Funny Farm Do-Overs

We are in year two here, and I have a laundry list of things I would like to do a bit differently or wish I could do differently.

First on my list is the chicken coop. A minor issue is that I wish the coop had an overhang on the front. There is no real reason for this other than I think it would have looked more aesthetically pleasing. I had the overhang in my head, but didn't have a plan on how to build one, so it got left off. Second, I am not quite happy with the roost. The lower roosts are too close so that any birds that get stuck below usually end up getting crapped on during the night. Third, nesting boxes that are accessible from the outside would have been nice. And finally, the roof...

The roof is hardly the lush coop top I envisioned. The biggest problem is probably that I didn't have a good watering system in place... Perhaps a soaker hose with an extension hanging down so that I could more easily water would have not have resulted in the pathetic plant life that is currently struggling to survive up there. Another problem was that the soil we put up there could hardly be called soil. It was just the cheapest bagged stuff we could find, and I'm not too sure what sort of plant life can really survive in it. On top of all that, I have erosion problems. When it does rain or is watered, the soil that isn't held in place by a root system (which happens to be most of it) is carried off by the water so that in places it has completely worn away.

To address the issue of erosion, I am thinking about installing several strip of wood (or something) across the top to help check the erosion. Then I need to get a better mix of actual soil up there, install the soaker hose, and plant some annuals to help stabilize the soil while the perennial plants get better established.

Next on my list: the chickens. I love having a handful of chickens roaming the farm. I don't love having 20 or 30 chickens crowding me every time I walk outside. If I want to be in the business of selling some eggs and raising our own meat birds, I have to figure out something that will still work and make me happier. Does it entail building bigger, portable chicken tractors that would require daily moving? Or maybe a coop located in the center of different chicken yards I can rotate them through so they can always have good pasture? The first idea requires a bit more daily work, the second requires a lot of space dedicated to the chickens, and both would require some money to change the way I'm doing things. Maybe there are other ideas out there, and if any one has one, please let me know. How about chickens on picket lines? That would be funny. And disastrous.

There's more on my laundry list, but this is enough to think about for now.