EP 25 Rob The Chicken Coop Builder

On Today's episode I sat down with Mr. Rob, The Chicken Coop Builder. The man behind Wilma The Wonder Hen's chicken village. He's a man of few words and the reason why chicken math is exploding over here on the Heifer Farm. Listen in as his shares some of the most important tips when building your own chicken coops. I hope he'll return for more in-depth interviews.

*This was a remote interview at a job site, so there's a little background noise. We apologize in advance.

You can follow Wilma:
https://blog.wilmathewonderhen.com

Transcript

Mel: Hey friends, welcome back we are so honored to have you with us today.  Today’s guest is a pretty special guest, we say that quite often. But today we get it we get to hear from Mr. Mel himself! Hello Robert, how are you today!

 Rob: I’m good, how are you?

Me: We are so honored to have you here today! Are you excited for your interview?

Me: Do you have much to say about my chicken keeping adventures I’m sure you do! It’s a lot of work.

Mel: I  think that our listeners and  followers probably know very little about you. I do mention you when they ask about who built this or who got it. It always goes back to Mr. Wilma, which is Robert, so can you tell us a little bit about your story, Robert?

Rob: Well, I’m 52 and have lived on a farm pretty much all my life. I grew up with livestock, cattle, horses, pretty much everything.  I’m gonna go on different times about goats chickens ducks geese and when you house livestock you have to build a lot of housing for the livestock so that’s pretty much how I learned to do a lot of the things that I do for the Chickens around here.

Mel: So, tell us what you do for a living?

Rob:  I have a remodeling company, pretty much anything somebody needs we try to help them out with.

Mel: you do have experience, you have experience and building things so that it has rolled over into my chicken keeping dreams you’ve helped me come true out here?

Rob: Yeah I do have building experience.  I’ve been a construction pretty much all my life is the one form or trade, that is a lotta time in multiple trades, as I do now. 

Mel: So what do you think about all these chickens that we have out here?

Rob: Well to be honest I don't get involved with the chickens when I need it or when something is going on in helping out. My work schedule is pretty heavy and that’s why.  Mel does take care of most of it, but I enjoy getting out and helping her when I can.

Mel: You have built some pretty amazing things out here and help out there, you’ve made a lot of things that I asked for and I request,  different little upgrades and things and you do seem pretty eager to help us! We do appreciate that.  We probably don’t tell you enough. So, we’re gonna just say it on this podcast once and for all so we don’t have to tell you anymore. So,  do you have some chicken Keeping tips for our listeners? Are there things that you did when you were keeping chickens that maybe you see me do that it’s just completely different?

Rob: Yeah, when we had chickens, they were more on the side of the livestock. You know food and eggs. You need to keep the critters out of them and try to keep them safeThey were self taken care of with V them and stuff we never did free range much because of all the critters it and everybody gone nobody could be around here to keep an hour or so you will head to keep them panda but most of my experience outside of a few of the chickens are raised was pretty much for food source so do you have a funny story that you can share with us about some of your chickens like maybe your rooster I know you have a funny story about the little rooster that with her go jogging with you yeah I have the well I was in high school I had a yeah well actually it was probably my last couple years of grade school 7-8th grade.  My grandfather gave me a pair of feather legged bannies and their names were Romeo and Juliet!

Rob: Every Morning at 4 o’clock they’d be under my bedroom window and crow. So, we’d get up and I'd go run and then those chickens would run with me.  The rooster always thought he was a gigantic guy. He’d  tried to whoop  all the other roosters.  But usually it didn’t turn out so well. But he’d give  it a shot anyway. But  they were kind of a reddish colored Chicken and it was just him and her, and I kept them until they passed on. 

Mel: Going back to when you had chickens, so that you know you do have experience back then and you watch me  for many years. So what kind of tips would you give a first time chicken keeper? What do you think you’re the most important things and this is based on how you know you’ve built the buildings that we have now.  What would you say are some of the most important steps?

Rob:  I’ll start with some other construction aspects. In my line of work out,  I have a lot of repurpose stuff left over from jobs so a lot of our buildings and coops that are here are actually made from repurposed materials. You know I have a piece of plywood here and a few boards there. We’ve torn down and we convert the decking material into coops  and runs. but you definitely want to keep your ground section of your run down or try to eliminate things from digging under.  Foxes are awesome little diggers and I suggest you put wire over the top if you have one that's feasible or small enough. I’ve lots of experience with hunting predators. so I have a pretty good idea.  so I don’t have to keep them out and worry about like weatherproofing where are you want to place you know keep it dry,  keep it condition to where your livestock your poultry, where it stays dry and has a good place to roost in and you don’t have mold buildup and you know so many times people just take a corn crib or something growing up but why are around and chicken and roast any where should I stay dry and roost fine. so for the most part they were safe but you get your smaller coops and stuff and they tend to build up feces and stuff in them. It’s a lot , so you have to clean them out and keep it healthy like you do with your chickens and that’s a lot of work 

Mel: Amen hallelujah,  lotta work! So do you enjoy listening to me complain when I have so many chores to do.  I have a new chick or I want new chickens? 

Rob: No, I don't complain. You know your chickens are like my hunting dogs!  I don’t have a problem with you have a number I know you have issues  health issues and everything has to be looked after and that’s just part of keeping livestock you have to deal with whatever comes along and when you have animals that are cared for whenever they have problems you have to take care of the problems.

Mel: Like when I take Coconut to the vet or when I take a Webbles to the vet!! He really doesn’t complain. He is very gracious and he is very sweet and understanding and we do appreciate Mr. Wilma Rob my hillbilly engineer .I don’t think we could do all that we do without him. He is the backbone of our operation here.  You’ve got any other tips for us,  got any other things you like to share? Which one would you consider your favorite chicken that we have in our flock?

Rob: Well..

 Mel: I won’t tell Wilma that you didn’t say her!

Rob:  I think you have a Lotta pretty chickens. I don’t know if I have any. well I wouldn't pick one over the other and be honest but I do tend to like the feather leg ones. Those breeds probably better than any of them.

Mel: Do you ever get mad or upset that I have so many chickens?

Rob: No, I don’t get mad about you having many chickens.

Mel: So does that mean I can have as many as I want?

Rob: Yeah, we just have to build more coops.

Mel: What’s the number one thing I complain about the most?

Rob: Probably that you need to condense coops.

Mel: Yeah well, l I don’t have everything put together. I have flocks here  and flocks there. 

Rob: But you can't always do it when you have different species of chickens ,different breeds and multiple roosters. Not everyone is going to get along but other times I go fine but you just have to be able to separate them. People take chickens and they want to make pets out of them. but they’re like any other type of animal. They're not gonna get along all the time.

Mel: This is very true, the pecking order is a very very crazy thing. Any last minute tips? You got anything to say, do you have anything for our listeners?

Rob: It’s been an honor, and if I can answer any questions you may have, I’d be happy to help anyone. Just let us know!

Mel:  And this is why he is the nice one in this group, he really is the most soft-spoken and just joyful thing in the whole wide world! which is a good thing because he is married to me!

Mel: Also,  if you have not heard Coconut did go to the veterinarian this week. She had a double ear infection and I needed antibiotics and some medication and we had quite a few messages of how I knew she had an ear infection. Most people never heard that chickens can get ear infections and they can.  It can be fungus or it can be bacterial . which is what coconuts' case was. I noticed that she was moving a little slower than normal and if you’ve listened in before we know you know that we are, do you know spend a lot of time with your birds and this is how you can pick up those little hints that something is not right. she was moving slow she just wasn’t acting herself so I scooped her up and we did a chicken check up I checked it over real good I didn’t notice anything out of place that you would typically Thank is out of place but I didn’t notice that one of her ears was a little swollen in upon further inspection they were both infected so I did flush them out pretty good with saline water and after that we went because I need to know if it’s fungus or bacterial but obviously from the past you know we would’ve seen it was bacterial and she is now receiving injections twice a day she’s not happy with me she’s doing quite well and hopefully she will he work without any issues.

Mel: Lastly I just wanted to give an update on the Holler Gang community! We’re almost finished and we did have some things in the background that we had a work out or almost done. I will give you a way to sign up and be able to view our policies. We do have a few policies because we want it to be a safe space for everybody so those are finalized and pretty soon we will have everyone directed towards that. And you can sign up and we would love to have you! We plan on doing game night and talent night,  and yes we’re gonna talk about chickens! but I want it just to be a fun place, even if it’s for a few minutes once a week! Just to come and be yourself and be a part of a community, and we are so honored so until next time bye y’all!