Free Range Chicken,

Free Range Chicken, keeping of chicken that runs freely. Some call it Day range chicken, as we keep them in the coop during night.
The question now is whether the Chicken came first, of the Egg came first? For us the Rooster King and two mother hens came first. We brought these three chickens to our farm and let it runs freely since last year. The mother hens laid some eggs and hatched them. Unfortunately only one survived till now, and had grown up. The high mortality rate was due to our inexperience and rough geographical conditions. Predators also contributed as this is a newly developing area.

The second batch, we did better, as we are more aware of predators like eagles, owls, wild cats and etc. Also we had kept two dogs now, which helps too. They had also found refuge in our storage hut. Eight chicks survived and grew healthily. The mother hens looks after them constantly.

We had also built some shelters for them, and it offers more protection too. This were 'simply' built, with no plans and drawings or measurements. We keep the young chicks in the coop for night protection. We have plans to increase the numbers and had identified an area to built a bigger coop. Construction shall commence latter.

The eight chicks had grown, three cocks and five hens. We are transferring these to Parcel 4, to start a Free Range Chicken farm. The chicks has to be separated from the mother hen so as to promote faster laying of eggs. The mother hen shall delay laying new eggs if she needs to tend to her chicks.

Constructing a chicken coop on Parcel 4. It also double up as a temporary generator room. Its about 16 feet by 16 feet, to carter more for the measurement of the zinc roof. This was built close to the trees so as to keep it cool during the day. We have plans to built another coop for young chicks.

With the generator in, and the holder for the diesel fuel. An opening was left at the rear for better ventilation of the exhaust. The height at the rear is too short and I keep bumping onto the roof thrust. Have to built higher the next time. The generator is kind of loud too, wonder if it'll affect the chickens.

Finishing off the rear. Since we have some 1X2" lying around, shall just use these to fence up. Note that we do not cut the wood to size, we simply use / reuse what we have / what we can laid our hands on.

Taking a tea break, after a morning's work. Our helper's children came along too this morning. Had some fried noodle.

Making and mounting the door is tough. Had to re-do as one of the frame broke. Mounting was also difficult as we do not have the proper tools and ad forgotten to make the allowance for the hinge. Wasted lots of time to re-do the hinge.

Decided to separate the generator with a divider to reduce the exhaust sound to the chicken. The generator only runs a couple of hours a nite, until electric supply is available. Hope the chicken wouldn't mid too much. Put a thick layer of rice husk on the floor. Fixed up some wood for the chicken to stand.

View from the door. Found some discarded metal bed. Used it as a fence for the lower portion, exhaust.

We're done. The side view of our 'simply built' chicken coop. Still need to do up the drainage as the coop is located at the end of a slight gradient land.

Our new tenant just moved in. We only managed 7 chickens at the moment as one "escaped" while transferring to the box. Shall leave it maybe for the next trip. These chickens seem to love the rice husk and they just takes it on as food. They immediately start scratching for food. Problem when feeding as the corn get 'lost' in the husk. Found a container to house the corn, but their scratching over turned it. Watering is also another problem. Shifted the feeding and water container to the generator side that has now husk.

Rooster King and one of the consorts, still in Parcel 1. He has 4 consorts now. Let's hope that he works hard. This is a tough guy as when rushing for food with the dogs, it pecks the dogs paw until it bleeds. The 2 dogs is rather afraid of him. Dogs eats corn too.

Four eggs now, more to come. Hope that we'll have more chicks to start a new colony soon. We are trying to duplicate these free range chicken into our other Parcel if successful.







Now we shall be able to monitor the temperature and humidity of our coming brooder.

We have some other chicken from the house. Shall most probably shift these to Parcel 4 to increase the strength of our colony. With a strong colony, it shall propagate at a faster rate. Note the pigeon at the back ground. We are also toying with the idea of raring free range pigeon for meat. Planning for a pigeon coop / lofts.