Another milestone has been achieved. The new summer hen house has a roof, which means it is now ready for occupancy. The roof has two layers. The under layer is mostly to keep light out so I made it out of scrap plywood of various widths. The unpainted surfaces were covered with the remainder of […]
New Pen – Hen House Roof Read More »
The base for the new summer hen house is now complete. And with that accomplishment, the birds are one step closer to greatly upgraded accommodation. This hen house is built with a new design meant to correct several of the shortcomings of past shelters. In the summer, the birds need protection from the rain, hail,
New Pen – Hen House Base Read More »
The first batch of spring chicks have reached the age when they are visibly bigger each time I come to feed them. More so than any past group of chicks that comes to memory, this group has rapidly outgrown the need for heat in the brooder room. My earlier concern about the difficulty of distinguishing
Moving Day Completed Read More »
The first batch of spring chicks are almost two weeks old, now. There are 10 True Green chicks, which should eventually lay green eggs, 7 Pearl White Leghorns, which should lay white eggs, one surprise chick, and 30 Big Red broiler chicks. Because we purchased a batch of layer chicks in the early winter, we
2026 Spring Chicks Read More »
The Rhode Island Red pullets are beginning to lay eggs! When a pullet transitions into hen-hood, her first eggs are often irregular in some way. A hen needs some practice before she manages the stable production of standard eggs. It is common for pullets to lay shelless eggs, eggless shells, asymmetrical eggs, yolkless eggs,
Until recently, I had been feeding the hens two scoops of pellets and two scoops of fermented grain, twice per day. That amount was determined over time. I began with the amount recommended by theory and modified it after patient experimentation. I watched them eat and added or reduced the amount until they did not
As in October, the air vent temperatures are following the general trend of the outdoor air, but with a welcome improvement. It is encouraging to find that the biomeiler continues to raise the temperature of the incoming air by approximately 50 F degrees even as the outdoor air temperatures continue to fall. The coop temperature
November Experimental Results Read More »
Today, while completing the chores, I noticed that the chicks are now all fully-feathered. There were a few who still had downy feathers on their heads even a few days ago, but, thankfully, they have ceased procrastinating. As the chicks have grown in size and their feather cover has improved, I have been reducing the
Chicks Fully Feathered Read More »
In early October, the outdoor air temperatures were low enough that it seemed prudent to reconfigure the ventilation system for the chicken coop. During the summer, the air was drawn from beneath the coop in order to cool the air as much as possible for the benefit of the birds. The ground beneath the
October Experimental Results Read More »
Ordinarily, we are disinclined to have young birds in the fall, but, this year, circumstances forced us to reconsider the matter. Our coop is divided into an 11’x11’ side and an 11’x4’ side. The larger side is where the hens and our single rooster live, cage-free. The external door opens to the smaller side of