Raising chickens can be easy and virtually labor-free. Though we check on them and collect eggs daily, the amount of time I spend on raising chickens averages about 15 minutes per month. Watering and feeding the chickens only requires about five minutes per month. It doesn't get much easier than that.

Labor-free chicken rearing takes planning and preparation, but when done well it pays great dividends. I have much more time for gardening and other household projects.

There are three primary tasks that chicken farmers spend the most time on: feeding, watering, and cleaning. If you can make those tasks automatic, your labor time is virtually eliminated.

I started by designing an automatic chicken feeder. There are many commercial feeders on the market, but they can be costly, take up a lot of space, and require regular filling. I designed my chicken feeder to be part of the coop, taking up very little space. My chicken coop is built with the studs 24 inches on center; the gap between studs is perfect for a feeder.

I began with a simple wooden tray to fill the space at the bottom of the feeder. This tray extends beyond the studs by two inches and holds the chicken feed. Simple 1 x 4 pine is glued and nailed to make a sturdy box. I mounted the box between the studs at 12 inches above floor level; this a good height for a full-grown chicken.

To reduce labor even more, I cut a horizontal hole in the wall of the coop so I can fill the feeder from outside the coop; I don't have to go inside to feed the chickens. A 1 x 4 board on hinges acts as the door and bent sheet metal fills the gaps so I can pour the bag of chicken feed without it spilling everywhere.

To finish the feeder I covered the entire gap inside the coop with a sheet of plexiglass. I happened to have a sheet the correct size, but this is the most expensive piece for building the automatic chicken feeder if you have to buy it.

The automatic chicken feeder holds an entire 40-pound bag of chicken feed. Depending on how many chickens you have, this can give you many weeks between fillings. Fill it once and let the chickens eat when they're ready. Sure, they spill some of the feed when they eat, but they'll peck most of it up later. This type of feeder has an advantage over others because you can easily see when it needs refilling.

For an automatic water system I purchased chicken nipples to install in PVC tubing. There are two basic styles of chicken nipples. For one you drill a hole in the PVC pipe and screw in the nipples. My research found many customers not entirely satisfied with this type because of the potential for leaks. I went with the second type of chicken nipple which is a saddle type.

There are many companies selling both types of nipples in ranch stores and on the internet. For just a few dollars you can buy a bag of either type of chicken nipple and set up your automatic waterer.

For the saddle-type chicken nipple waterer, you drill a hole and snap the nipple in place. It's important that the hole in the PVC is perfectly cut. I found in my first effort that I chipped one edge of the hole by drilling too quickly and the chip caused a small water drip when the nipple was in place. When drilled and placed correctly there is no leaking.

The PVC pipe with the chicken nipples is attached to a bucket. I used a four-gallon, food-grade, plastic bucket that I got for free at the supermarket. The bakery department gets their frosting in these buckets and they'll gladly give away the empties.

I cut a hole in the coop wall big enough for the PVC pipe, with nipples on, and inserted the automatic waterer. The bucket is outside the coop so I can fill it without having to go inside the coop.

I also build an automatic chicken waterer for the run so my chickens have water when they're outside too. Two buckets, each with four gallons of water, lasts my chickens for weeks. I add ice on hot days and freshen the water every two weeks, but they could go much longer if necessary.

To make cleaning the coop easier I practice the "deep litter" method of managing the coop litter. The concept is to use pine shavings, or a similar organic material, as litter to help keep the chicken manure off the coop floor. As the manure builds, you add more litter. The chickens walk and scratch and mix the manure with the litter. This method only requires cleaning the coop once or twice a year.

I use pine shavings as my primary litter, but to help cut costs I also use coffee chaff. Coffee chaff is the leftover organic waste from roasting coffee. Many coffee roasters will gladly give you a bag of chaff. I find that the light chaff helps keep the litter dry by absorbing much of the manure moisture and helps it clump so it doesn’t stick to the floor.

Over time the litter and manure begin decomposing. When you're ready to clean the coop, after six months or so, you remove all of it and add it to the compost pile. The litter and manure, partially decomposed, will become compost in very little time.

I also made an automatic feeder for oyster shells. Oyster shells add calcium to the chicken diet and are good for layers. I used a 2-inch PVC pipe and cut a 1-inch cutout on one end. Then I attached a 4-inch PVC cap to that end with wood screws, after pre-drilling holes.

The cutout allows the oyster shells to spill out the bottom of the pipe, but they won't overflow the cap that is about 2-inches tall. A pipe 30 inches long will hold a 5-pound bag of oyster shells. That provides calcium for many weeks until filling again.

A couple holes drilled in the side of the pipe allow for mounting the feeder in the coop. First drill a hole bigger than the screw head, then drill a smaller hole the size of the screw shaft. This allows for the feeder to be slipped over a screw in the side of the coop and then fit snugly when the PVC slips over the screw.

I have the automatic chicken feeder, the automatic chicken waterer, and the automatic chicken oyster shell dispenser lined up on one wall of the coop. It's one-stop shopping for the chickens.

All were designed for mature chickens so I had to add steps while the chickens were young so they could reach everything. The little chickens figured it all out very quickly.

With the automatic feed and water systems and deep litter method, the chickens basically take care of themselves. For someone with little time but a desire to raise chickens, any or all of these can make raising chickens virtually maintenance-free.

I mentioned the chickens take about 15 minutes of my time per month. That's about three minutes for adding water to both buckets and two minutes for adding feed, though it really takes less than that. I spend about five minutes adding pine shavings or coffee chaff and swapping out clean newspaper under the roost. That leaves five minutes that I bank for coop cleaning later. At the six-month point I have 30 minutes accumulated for removing the litter and manure.

This amount of time is based on just a few chickens in a small coop and attached run. For larger flocks and bigger coops it will take more effort, but these automatic chicken methods should reduce labor when compared to traditional feeding, watering, and cleaning methods.

Deer soap works. I'm not talking about a big buck enjoying a nice, luxurious bath after getting all hot and sweaty, but rather using fragrant soap as a weapon in keeping deer away from the garden. Of course, as with any strategy of deterring these pesky animals, there are limitations to soap.

There is no foolproof method of repelling deer. Anything you see advertised or described as a deer repellent is overstating its effectiveness. At best a product can deter them. That's an important differentiation. When hungry enough, deer will eat plants they would normally avoid and will venture into areas that pose a threat. By making a garden less appealing, you hope to veer their wanderings in another direction. That's where deterrents come in.

Taste and smell deterrents are among the most common types used by gardeners. Making a plant taste bad or an area smell offensive to deer is a good tactic. It's like when you go to the city and walk along the street looking for a nice restaurant for dinner. You're more likely to stop and enjoy the fare of the doorway with aromas of fresh-baked bread and grilled meat than the one that reeks of sewer gas. But if choice is limited and you're hungry enough, you'll forgo the rancid odors for a hardy meal.

I have a deer problem and would prefer that they avoid my plants and look for more appealing meals so I experimented this year with soap as a smell deterrent; I also recruited fellow gardeners to help in the experiment. My wife makes custom, luxury soap and I asked her to make a batch using specific ingredients designed to maximize its effectiveness as a deer deterrent.

There are certain smells that are more offensive to deer than others. University of Nebraska studies showed that animal-based fats are more effective than natural oils so my deer soap is made with pig lard rather than the olive oil, coconut oil, and shea butter that my wife normally uses. Mint is a plant that often deters deer so part of the fragrance base of my custom soap is mint. The more odorous the soap the more effective it is, so the overall fragrance is amped up. The result is a soap that I can smell from a good distance which means deer will be unable to avoid the odor.

My research uncovered recommendations for placing soap from 18 inches (.5 meter) to 10 feet (3 meters) apart. Encouraged by persuasive university studies, I placed my deer soap from three to four feet apart (1 - 1.2 meter), hanging from a fence next to my sunflowers. Though sunflower is often listed as a plant that deer don't like, they love to nibble on my young plants. I varied the height of the soap from two feet (.6 meter) to four feet (1.2 meter) above the ground.

The effect was immediate. I lost no more young sunflower plants to deer in the areas I placed the deer deterrent soap. My friend Della reported similar results. The large deer population in her neighborhood regularly decimates her plants. Since placing the soap she hasn't lost any Clematis or Buckthorn, plants that are normally favorites of her deer.

My experiment also confirmed a limitation of soap as a deer deterrent. Deer are smart animals and will begin to learn that we're playing tricks on them. They begin to recognize that the surprising and offensive odor is now normal and part of the landscape. At about the six-week point, I noticed deer damage to plants at the periphery of my test area. The plants within a two-feet radius (.6 meter) of the soap bars were still untouched. I suspect that sun and rain have lessened the strength of the fragrance and that the weaker aroma is not as effective at the edges of the bed.

One solution is to switch to another smell deterrent before the deer get used to the old stuff. If a garden always smells "bad" with varying offensive aromas, it is more likely that the deer will pass by looking for a meal that is more appealing. I have more soap with different fragrance components to swap out for the earlier batch.

It is also a good idea to increase the number of soap bars and place them as close to the protected plants as possible. Smells diminish with distance so concentrating the odorous soap keeps the smell strong throughout the protected zone.

I had my soap custom made and it lasted a month and a half before losing its peak efficiency. Almost any fragrant soap will work as a deer deterrent. Many people have reported success with soaps like Ivory and Irish Spring. There are many other smell deterrents that work with varying results. Predator urine, human hair, citrus peels, and rotten eggs have all been shown to deter deer but lose their effectiveness after a good rain.

Soap lasts longer than many of these deterrents and doesn't need to be replaced as often. Varying the type of soap to introduce new smells is the best approach to keeping deer away.

Deer soap does pose a potential problem for gardeners. It can attract voles. When the soap dissolves in a rain, the ground beneath it becomes more appealing to voles. If you have a vole problem (I do) and live in a wet region (I don't) you may want to consider changing the location of the soap periodically so it doesn't build up on the soil and become an attractant to another garden pest. I haven't noticed any increase in vole tunnels near my test bed, but I haven't had very much rain.

I'm quite pleased with the results of my deer-deterrent experiment. Soap will continue to be a part of my arsenal in the battle against deer. It doesn't harm them in any way and it keeps my garden intact. While my soap is hung from a fence, hanging it directly from sturdy branches allows the same effectiveness to extend to fruit trees and decorative bushes and shrubs.

With enough soap the entire landscape can become a deterrent to deer.

Thinning plants in your vegetable garden can lead to bigger, better harvests. When plants are crowded with others they compete for water, sun, and nutrients and tend to be stunted and unproductive. When plants have plenty of room to grow they're more likely to perform well. Thinning plants also provides improved air circulation, helping reduce the likelihood of fungal diseases. Gardeners can give their plants the best chance for success by removing competition; this is thinning out the garden bed.

Thinning should not be confused with pruning. Pruning is the practice of removing branches and parts of a specific plant, thinning is removing the entire plant.

When you thin plants choose an appropriate method of removal. Small seedlings can be pulled from the ground. But be cognizant of nearby plants. If you yank one plant you may disturb the roots of its neighbor and effectively destroy both plants.
 
If plants are close together and you suspect pulling one of them will affect another, cut the plant to be thinned. Pruning shears or small scissors work well to cut the stem close to the ground. Cucumbers, beans, peas, squash, and melons have tender roots and are best thinned by cutting if the plants are anywhere near each other.

Plants that sit alone can be dug up with a trowel or shovel. Digging up a plant may provide the opportunity to transplant it to another location. I'll often thin out my flower beds and transplant the thinned seedlings to another part of the bed or pot them to be given away.

Thick groupings of plants like lettuce, spinach, and other greens can be thinned with a rake. When the plants are about an inch tall lightly drag a rake across the soil surface. The tines will remove some of the small plants while leaving others spaced apart.

When determining how to thin and how much space to provide, think about the final size of the plant.

Seed packets often provide guidance for thinning. A carrot seed packet says to thin to 1 to 3 inches; carrots are narrow and don't spread so you only need enough space for the big root to grow. An onion seed packet says to thin to 2 to 5 inches; onions grow bigger than carrots and need more room between them. Lettuce may need 8 or 10 inches, or more, depending on the size of the mature head.

Big, vining plants like squash take up a lot of garden space and thinning them enables the gardener to direct the growth. Thinning also controls the future harvest. I planted six zucchini seeds but I only want two plants; six plants would produce more zucchini than I could ever use while two is very manageable. The strongest, best-spaced plants remain.

Plants can be thinned at any stage of their life cycle, but it's most beneficial to do it when they're young. After the second set of true leaves emerges, seedlings are usually strong enough to survive. That's a good time to decide which ones stay and which ones go. Thinning small plants before they stunt the growth of a neighbor is better than waiting until after they become a problem.

You can delay thinning edible plants like lettuce, spinach, and beets until the leaves are big enough for a salad. Thin these out to give room for the remaining plants and then use them in the kitchen. Root crops like carrots, radishes, and turnips will be quite tasty when small; thin out these plants periodically at different sizes and eat them too.

I often conduct two phases of thinning. I'll remove seedlings before they stunt the growth of their neighbors and then wait a few weeks for the plants to get healthy and strong. Then I thin a second time to choose the strongest plants with the best spacing for the bed. This works particularly well for plants like squash and cucumbers when I want the biggest and healthiest plants headed into my short growing season.

It's best to thin in the early evening with the soil damp. Damp soil allows small plants to be pulled easily and the absence of harsh sun allows the remaining plants to get used to their new conditions before immediate exposure to heat and light. Watering well after thinning a bed also gives the remaining plants an extra boost along with their newfound spacing.

It's possible to plant a garden and never thin out anything. Sowing seeds and placing transplants with perfect spacing between them means you don't need to remove overcrowded plantings. This can work well for big seeds like pumpkins and plants like tomatoes and peppers. I place them in my garden where I want them and wait for the harvest. I sow my beans and peas in a perfectly spaced grid that allows them to grow up a trellis; their seeds are big and easy to place. Blocks of corn are planted with ideal spacing too.

Many other seeds like carrots, lettuce, onions, and spinach are sown randomly in rows and then thinned out after the plants emerge. The seeds are too small to place with exact measurement and it's easier to wait to thin after germination reveals which small plants need to be removed. Other seeds like beets are easy to place but multiple plants will emerge from a single seed and then need to be thinned.

Plants with bigger seeds like cucumbers, melons, and squash are often sown closer together than the final plants will be. Varying rates of germination, insect damage, and uneven sowing means some plants will start off better than others. It's common to plant six of these kind of seeds in a mound, get four or five that grow, and then reduce them to two or three plants. This allows you to choose the biggest and best plants for that garden area.

This year I planted many, many pickling cucumber seeds in a raised bed. I've had problems in the past with low germination rates, sun and hail damage, and insects eating seedlings. Extra attention by me, and gentle, warm weather resulted in more than 80 plants emerging. That's many more than that bed can support so about 75 percent need to be thinned out. The remaining 20 plants should provide plenty of cucumbers. Because they won't have to compete for water, sun, and nutrients, those 20 plants will produce more fruit than 80 overcrowded plants in the same space.

All of those seeds came from the same packet. Seed packets may provide dozens of seeds when you only need a handful of plants. Because seeds are only viable for one or two seasons it makes sense to plant many of them and select the ones you want after the plants begin to grow.

Emotionally, it can be difficult to thin out healthy plants. Most of us work hard to get our plants to grow and then we have to intentionally undo our labor. That's one reason I transplant the thinned out plants when I can. For those who are hesitant to thin, try an experiment. Thin half of a bed and let the other half grow as sown. At harvest or the end of the season, compare the two sections. Chances are the thinned half will be healthier and more productive.

When the thinned out plants find a place in the kitchen or compost pile you can gather solace by knowing that they served a purpose in the garden.

Like weeding, thinning is a necessary activity to keep garden plants healthy and productive. When done properly the beneficial results will be obvious.