Gary Reeder
We raise chickens. When eggs are $9 to $11 a dozen
Thursday, January 29, 2026, 16:52

we can actually make a buck or two. The problem is when it is 2 degrees outside you have to come up with some way to keep them alive. When we started with the chickens I built a small chicken house, 6 feet by 8 feet. That was all I needed for 15 chicks. I pretty much insulated it and put one of those radiator looking heaters in there. I ran heavy duty ext. cords and all seemed well. This was 25 years or more ago.
Then every time I went into the local feed store the owner would pull me aside to show me some new baby chicks, different breeds and such. Every kind of chicken there was I had 10 of them. Pretty soon my 10 chicks turned into 100 chicks. So I built a larger chicken house, 10 X 10. But I still had way too many. It got to be too much. We could make some money on them but it still was too much. We had green eggs, pink eggs, striped eggs, little eggs great big eggs and so on. Plus I had several ducks and they require a lot of water so I dug little concrete lined ponds. About this time I was going to Africa, Australia, Canada and so on pretty much every year and it was now 200 chickens on Colleen's shoulders. It was just too much. I ran ad ad and a fellow called and said I'll take all of them. I'll be right over.

He came over driving a Bronco. I asked him what was he going to carry them in. He said just put them in the Bronco. He ran the back window down about 15 inches. I would catch them one by one and give them to the guy. He crammed almost 200 chickens and ducks into his Bronco. They were sitting in every nook and cranny, on the seats , on the dashboard, on the steering wheel, everywhere. And he had about a 20 mile drive. So my chicken ranch was just way too much. This was about 15 years ago.
Then about 5 years ago I got the bug again and bought 20 chicks and made my chicken house a bit bigger, 10 X 20. I decided to stay with 20 chicks, no more. When the local feed store guy would call I let him know where he could stick those little chicks. I moved them back into the medium chicken house, had an electrician run me some correct wires and so on. But in 2 degree weather it takes more then just a red lamp or two. So more of the radiator style heaters, a couple of red lamps and the chicken seem to like it. I get at least 15 to 20 eggs a day from 20 chickens and no ducks (thank you Lord).
So all seems well. Then I came down with this ailment. It makes it a bit harder but nothing I can't handle. I reworked the medium size chicken house and turned the 10 X 20 chicken house, with new floors etc and turned it into a workshop. So all is well at the Reeder Chicken house....so far.