Fresh Eggs From Your Own Hens
(Page 2 of 4)
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
Many writers tell you any old building is suitable for poultry. But any old building and any old kind of equipment often result in a damp, drafty henhouse - probably ending up with your flock not laying and possibly getting sick.
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A separate henhouse, or space in your small all-purpose barn, or a re modelled shed which gives 4-5 square feet of floor area per bird is needed. For a dozen hens a house 7' x 8' or thereabouts is satisfactory. The building should face south and permit plenty of sun deep into the building during winter. The house should be well-ventilated, but not drafty. Recent experiments show that it is better to give hens almost no air at all than have them exposed to a draft. Twenty hens give off a gallon of water per day - draft-free ventilation will keep this moisture from being absorbed in litter, doing away with frequent removal of same. With proper draft-free ventilation, you can put litter down in the fall, add more as needed during the winter, fork over weekly, and you should not have to change litter until spring. Then, old litter is used on the garden. But if litter becomes damp, change it right away.
Crushed sugar cane is excellent litter, deep straw or peanut shells are also good - all make good garden mulches. To obtain draft-free ventilation have windows in south only, and have them open in from the top, or hang regular double-window sash that can be regulated top and bottom.
The foundation of the house can be of concrete, which is best, or double-wooden floor with building paper and rat-proof wire between floors.
Interior
As for the interior of the chicken house, at the rear provide a dropping board 3 to 4 feet off the floor perhaps across the width of the house. Six to eight inches above the dropping board on supports, run a one-inch mesh wire. Provide roosts above wire, a foot apart. Allow 10 inches of roost per bird. The wire between roost and dropping board keeps hens clean and saves the eggs laid from the roost.
Nests - while they can be orange crates set a foot or so off the floor at the side of the house should have a piece of ordinary corrugated carton cut to cover the bottom, then straw or excelsior for nesting material. The corrugated cardboard saves many an egg from breaking, and if an egg should become broken or the nest become messy cleaning is simply a matter of removing the cardboard. Provide a nest for each 5 hens.
Also buy a good waterer - preferably one that has a kerosene or electric heater to keep water from freezing in winter. Get one large enough - our 20 hens drink about two gallons of water a day.
Your State Agricultural College will send you free building plans for a backyard laying house. You can get plans to build a mash and feed hopper from your local lumber man. But it's practically as cheap to buy a hopper from Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward or one of the poultry supply companies. The hopper should be well off the floor with a feeding platform that keeps feed clean and saves waste. Set the hopper and the water in the middle of the floor so that the birds can get the feed easily. (See diagram),
