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FRENCHIE FARM

Modern Homesteading & Sustainable Farming

in Chickens

Homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier

Thinking about starting a homestead, but concerned that it’s too much work? I’m sharing homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier. Don’t worry, goat owners. I’ll share goat shortcuts in a future post!

*All photos in this post are from Red Maple Photography*

Frenchie Farm Homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier

Homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier

When people learn that we have a homestead, one of the first questions we receive is “but isn’t it a lot of work?” The answer is a bit more complicated than a simple “yes” or “no.” Of course, homesteading adds a dimension that makes life more complicated. But are we spending multiple hours each day taking care of animals? Absolutely not. Over the past year+ of homesteading, we’ve figured out ways to save time (and money) in order to make our backyard farm run efficiently. As long as you take the time to adequately plan and set up your homestead, then you can drastically reduce the amount of time spent on chores. I’m sharing some homesteading shortcuts to make homesteading easier in this post!

CHICKENS: homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier

Once chickens reach adulthood, they’re ridiculously low maintenance. With the exception of needing someone to collect daily eggs and fill up the water bucket, we could easily leave our chickens for 1- 2 weeks. Yep, you read that right. Our chickens can easily sustain themselves for up to TWO WEEKS. How is that even possible? Let me explain with some homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier.

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Feeders

When we designed our homestead, we wanted to cut down on the amount of necessary daily chores. Does filling chicken feeders really take much time? Of course not, but if you can create multiple quick homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier, then your homestead will run more efficiently. Although we have 20 chickens, we rarely need to fill their feeders. Ben built DIY feeders out of PVC pipe that holds ** amount of food and grit. Every morning, I simply glance into the chicken run to double check if the feeders are full. During the warmer months, the chickens eat more bugs and don’t eat as much feed, so the feeders stay full for long periods of time. Our chickens eat more feed during the winter months, simply because there’s less bugs to eat.

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Water

You can purchase chicken waterers, but we prefer to make our own. Ben made our waterer out of a 5 gallon plastic bucket and automatic chicken water nipples. The large size allows us to fill up the water less frequently, but it’s super heavy to carry across the farm. (We don’t have water hookup next to the coop.) Again, no need to refill the water everyday, but I always double check that the bucket is full. Our girls obviously drink way more water during the summer months, so we fill up the water more frequently in summer than in the winter months. We use this heated 2 gallon poultry drinker when the weather gets below freezing. It’s smaller, but seeing as the chickens drink less water in winter, we still don’t need to refill it everyday.

Frenchie Farm Homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier

Automatic chicken coop door

If you’re going to splurge on one item for your chickens, then THIS IS IT. Seriously, this thing is a game changer. It saves you SO MUCH TIME. Hands down, it’s the best homesteading shortcut to make raising chickens easier.  Seeing as we have an automatic chicken coop door, we never need to let our chickens out in the morning or put them to bed at night. We simply set the door to open at a certain time every morning and close at a certain time every night.

If you choose to purchase this door, then remember that you will probably need to adjust the open/close time as the seasons change. For example, we typically set our door to close every night when the sun sets. Our chickens are trained to put themselves to bed every night, so we rarely check that everyone is in the coop. The automatic chicken coop door is also amazing if you’re planning to travel, because your girls can basically take care of themselves! Win win. (Our automatic coop door is no longer offered on Amazon, but this one has great reviews.)

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Deep litter method

Total transparency – I don’t clean out the coop. Our chicken coop is raised a few feet off the ground, so you basically need to climb inside to clean it. I’m happy to shovel goat poop for days, but rolling around in chicken poop is where I draw the line. I’m pretty much a recovering germ-freak, so my wonderful husband takes the lead on cleaning out the coop. We use the deep litter method, which means that we only need to clean out the coop every 3-4 months, Some people clean their coop once a year (or longer!), but that seems a bit intense for my liking.

We have a wood coop floor lined with roll out vinyl to make for easy clean up. To start the deep litter method, Ben adds a generous layer of pine shavings on the coop floor. When the pine shavings are covered with too much poop, then we add another layer of pine shavings. We’ll also sprinkle some Sweet PDZ in the coop when it needs a bit of freshening up. The frequency of adding the pine shavings varies. With the exception of nighttime and laying eggs, our girls rarely spend time in the coop. Less time in the coop+ less mess = less clean up. This homesteading shortcut definitely makes raising chickens easier!

Frenchie Farm Homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier

Homesteading shortcut safety tip – COOP CLEANING

When cleaning out the coop, it’s recommended to wear a respirator due to the dust from sweeping the coop. Ben already has a Hepa respirator for work, so he uses that. The Hepa respirator filters out super fine particles, so it’s a much safer option than simply wearing a mask. It might sound like a silly precaution, but you can potentially get super sick (especially if you have a dirt floor coop.) It’s not worth the risk, friends. I’m happy to share more information about this point if you have any questions.

Homesteading shortcuts to make raising chickens easier:

Do you have any other shortcuts? Let me know in the comments below.

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Colleen 🐐🐓🐶
Well, despite my denial, I suppose that it’s off Well, despite my denial, I suppose that it’s officially fall 🍁 I tend to hold onto summer time as long as possible, especially because the bitter cold winter months are brutal in Chicago. With that being said, I’m learning to appreciate all of the seasonal changes that naturally occur on the farm, even if they aren’t my favorite 😉 Early morning chores are filled with brisk air while fog covers the rising sun. It’s beautiful in its own unique way, and maybe one day I’ll love the changing seasons as much as I love the summer heat. Or maybe I’ll move somewhere warmer in another life, who knows 🤷🏼‍♀️
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Do you prefer the heat or cold fall days?
After such an emotional weekend, I woke up feel ex After such an emotional weekend, I woke up feel extra drained today. I wanted to press snooze when my alarm went off, but I decided to get up early for a quick workout and chores instead. And gosh, isn’t it crazy how those simple decisions turn your day around right from the start? Plus, seeing these boys run toward me every morning is simply the best.
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Today was hard. . . Today was processing day for o Today was hard.
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Today was processing day for our first round of meat chickens, and I’ve spent much of the last 24 hours crying. I said my good byes this morning, and I feel grateful for Ben taking care of the logistics. Does it get easier? Is it supposed to? I don’t know.
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I usually share the fun, light hearted parts of homesteading. This part just feels hard. And sad. And I feel a lot of guilt. I feel comforted by the life we gave to our birds, but also guilty that we’re the ones who took it away. 
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Homesteading is just really hard.
Tomorrow is the day that I’ve been dreading for Tomorrow is the day that I’ve been dreading for quite some time - processing day for our first ever round of meat chickens. As a previous vegan, I’m struggling. I’d be lying if I said that I’m not tearing up typing this, or that I didn’t tear up while walking by their pasture during chores tonight. This part is really hard.
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But here’s the thing - I don’t think “hard” is a bad thing. Actually, it’s a good thing. Because if we don’t have a level of guilt and appreciation for animals, then there’s something seriously wrong ... and that’s exactly what’s wrong with our current food supply system. 
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So I’ll continue to feel guilty, because I SHOULD. And I’ll continue to feel grateful, because I SHOULD. And I’ll continue to feel really sad knowing that I’m responsible for loss, because I SHOULD.
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And the second I lose sight of that guilt and gratitude? Well, that won’t happen. Trust me ❤️
Nope, that’s not my incredible white farmhouse, Nope, that’s not my incredible white farmhouse,  but maybe one day ours will looks similar! 🙌🏼 Have you met my friend Maddy over at @addisonfarmssc? We’ve been friends on these little squares for quite some time, and holy moly, she’s definitely #onetofollow ! 
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From her perfectly beautiful farmhouse to her darling farm with a major swoon worthy garden and beautiful horses, I’m just in love. Plus she’s the sweetest, so you should head over to her account and give her a follow! ❤️ Happy Friday, friends!
The face your LGD makes when the bucks try to flir The face your LGD makes when the bucks try to flirt and blubber at them 🤣 MOM?! HELP ME!
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Swipe to see the progression 🤣 These sweet boys are simply the most patient, yet ferocious pups around! What are your LGD’s like?
The moment you realize that you literally have the The moment you realize that you literally have the most handsome buck ever 🙌🏼 Chester is a rather refined buck - he prefers to stand majestically while the other two crazy boys do all sorts of weird things, including but not limited to, flaring their lips, blubbering, flirting, and drinking pee 🤢 What kind of questionable things do your bucks do?
Tomorrow marks our first (official) day of homesch Tomorrow marks our first (official) day of homeschool preschool, but when you live on a farm, aren’t you always “schooling” one way or the other anyway?
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Well before COVID, I started thinking about homeschooling our kids. I didn’t understand the reason for being drawn toward homeschooling, but now it all makes sense and feels like the perfect decision for our family. I’m loving how sweet and cozy this homeschool room feels, and I hope our little ones grow to love learning here too ❤️ I know some of you are homeschooling pros, so I would love to hear any tips!
When the new @beekman1802 Bloom Cream is incredibl When the new @beekman1802 Bloom Cream is incredibly moisturizing, formulated with goat milk, AND packed with probiotics, the goats can’t help but check it out! #ad 🐐 I’ve been using the newest Bloom Cream moisturizer for the past few weeks and I’ve been LOVING it! It’s an incredible mix of super hydrating, gentle, and light weight all mixed into one. Perfect way to re-hydrate after long days on the farm.
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@beekman1802 also recently launched at @ultabeauty, so it couldn’t be any more convenient to try out a few new clinically kind goat milk skincare products! Shop in store or online - you’ll thank me later 😉 What are some of your favorite skincare products? @beekman1802 @ultabeauty #beekmanblooms
Eggs, eggs, eggs! Between beautiful duck eggs and Eggs, eggs, eggs! Between beautiful duck eggs and rainbow chicken eggs - give me all the eggs 🙌🏼 We’re drowning in eggs, which means we have more than enough to share with our farm class friends during their final week of class. 
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So much to be grateful for, and so many scrambled eggs, frittatas, egg bakes, paleo pancakes, etc! What are some of your favorite ways to use up extra eggs?
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