Design Variety Into Your Farm

So after I get the goats set up in their new home and after I finish installing the fencing I need to keep them in I will have to immediately turn my attention to building a chicken coop. I don't have much money, nor do I want to spend much money, but I do want to create a home for my hens that will be both beautiful and functional.

Here are a few really nice chicken coops I've found on the interwebs, but I want more ideas, I have been particularly interested in trying to craft a fiber chicken coop out of bamboo and sturdy vine fibers.



1. Coop on a stick, I've seen several variations on this theme and it is quite charming especially for the backyard chuke enthuiast. Seems quite nice for certain types of varmit control as well.

2. I call this one the "Foghorn Leghorn" coop, it reminds of the old  Warner Brother cartoons, though I'm not sure why.

3. This coop has a green roof which will keep it cooler in the summer and bring in yummy bugs for your chukes to gnosh on.

4. The outhouse coop, this is a charming design for your backyard or urban plot.

5. "Rustic" Not really sure about this one, but I like how cobbled together from natural materials it is, this kind of work CAN BE both functional and gorgeous.

6. The "Noog" pure ellegance.

7. The "Garden Club" this one is super simple, very clean and wonderfully bright. How many garden club members have chicken coops at their back porches?

8. Finally, I call this one the "Mayberry" I like the idea of a whole chicken farm made up of little tiny replicas of town dwellings, you could even make one that looks like a train at the station.


Do you have a coop already that is your pride and joy, send us a picture in the comments, or better yet, what would your dream coop look like? Draw us up some plans and send them our way.

Heirloom Seed Gift From Vermont

My good friend Suzy just gifted me some seeds from her farm in Vermont. Among the magick beans are blood orange seeds, which may or may not work outside at Brewton's latitude, but probably will do just fine in containers with the aid of the green house in the winter. I also received; Jacob Cattle Beans, Rattle Snake Poll Beans and Vermont Cranberry Beans.

Zizania Aquatica In Wetland Remediation?

Bog on north side, remediation target.

BunnyGoat Farm has a small wetland, a long narrow pond that is roughly 2 acres and about 4 to 5 ft at it's deepest. The floor of the pond is mainly mud and tree debris, I'm not sure about what kinds of subsurface plants that may be on the bottom currently. The wetlands current incarnation is no older than 5 years, created after hurricane Ivan swept through the farm and destroyed a forest and small spring fed woodland bog environment leaving a large field and pool of standing mud. The pond was dug out and a dam built on the south side. Till now the pond has been grazed and enjoyed by a herd of on average about 40 cows (the farm in general has been overgrazed by cattle for quite a while.) The north side of the pond is a bog that completely dries out in the summer months. The edges of the entire wetland have been grazed and trampled down by cows so that no vegetation grows, there is soil erosion occurring as well.

I need a selection of non-invasive native grasses and plants for small wetland management. I've been looking into Zizania aquatica, a native North American wild rice, which is good for aquatic bird populations. What are some others that I could use to balance my pond and make its water and shorelines happier and healthier? 

Suggestions are always appreciated.