New plan for chicken house

From: Karen Woodward (Karen_Woodward_at_comcast.net)
Date: 08/04/04 

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 10:41:06 -0700

Not sure I can call it a hen house as we may have more roosters than
hens....hmm.

Jill, you asked in a previous post about our weather here. I wanted to
research a little before responding. I knew we would get some overnight
freezes and some strong wind. I now know that those storms are called
Arctic Winds of up to 100 mph! Yikes! These storms come about every 5-10
years and can happen up to 6 times in a bad winter.

Historically, the power has gone out for up to 6 days. The city (we're on
the outskirts) was caught offguard without snowplows and has them now. The
lack of planning for snow plows tells me that these storms are infrequent,
but I'd rather not be caught unprepared.

Advice given from several sources has been to put insulation and a light
bulb in the pumphouse, so that need must be common enough.

So here's the new plan. A house within the barn. I need a space that I can
heat with a light, but how do I provide bedding without it being a fire
risk? Will a light really provide enough heat if it's up, safely away from
the bedding? If it drops well below freezing, should I have a way to close
the ventilation off if even for the coldest hours? If I hang a light near
the perches, will the nest boxes need heat too? Or do they just go there to
lay eggs, then go to the perch under the light? If it's that cold, they may
not want to go to the next boxes, or even be laying eggs at that point. So
far they like to pile together on the floor or up in the nest boxes because
these are closer to the light I have hanging in their "ark".

If they're used to standing on perches near a light to keep warm, what will
they do if the power goes out? Should I provide a nice raised floor area
for them to pile on? Now were back to the bedding being too close to the
light again...

I'm a nervous hen!

Relevant Pages

  • Re: nest boxes and chicken facilities.
    ... We use plastic wash basins for nest boxes, ... > the bachelor group doesn't sleep in the hen house. ... > chickens, and every one of them cost more than I wanted to spend. ... > I have three large barns that the chickens lounge in during the day. ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)
  • Re: Mucky eggs
    ... The hen house is cleaned every day, ... IME there are only a few ways to get mucky eggs. ... The nest boxes are not ... clean, the hens can get their feet dirty or their bottoms are are stuck up ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)