A Moving Fertilizer Factory

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Garden and Yard

Building both fixed chicken pens. By John Vivian

You can shelter chickens in anything that offers protection form the elements, is night-predator-proof, provides shelter form winter drafts and good ventilation at same time, and—most crucial—supplies shade and airflow to protect the birds from summer heat.

I’ve built hen quarters into corners of barns and in sheds and shacks of several designs and vintages, and I’ve seen them kept in 50-gallon ail drums, derelict autos, hollow logs, elegant gazebos, sections of galvanized road conduit, an ancient beached lobster boat, and on the back porch of more than one mountain home.

In her later years my great-aunt Mame kept her two favorite laying hens in the old homestead’s log house during the winter. They shared the cats a nest box in the corner behind the old wood-burning range and a swinging-hatch door into the woodshed and barn and on outside. As Mame elegantly showed, eccentricities are one of the underappreciated luxuries of age.

To keep your own layers and breeding stock content while cooped up during the winter, you’ll want to provide each 4 square feet of floor space and a good 2 square feet of above-floor roosting area.

Roosts

Chickens feel safest roosting at night on an easily gripped tree-branch substitute: a 2- to 3-inch-wide rough pole or board located a foot or more above the floor. Roosts must be firmly fastened so they won't roll when several heavy birds jump/fly up on them and rustle around to find a comfortable sleeping position.

Put in enough roost that each bird will have a good linear foot to call its own. You can use a single long roosting board or (better in cold climates, so birds can dump together) arrange shorter roosts in a rising tier, each board a foot away from the others in height and lateral distance.

Droppings will accumulate more heavily under the roosts, so you can reduce cleaning chores by building a tray under the roosting area that can be pulled out and cleaned every few weeks.

Size

With a family-size over-wintering flock of a dozen hens and three roosters, you'll need 15 linear feet of roost in 90 square feet of floor area. That's a henhouse 10 feet square or, more convenient to move and to build from standard plywood and 2-by lumber: 8 by 12 feet. The latter can be built from 16 sheets of plywood, #26, 2 x 4s and $10 worth of door hardware and poultry wire for $200 and change.

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