Ms. Rapp said the jail’s garden produced so many tomatoes the first year that her staff made and froze tomato sauce. They had “terrific” raspberries this year that were mixed with other fruit for fruit salad.
Police said that officers responded to the scene around 8 a.m. Thursday. The chickens had been attacked but officers are not clear on the source of the attack. The chickens, which had been housed behind an electric fence, are described as medium sized and reddish in color. A portion of the fence had been trampled. Police are investigating to see if dogs or some sort of wild animal perhaps was the perpetrator.
The Basalt Town Council decided in a split decision to let Riffle keep her hens even though she constructed a coop in the backyard of her home despite being told not to by the town code enforcement officer. Riffle lives on Sopris Drive, one of the main residential areas of “Old Town” Basalt.
As community work program coordinator for the sheriff’s office, Deputy Jim Seaman’s salary is covered by a Community Development Block Grant. He oversees the work program that allows nonviolent offenders to volunteer to work in the jail’s garden as well as out in the community — mowing county lawns, trimming around headstones at township cemeteries, and similar chores. In exchange for their work, inmates get time shaved off their sentences.
Because the jail’s 1.5-acre garden at times produces more than the jail can handle, he said the sheriff’s office donated about 375 pounds of produce to local food pantries and soup kitchens last year. It hopes to increase its storage space soon, though, with the donation of a walk-in cooler that will be situated outside the jail kitchen, Deputy Seaman said.
Riffle said her “lovely ladies” should start laying eggs in about four months. She invested in them because she believes in raising and growing her own food, and to educate kids and adults about small-scale farming.
Incoming search terms:
- cages for small chicken
- small chicken coop
- chicken coops for sale
- pvc chicken tractor plans
- town chicken coop
- fruit garden plan
- chicken coop blueprints download
- chicken coup
- chook coop run size
- small chicken shed for sale
- small chicken coup
- pallet chicken coop plans
- mixed chickens in a coop
- hoop chicken tractor pictures
- chicken houses
- chicken pens
- hen coup