Join Anguss as he updates us on the construction of our chicken coop style, utilizing space above Conex boxes. He also shares the progress on our addition of laying hens, broiler birds, and turkeys. Subscribe now and join our thriving community on the Thrivers app for exclusive daily content.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Barn Overview
2:00 Coop
4:29 Breeds of Poultry
6:33 The Thrivers Community
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
Good morning. We are here at Miss Lynette’s off grid property, and we’re down here in the barn this morning, and we wanted to give you guys an update on the progress of our addition of laying hens, as well as our brooding, or excuse me, our broiler birds and our turkeys. We also wanted to give you a little sneak peek at the construction of the new chicken coop style that we’re coming up with. And a couple of the little features that we’re adding to it. So if you wanna come on up, we’ll take a look at what we have.
If you think that the world is headed in a direction that makes you a bit concern for the future, and you’d like to be as self-sufficient and independent as possible, then you’ve come to the right place. My name is Lynette Zang. Now it’s time to go Beyond Gold and Silver.
The barn is pre-constructed to us arriving on the property, and this is what we had to begin with. It’s a SIPPS panel, which is OSB lined styrofoam insulation. It’s got quite a bit of R value. This building stays really warm in the winter. We have winter issues, so nonetheless, it’s maybe not exactly what we would’ve done if we would’ve started the project ourselves, but being that it was already here in existing, we’re definitely wanting to utilize it. And this is kind of the path that we took. The foundation is constructed of Conex or sea container boxes, and a above them was a lot of kind of wasted space that we didn’t really have much use for. So we decided to put the chicken coops in above the Conex boxes. Eventually we’ll have two sides to where we have a laying side and a meat producing side, or a broiler side, but for now, everybody’s all together and this is what we’ve come up with so far.
So a couple things I just wanted to mention really quickly. First and foremost is these birds at brooding stage all started out, they’re all the same age. They’ve all been on the same feed ration, and they were all the same size initially. So, you know, specifically with the different breeds or species of the chickens, you can really identify that people have bred different breeds into specific characteristics. You know, these broiler birds are definitely not very suitable for a laying condition. And again just the flip side, the laying birds do not seem to, they’re not gonna finish out on a a plate very nicely. Anyways. We chose to utilize alfalfa hay as our bedding material. It works really well for absorbing moisture. It keeps the odor down. It’s really friendly for the birds. They enjoy eating on it, and it’s actually a great source of nutrients as well as bedding.
We utilize some scrap lumber that we had laying around to construct some nesting boxes. And whenever we get the birds to an appropriate size that we’re gonna raise them all up to an even height across the, the coop. And from that point we’ll also have their meat birds out of there by then. The other cool thing about these birds is this is the first time that we’ve done what is called a straight run versus pullets. And pullets are sext birds, which are specifically intended for primarily like laying purposes as to where a straight run you do have the opportunity to get ahold of a rooster. And we’re looking to definitely come up with a couple of them. We have one, two that I can see right here, but both of our turkeys are females. We got, we were only six weeks into these guys. And like this bird right here, that’s a dane. Easy, easy, Oh, chicklet, you’re okay. They’re a big fat bird.
So what we have here are broiler birds, our Cornish cross, which is a, a hybrid breed that’s specifically been bred for broiler purposes. And as you can see, well the, I believe, to my knowledge, they’re the most common broiler breed that’s on the market today. And hence, due to the fact of their conversion ratio, they can really put the feed into meat production. The other laying birds that we went with are, again, leghorn layers. They’re definitely not the friendliest bird in the barn. They don’t necessarily get along the best with others. Especially if you have like your, your Easter Eggers, your buffingtons some of your prettier birds. These leghorns can be kind of armory towards them. They definitely don’t play well with others. The reason that we’ve chosen to continue forward with these guys is that the nine girls that we have that are currently laying are leghorn layers. And so that these guys should be able to integrate easily into their flock. And also their amazing layers. We’re getting on average out of nine birds 13 to 15 eggs per day. And, and I think that’s pretty substantial on a consistent basis. They made it almost entirely through the winter laying. We only went through about a 75 day spell where they, they weren’t laying, but as soon as we had some longer days, they picked right back up again. They’re very hardy, both in the cold and in the heat. And they’re just a really great bird if you are looking to just get egg production. They have a great life cycle. And again, you know, they’re very easy to care for. Very hardy I think a great choice when you are production minded.
All right guys, well, I hope this video helped. I hope you guys enjoyed the update to see the progression of our birds and the process that we’re taking here. Please stay tuned for future updates. Look forward to processing videos and information coming soon. We will be very shortly heading into that step of the pro process with our broiler birds. Please, if you guys are looking for more, get on our Thrivers app community and plug into that. And we have exclusive daily content. Really are looking forward to joining you there as well. But for now, I bid you well. Please be safe.
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