Of chickens and chicken coops

We have been raising laying hens for a quite a few years. Their eggs go quickly at our Saturday farmers market; you have to get there early if you want to get some eggs! The accommodations at the old farm were far from luxurious. We heard that the chicken house there had been moved from a neighbor's property by previous owners. The chickens had a large fenced area to scratch in the dirt and hunt for bugs and were fed all the garden weeds and rotten tomatoes they could want in the summer; they seemed quite content.

Here's a picture of the chicken house at the old farm, taken last winter.

We started out this spring with 29 hens. As part of our sales contract, we agreed to leave 6 hens for the new owners. The settlement agent certainly got a chuckle out of that! So we moved 23 hens (and one nasty rooster) with us. At the new farm, there was a building up near the sheep barn at the top of the hill that appeared to have housed poultry in the past, so we pressed it into use.

Here is the "chicken shack" at the new farm.

Things were going fine for a few weeks, but then Greg started finding dead chickens when he fed the flock in the mornings, usually one or two a day. After the sixth dead hen, he counted the live ones that were left and found there were only eight. So nine chickens had disappeared all together! At that point we knew we had a predator problem, probably raccoons or weasels. It also became evident that we needed a more secure chicken house, maybe a little closer to the farmhouse this time.

In the meantime, we needed to stop the killing. There were a couple of rabbit hutches left behind on the farm, so the new routine became for Greg to catch the eight remaining hens (and the rooster) each night and hand carry them to the rabbit hutches to be put to bed. Each morning he would reverse the process, and put them back in the fenced enclosure by the old chicken shack for the day. As you can imagine, this grew old fast!

Neither Greg or I are at all handy, so building a new chicken house is beyond our skills. Thank goodness for friends and family! My brother drew up some plans and his friend Donnie brought all his tools. After a supply run to Home Depot with Greg (and his credit card), construction started on the new chicken house.

In the meantime, we needed to build the flock back up. Our local feed store sells Sex-Sal-Link started pullets one day each fall, so we placed our order for 30 new hens. Sex-Sal-Link are a hybrid breed that lays brown eggs. I think of started pullets as the teenagers of the chicken world, no longer baby chicks but not quite ready to start laying eggs.

Now we had a timing issue. Chicken pick-up day was October 2nd, but the new chicken house wasn't finished. How could we keep the new girls safe? We looked around the farm, and decided to use a tool shed as temporary chicken housing.

The temporary chicken house, with it's former contents piled outside.

The new chicken house is almost done.

Interior view. The nesting box will be hung on the wall.

Front view, chicken door on the left, people door on the right.

Separate feed storage area.

The chickens certainly have a nice view.

At last, on the Columbus day holiday, the chicken house was ready for habitation. We added some electric mesh fencing and turned everyone loose.

The (almost) finished product and some happy hens.

Everyone checks out the new digs.

The nasty rooster gives me the evil eye through the fence.

We still need to build some roosts and hang the nesting box, and my brother is in the process right now of adding some corner trim, but I deem the new chicken house a huge success. In another month or two the new hens should start laying, and egg production will be back in full swing!