A POULTRY MINI-MANUAL
(Page 2 of 6)
Poultry books and pamphlets we consulted (including the
HAVE-MORE Plan in MOTHER NO. 2) suggest
that you order three times as many straight-run chicks as
you want laying hens. This allows for chicks that grow up
to be roosters, deaths or disablements from disease and the
hens that, for some reason, never lay. Since we figured
that twenty-five was a nice number of hens to start with,
we ordered 75 straight-run assorted heavy breeds at
15¢ per chick. We were told that they would be mailed
in about two weeks. Yes, mailed. In a cardboard
box.
RELATED CONTENT
Two weeks is plenty of time to get a chicken place ready.
The 24-acres we bought had, as outbuildings, only a shed
big enough for our three goats and a falling down two-story
house. We had already salvaged one room of the old house as
a painting studio so we decided we could salvage another
room for a chicken place.
The room we decided on had windows facing the north, west
and south. Chickens need a warm southern exposure in the
winter but they don't need drafts from the north so we cut
the north window down and made it into a door. Keith built
the door out of plywood and 2X4 scraps and it has a hinged
trapdoor at the bottom so that the main panel can be kept
closed in cold weather.
We covered the other two windows with chicken wire and
built outside shutters (to be closed in the winter) for the
one on the west. After covering several holes in the wall
with plywood scraps (to keep out rats and cats), we cleaned
and swept the place.
If you start chickens in an old chicken house, you'll have
to remove all old litter and dirt as there are a jillion
chicken diseases and the germs can hide a long time. Many
old farms have a little shed or building that was intended
for chicken brooding. You still gotta clean it out and it's
a good idea to hose the inside down or wet broom it all
over with a disinfectant. Watch out for the inevitable
wasps!
The next thing you'll need for your chicks is litter. You
have to put something down to absorb the chicken droppings
and keep the floor dry. The best litter we've found is
sawdust. We buy it from a saw mill for $1.25 a pickup load,
put down a little sand first and spread an inch or two of
sawdust evenly over the floor. As the litter becomes dirty,
we spread more sawdust on top. With this method, you clean
out the whole thing only twice a year and put it on your
garden or compost heap. While you're cleaning the chicken
house, of course, you concentrate on the beautiful
vegetables you'll harvest as a result.
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