After weeks of waiting for parts to arrive we finally moved ahead and built our best chicken world yet, DUSTYLAND.
It's two 6.6' x 10' aviaries grafted together with a 40" rain space in between. The entire structure is skinned with chicken wire. The bottom 24" has an extra layer of 1/4" x 1/4" in square hardware cloth. The hardware cloth prevents wandering raccoons and other roosters from getting to one of our prized roosters :-)
VIDEO OF BRAND NEW DUSTYLAND AND OUR STAR
IT'S DUSTY OUR WHITE SILKIE ROOSTER
LITTLE TOM
Since it's April, here is another Birthday Star, it's Little Tom, she's one year old and going strong.
That big fluffy guy photobombing Little Toms birthday video shoot is Fritz (aka Frizzle) another of our prize winning roosters. That fluffy little white bearded Silkie hen is Marilyn. It's her birthday too, she came to us a year ago as part of our second Tractor Supply chick days event.
DUSTYLAND DAY ONE PHOTOS
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| Main entrance door and view of entry ramp into Formex house |
At night we close the door to the coop and secure it with a carabiner.
That big fluffy white rooster is DUSTY! He is a bantam Silkie rooster, complete with blue skin and five toe feet. His soft appearance is even softer when you pet him. He is luxurious.
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| Closer view of entry ramp, note popsicle sticks glued to board |
His size appearance is very misleading. Under all those fluffy white feathers is a little over 1.5 pounds of bird, there's not much there but don't tell him that. His personality is immense, so is his vocabulary. Dusty is constantly talking when he's awake. He greets me I'm the morning "bur-ka burp?". I answer him "buc buc buc", it's chicken speak.
At night we bring the food box feeder OUT of the aviary and put it under that big green plastic flower pot to keep night time visitors from eating our expensive organic chicken feed.
This is the egg access door, it has two hasps secured with carabiners to keep hungry raccoons out. The legs lift the coop up away from ants and crawling bugs. The legs also make it a lot easier to collect eggs and clean out the poop tray (the dark side of chickens lol).
In spite of spending his days digging and scratching in black Florida top soil Dusty is glowing white and spotless. Chickens are dust bathers and we've got plenty of that for him to roll around in.
The standard size hen is Shannon, a Golden Comet. She has a wonderful inquisitive personality and usually lays an egg per day.
We engineered in an extra 40" area for rain to fall inside the aviary. The chickens can get out of the rain under the roof covers or they can go into the coop if things get real scary. Chickens don't like to swim (they sink and drown) but surprisingly they do seem to like and benefit from a little exposure to rain so we added that extra space to Dustyland.
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| One of our innovations, put the coop outside for easy cleaning |
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| All of our Formex coops are on these custom built leg-base stands |
It is difficult to see in the above photo but in the upper right corner is the piece of painted pine board which is there to help water run off the roof canvas and go over the house not right in the front door.
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| Close view of .25" hardware cloth, comes up 24" from ground for extra protection |
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| Dustyland has a beautiful lake view and a fat perch |
Say goodbye to the grass in Dustyland, soon Shannon (Dusty's gal pal) will completely remove every blade of grass and turn it into raw, Florida beach sand.
