Purpose
It is my purpose to make available to the world, the Kiefer Sustainable Chicken Coop and related practices for raising chickens and rabbits.
The Kiefer Sustainable Chicken Coop has demonstrated over the decades its unique value in providing a healthy, safe, and productive life for chickens, while increasing the quality of life for families.
Hi! I’m ‘Papa John’ Kiefer.
At 83, I developed this website, with the help of my granddaughter, Angela, so that I could share my knowledge and wisdom with you. Now 89, I continue to enjoy the gifts of fresh eggs, while my rabbits and pigeons provide meat for the table.
The Story of the Kiefer Sustainable Coop.
In the early 1940’s, I grew up in the countryside, near what is now Stanford University in California. With a French mother, grandmother, and a German father, our family included a variety of poultry, a large vegetable garden, a fruit orchard, and a vineyard for making wine. It was still a time of model T fords, outhouses, and dirt roads. A joyous childhood was mine, as I internalized growing our own food, and living in balance with nature. The sustainable chicken environment that I grew up with, which my grandparents brought from France, had been used in Europe for centuries.
A Kiefer Sustainable Coop
In 1957-58, in my early twenties, I traveled through 15 countries in Central and South America in search of the ‘Holy Grail’. A constant companion throughout my journey were the ubiquitous ‘jungle fowl’, otherwise called chickens, as they ran loose through the villages and fields. Day to day I came to understand the life of this creature that plays such an important role in the nutritional health of humanity. Chickens taught me how, what, and where they ate, exercised, slept, bathed, and laid eggs. Also, how important they are as a part of the family, and their special connection with children. They did not live in coops, and therefore there was no unpleasant odor, nor any cleaning required. Theirs is a long-term, healthy living environment, which Webster defines as ‘sustainable.’
Moving to Lafayette, California in 1966 and enjoying raising our children, it was time to reintroduce chickens to our family, with rabbits and pigeons to follow. Now was the time to develop a sustainable environment for our chickens that was accounted for the limited space of residential, suburban living.
1st iteration of the Kiefer Sustainable Coop comes to life –
Starting with all of the features of healthy living from my South American experience, adding a few concepts from an ecology professor, I incorporated them all into a contained structure. Voila! The 1st Kiefer Sustainable Coop. The principles are straight forward, the design is simple, and construction is easy. The chickens are healthy, happy, productive and safe from all predators, in a living environment that mimics what they’d experience if living in the wild.
Affirmations
“Thanks go to you, Papa John. You are a local treasure.”
“Papa John, Your just being an advocate of practicality and what makes sense in this millenuem speaks volume . I’m consider myself lucky to know a person in your stature. Love you , “MAN”.”
As Featured In
Since 2010, John has been teaching chicken workshops to the public, as well as working with city officials to update poultry regulations of housing chickens in residential environments. You'll find a few of our past featured articles below.
Papa John Celebrates 1,000th Student at Chicken Workshop - Lamorinda Weekly, 2019
Power to the Poultry: Bay Area backyard chicken coops are all the rage - The Mercury News, 2015
Moraga Looks at Legalizing Backyard Chickens - East Bay Times, 2015
Want to See an Odor-Free and Maintenance Free Chicken Coop? - Lamorinda Weekly, 2014
Chicken Workshop Sold Out - Lamorinda Weekly, 2010