Coop building first of a few classes on raising

Drills were buzzing and hammers were swinging as three teams of participants built their own chicken coop March 26-27 at Tillers International in Scotts.

This was the first of a few classes Tillers International will offer to teach area residents about raising, processing and cooking chickens.

"This is so awesome," said Barbara Jenness as her husband, Jim Hott, finished nailing on the steel roof of her coop. "I just love it."

Jenness and Hott own a goat dairy farm in Byron Center and want to add chickens so they can have their own farm fresh eggs.

"It would take a long time for me to learn this many things (about construction) if I were just to read about it," said Betty Hawkins of Kalamazoo.

The chicken coop they built is a two-story 68-inch by 42-inch by 64-inch "mansion" with an enclosed grazing area beneath the living space and a ramp for chickens to enter at night and keep them safe from predators. It also has a nesting box where the chickens lay eggs and an opening to retrieve them. The coop can hold up to six chickens.

"The design is a work in progress," said Dick Roosenberg, executive director of Tillers.

Roosenberg worked with Jack Gesmundo, president of the Tillers Board; Robert Burdick, Tillers construction coordinator; and volunteer Bill Brislen to build a test coop with a rounded roofline. They decided later to show participants how to build a coop with a gambrel roof that provides more space at the top instead. All four were at the workshop to assist participants at each step.

Students learned how to assemble the many parts for the coop, which had been pre-cut for time, space constraints in the woodshop and skill level of participants.

"There is an interest by urban, suburban and rural people in knowing where their food comes from," said Lori Evesque, education coordinator at Tillers. "We have learned that growing our own fruits and vegetables is one way to know this. The next logical step is to find a local farmer who raises chickens for meat or eggs and treats the birds in an ethical manner. For some people, the best way to do this is to raise them themselves."

In June, two other chicken classes will be offered at Tillers. One will focus on how to butcher chickens in a humane way.

It is not only for people who want to know how to do it, but it is also for people who want to have a better understanding of what goes into the process, Evesque said.

"It's all part of knowing where your food comes from."

The other class, "Everything But the Beak," will be taught by The Eclectic Kitchen's Channon Mondoux and Evesque. They will show students how to truss a chicken for roasting, properly cut it up and prepare a variety of dishes using the chicken's neck, skin, liver, kidney, heart, feet, and carcass.

"It's a shame when people don't know how to use as much of the chicken as possible. Not only does that save resources in hard economic times but it helps save some money by not relying on buying pre-cooked packaged meats," said Evesque.

A future chicken coop building class may be held this summer depending on how much interest there is.

Several municipalities have already cleared the way for keeping chickens in residential areas, said local attorney Suzanne Klein. These include Kalamazoo, Portage, Parchment, Oshtemo Township and Texas Township. Residents should check with their municipality for specific guidelines before deciding to raise their own chickens.