A Moving Fertilizer Factory

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With a tier of three roosts at each end, the 8 x 12 basic coop will house an added 25 young replacement laying hens and meat birds once weather moderates enough that birds can get out on freerange or into a fenced yard for most of the day.

Furniture

A gravity feeder and vacuum water font will service a flock for up to a week. It is best to place feeders on a low platform so hens can't kick litter into the lip. In winter, place a plug-in heater under the water font to keep water thawed.

Hens lay best in a single dark nest box that can accommodate two or more birds at one time. The higher it is, the better they like it. Over the feeder and water font, I build a nest box that is a yard long, 18 inches deep and high, with a sharply sloped roof, a single access hole, and a full-width landing board in front. Most hens will fly up to lay, though I provide a ramp from floor to opening for those inclined to be pedestrians.

The back of the nest is left open—but facing a hatch built into the back of the house. That way I can open the hatch and collect eggs and service feeder and water beneath the nest box at one time, but not have to enter the pen.

A full-height door or easily removed access panel is needed to give you periodic access to the house for cleaning.

The birds will need a door in front; I rig an up-and-down sliding door over a foot-square opening. It is operated by a rope on a pulley, so I can open it in the morning and close it at night without entering house or run.

The house will need a fenced run at the front. I run poultry wire around saplings hammered several inches into the soil. Bend the lower foot of 6-foot-high wire out horizontal at ground level and predators can't burrow in.

The Chicken-Powered Tiller

There is a better way to raise pullets and meat birds for the one or two months they spend in full-time eating between end of brooding and the time that cockerels and excess young hens go into the freezer and replacement laying hens go into the larger winter house. That is to construct one or more light-weight, open-bottom mobile houses to use as free-range shelters or as chicken-powered tillers. See the illustration labeled "Chicken-tiller."

You don't raise meat birds or layers to full size under this system, so they only need 3 square feet of floor space for rainy indoor days: 3 square feet apiece for 12 birds = 36 square feet, a shelter that is 6' x 6' or 4' x 8' in area.

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