Chicken House Tips

Reader Contribution by Cindy Conner
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If you are building a new chicken house or remodeling the one you have, you might want incorporate some of the features that I have. Our chicken house is a very old building that only had three sides left when we moved here. On the side that was missing (to the left of the picture) I built a lean-to that housed the rabbits our son had for a 4-H project. We haven’t had rabbits here for many years, but the cages are still there if we wanted to delve back into that project. They overhang the outside chicken run. The chickens would scratch through the rabbit droppings, leaving finished compost, with little odor, for us to shovel out.

The rabbits were tended from the “feed room” in the chicken house, which is what you see in the photo.

Originally, this 10’x12’ shed was one room. It was built to house chickens and most likely, was used as a brooder at one time, since there is evidence of having a stovepipe through the roof, which would have been for the heater. The south side that was missing might have contained windows. Having a space for feed (which is stored in the galvanized garbage cans) within the structure keeps things from not being spread all over the farm for this activity. I keep organic whole grains in those cans, grinding enough feed mix for a few days at a time, keeping it fresh. The mix I use is 60% corn, 20% oats, and 20% wheat. The hens have access to much of our property to balance out the rest of their needs. This mix doesn’t contain enough protein for baby chicks, so I add worms to their ration.

In the photo you see one door, but there is a second one, just beside it. There are two doors because the chicken living area can be divided into two individual spaces. There is a removable panel at the bottom of the divider. Whether it is baby chicks I need to separate or a few hens that need to be by themselves, I can readily put in the divider and have two spaces. The outside run areas for those spaces are separated, also, but could be combined by keeping the gates open.

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