answer by asking a question on the Forum. http://www.backyardchickens.com
It’s a cold morning. I groggily make my way to the bathroom.
No one likes a cold shower, so I grab
the 1 gallon pail and put it onto the floor of the shower. I remove the shower
head and place it into the pail. I turn on the water and wait for it to get warm.
The water is warm almost exactly the same time the pail is nearly full. I remove the shower head and put the pail outside the shower. I step in and enjoy the feel of hot water on my back.
Once I have finished my shower, I place the nearly full
bucket of water back into the shower until after I have dressed. I take the bucket outside and either dump it
into one of my three rain collection barrels that I use for watering plants outside,
or I immediately use it to water several of our other potted plants.
I know it doesn't seem like much but it adds
up. Imagine, if one were to collect 1
gallon of water per day from one or multiple showers (kids or spouses can
collect as well) that could be a minimum of 30 gallons of water per month that
would otherwise have gone directly down the drain while waiting for the shower
water to get warm. I would have needed to water the plants anyways, so for me
this is just a fairly simple way to not only save water but also money.
