Chapter Two: Hen Houses

In this chapter you will learn:

Before you become the next Frank Perdue and raise millions of chickens annually, you need to start at the beginning with just one henhouse.  Now if in the previous chapter you did your planning, this is going to be fairly easy, if not it will be a disaster.

You have decided on the number of animals you will be raising, so it is time to give them a home to live on.  Their house is called a henhouse and this requires some planning as to where on your land you are placing it.  So if you followed the plan in chapter one, you have got a good general grasp of the area for the henhouse.

The next question to be answered build from scratch, build a knockdown, (Prepackaged), or have a finished one shipped in.  If you decide to build from scratch, you need to make a plan as to its layout.  This would include where on the inside ceiling to locate fans and heat lamps, (For when the weather gets too hot or too cold, (All of which can kill your chickens)).  You would also need to give the chickens a walkway as the henhouse is to be built on stilts.  You also need to devise some sort of trap door mechanism so you can easily get to the eggs and to clean out the hen house and lay down fresh bedding.  The floor will need some sort of tile so that the wastes of the chickens do not rot the wood and make it easier to clean, and some ventilation as chicken manure will give off some heat and very definitely some smells. You also need to make sure that your local chicken lovers from coyotes to wolves to neighborhood dogs do not have an easy way in and that you can lock down the house in case of bad weather.

Knockdowns or prepackaged henhouses are very popular in that everything is planned out, they are usually have some decorative value and locations for cooling and heating are included, (Though you still have to run out you own power). Most websites dedicated to raising chickens have some advertisement of these and the pre-manufactured ones and it is simply a matter of plugging in the number of chickens you want to raise and the price you are willing to pay and you will have a henhouse.  Finished models are just that all made for you.  All you need is to run power out to them, (Or use some solar panels on the roof to make power), and lay a foundation and instant henhouse. Now a variation on this is the mobile henhouse.  This is a henhouse that you move every couple of days so that the chickens get some fresh grass to munch on, but more importantly they fertilize your area. Solar power with a battery inverter system is a great way to make power for your buildings and do not need an extensive electrical wire run.

Now every day, (Or possibly several times a day), you are going to need to get the eggs out of the henhouse, and more importantly provide fresh water and bedding and to clean out the waste.  Now one of the most obvious is to lift the roof up in some way and get the eggs or had a side being able to slide out allowing you access to the eggs and to do the cleanout. Failure to do this cleanout and you will soon have sick or dead chickens. 

You need to run or generate electricity to your henhouse as there needs to be fans and heat lamps to keep the temperature moderate. Now this power can come from a simple heavy duty extension cord or if you really want to live off the grid, solar with battery storage and a voltage regulator.  The panels could be located on the roof of the henhouse or on stands in the chicken run to give the chickens some extra shade.

Chickens create waste from urine to feces.  These need to be removed daily from your henhouse.  You can spread directly on your yard, or let them age in a compost bin and use them as a high nitrogen fertilizer for your garden. To do this you will need to sweep or shovel out all of the bedding material not involved in the nest, sanitize the floor with a combination of chlorine bleach and water know as a Dakin’s solution to kill any bacteria and then laying down new bedding or straw if needed. The bedding material is just wood shavings not having cedar in them put in the nests.  Cedar is not used as an oil in it can irritate your chickens and they refuse to lay any eggs. Newspaper while on the surface is a good idea, (After all it works for the dog), is actually a bad idea as chicken urine just promotes mold.