Welcome to the Chicken Palace.

Early spring is the season for farm improvements. Late spring is full of sowing and transplanting. During the summer, there's time to do little else but harvest and weed. And the fall is mostly about harvesting and then, with what energy remains, cleaning up the farm and preparing it for winter. But in the early spring, there's both the time and the energy to build things.

 The past week's big project was a new, semi-permanent chicken brooder.

Farm members who've been around for a couple of seasons may recall seeing the crazy doghouse/deer blind/icefishing shanty that Michael bolts to his pickup and calls a truck cap, and that he built for overflow from the farm's produce trailer. Last year, the number of farm shares at the Fulton Street pickup tested even that limit, and he had to rent a large panel van a few times. So over the winter, he bought a big snub-nosed delivery truck with an insulated box and a reefer unit, and the doghouse became obsolete. Hence the idea to repurpose it into a deluxe chicken brooder.

And deluxe it is. Concrete block foundation. Twin screened side vents. Secondhand computer-regulated climate control. It even has a dutch door. The chicks ought to be quite happy. Aaron (seen at right giving the joint two thumbs up) will be overseeing much of the animal operations this year, which will include two or three rounds of new chickens -- one for eggs, the rest for meat. 

I think we're all pleased with how the brooder turned out. It still needs a final coat of paint (as well as an official name, though "The Chicken Palace" is the working title), but it's fundamentally finished. And none too soon, since the first batch of chicks is due to arrive next Tuesday.

Next on the construction docket is putting the finishing touches on the farm's new, larger produce cooler.