CHICKEN FURNITURE

I’ve sure enjoyed all the give and take on this in-house chicken discussion stimulated, as you know, by $100 million in venture capital to start up kitchen scrap dehydration and shipping to make into chicken feed.  Three chickens can be extremely happy in a 15 square foot terrarium, which is about the footprint of an easy chair.

One of our former apprentices, Micha Hammersky, who lives in Austria, is a faithful blog reader and used his computer skills to generate a mock-up to help visualize the idea.  Apparently the thing that’s hard to get right is the depth of the bedding, which should be 24 inches.  I envision a two-piece plan where once a year the top can be lifted off and you can dig out some of the carbonaceous diaper. That can be used for house plants, your garden, or given to a neighbor who has those.

Something like this can easily handle the chickens without maintenance for a week at a time if you have to be gone. The big “can’ts” have been dust, maintenance, and odor.  The carbon and a bit of lime, baking soda, soft rock phosphate or wood ashes eliminates odor—if you don’t believe it, come to Polyface for a visit and eat a sandwich in our hooophouse with 1,000 chickens.  The glass top contains any dust.  The maintenance is no more than a cat when you’re home and far less than a dog when you’re gone.  And you get eggs.

I’m delighted with the way this whole thread developed and had no idea when I did the initial blog that this could actually morph into THE HOTTEST PIECE OF FURNITURE IN AMERICA.  Who is ready to tackle this?  If I ever saw a spot for an entrepreneur, this is it.

What do you think?