| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Hens-R-Us |
Posted - Feb 13 2007 : 1:07:40 PM
Does anyone have plans or pictures of the insides of their hen houses they would be willing to share? I am looking for new ideas to redo a section of the barn to make a hen house. Especially interested in hen boxes. Nothing I come up with seems right, and the books I have seem to be more about looking good on the outside not what it makes to keep the girls happy.
Thanks
There is nothing better than a house full of happy hens. |
| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Love-in-a-Mist |
Posted - Feb 14 2007 : 6:49:59 PM
Those are both really great solutions. I'm going to try them. We have boards up high with about a 3 inch piece of wood nailed across the front. They like laying and roosting up there, but they always kick the straw off I place so lovingly around and it's hard to get the poop out from behind the 3 inch board. Thank you guys.
Farmgirl and mother of 2 |
| Phils Ann |
Posted - Feb 14 2007 : 2:34:57 PM
Di, I'm also extremely interested in the hen house, so am here legitimitely. Three cheers for your girls and their ability to "grow"!
Ann
There is a Redeemer. |
| DaisyFarm |
Posted - Feb 14 2007 : 09:43:45 AM
Lol! Thank you Ann! Actually, being a farmgirl was always in my heart and while I did the city things you do when you live in one, I always felt somewhat out of place. So we packed up 3 teenagers seven years ago with the promise that if they truly hated it, we would move back to the city. They were city girls, loved shopping and the malls and I really wanted to show them that there was more to life, something that, in my opinion, would make them far happier inside than a new pair of designer jeans! Without a blink of an eye, they fell in love with the lifestyle and the novelty really hasn't worn off for them.
Geez, this got off topic didn't it! Well they did help with building the hen house! :)
Di |
| babs |
Posted - Feb 14 2007 : 09:38:56 AM
I have one of those metal nest box units. You can pick them up at farm sales all over. But chickens are so weird. Most of mine prefer to sit in the 5 gallon pails I fill with grit, I figured why fight it? and added a layer of soft sand. You can scoop them like a cat box and the eggs stay really clean this way. The other girls that free range (truly free range and usually end up as hawk food but we need them for tick control) like to lay underneath the hay manger in the goat barn.
Out of all of them, only 1 lays in the nesting box.
Babs |
| Phils Ann |
Posted - Feb 14 2007 : 08:44:17 AM
Diane! I'm flabbergasted to think of you as a (past) city girl. I figured you'd been on a farm all your life--it seems so much a part of you. What a good role model
XO,
Ann
There is a Redeemer. |
| DaisyFarm |
Posted - Feb 13 2007 : 9:03:49 PM
We moved here seven years ago and everything we did was by the book. We were true city folk trying to be so sure to do everything right! I built the most beautiful rows of laying boxes, painted them...exact measurements off the floor, etc. etc. And you know what? Their most favorite place to lay is in a couple of old cardboard boxes sitting on the floor! When they get too dirty to just have fresh hay put in them, we burn them and put in a couple new ones.
But some of the gals do lay in the nest boxes. I just nailed a board horizontally across the front of the row of boxes, about 4" high. I've never had an egg hit the floor.
Diane |
| Love-in-a-Mist |
Posted - Feb 13 2007 : 8:13:19 PM
I have the same problem. I was wondering the best way to make them that would keep the eggs from falling, but would still be easy to clean the poop out?
Farmgirl and mother of 2 |
| happymama58 |
Posted - Feb 13 2007 : 1:13:36 PM
I don't have any that I can get my hands on -- they're somewhere in a box in the storage unit!  But my stuff all came from the Extension Office for the University of Missouri, and I've found that when I search online for stuff like this, there are various state university extension sites that have wonderful information, both online and things they will send to you.
Two states that stand out are (to me, at least) are Missouri and New Mexico.
Maybe that will help if nothing else turns up.
Some people search for happiness; others create it.
http://happymama58.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Please visit me at www.marykay.com/pmiinch |
