Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens (20 page)

This roost is made from 2” × 4” boards with rounded edges, mounted for easy cleaning, and spaced 18” apart over a raised platform surrounded by wire mesh to keep chickens from picking in their droppings.

STEP-STAIR PERCHES

If roosting space is at a premium, step-stair the perches and space them 12” apart.

The perch for regular-size chickens should be about 2 inches (5 cm) across, and for bantams no less than 1 inch (2.5 cm). Allow 8 inches (20 cm) of perching space for each chicken, 10 inches (25 cm) for the larger breeds.

If one perch doesn’t offer enough roosting space for your number of birds, install additional roosts. Place them 2 feet (0.6 m) above the floor and at least 18 inches (45 cm) from the nearest parallel wall, and space them 18 inches apart. If floor space is limited, install roosts in stair-step fashion 12 inches (30 cm) apart vertically and horizontally, so chickens can easily hop from lower to higher rungs. Either way, make perches readily removable so the droppings below can be cleared away easily.

Hens like to lay eggs in dark, out-of-the-way places. Nest boxes encourage them to lay their eggs where you can find them and where the eggs will stay clean and unbroken. You can furnish a large flock with a community nest, offering a minimum of 9 square feet (0.8 sq m) per 100 hens. But any nest large enough to accommodate more than one hen at a time invariably leads to broken eggs. I much prefer individual nests.

Furnish one nest for every four to five hens in your flock. A good size for Leghorn-size layers is 12 inches wide by 14 inches high by 12 inches deep (30 by 35 by 30 cm). For heavier breeds, make nests 14 inches wide by 14 inches high by 12 inches deep (35 by 35 by 30 cm); for bantams, 10 inches wide by 12 inches high by 10 inches deep (25 by 30 by 25 cm).

A rail just below the entrance to the nest gives hens a place to land before entering. Make sure the rail isn’t so close to the nest that a chicken roosting on it will fill the nest with droppings. For most chickens the rail should be no closer than 8 inches (20 cm) from the edge of the nest.

Exterior nests increase floor space and are easy to maintain from outside the coop.

NEST BOXES ON SHELVES

Nest boxes on shelves provide darkened entrances at the back and can easily be cleaned by sliding each box off its shelf. Don’t place more than four nests per box.

A 4-inch (10 cm) sill along the bottom edge of each nest prevents eggs from rolling out and holds in nesting material. Pad each nest with soft clean litter and change it as often as necessary to keep eggs clean and unbroken. Exactly how often a nest needs cleaning depends on how messy your chickens are: Do they deposit poop while sleeping in the nests at night or hiding in them during the day? Do they track in mud on their feet? Do thin-shelled eggs get broken and mess up the litter? — these and other management issues influence how often the litter must be changed.

Place nests on the ground until your pullets get accustomed to using them, then raise the nests 18 to 20 inches (45 to 50 cm) off the ground by setting them on a platform or firmly attaching them to the wall. Raised nests discourage chickens from scratching in them and dirtying or breaking eggs. Further discourage nonlaying activity by placing nests on the darkest wall of your coop or shielding the nests from light.

This three-level hutch includes everything a chicken needs to be safe and comfortable.

A 45-degree sloped roof above the nests will keep birds from roosting on top. Better yet, build nests to jut outside the coop, and provide egg-gathering access from outside. The advantages to this situation are that the chickens won’t be able to roost on top of the nests, they’ll have more floor space indoors, and you’ll be able to collect eggs without disturbing your flock.

An alternative design for darkened nests that are easy to clean calls for placing a long bottomless nest box on a shelf. Partition the inside of the box into a series of nesting cubicles, with entrances facing the wall. Allow an 8-inch (20 cm) gap between the wall and the entrances so hens can walk along the shelf at the back; with this plan, chickens won’t be inclined to roost overnight with their rear ends hanging into the nests. Slope the top of the box away from the wall to prevent roosting on top, and add a drop panel at the front for egg collection. To clean these nests, first check to make sure no eggs or hens are inside, then pull the box off the shelf and the nesting material will fall out.

Ready-built wooden or metal nests are available from a number of sources. Do an Internet keyword search for “chicken nests.” Even if you don’t plan to buy your nests, you’ll get lots of ideas for building your own. If your flock consists of a few pet chickens, a small animal carrier makes a handy, and easy-to-clean, ready-built nest.

Any small enclosure used for confining chickens, strictly speaking, is a cage, and that includes hutches, arks, converted playhouses, and other small coops that keep
chickens in close confinement. The industrial practice of caging commercial laying hens has given caged housing a bad name. Commercial laying hens are caged to control their diet and guard them against diseases, predators, and the weather. Layer cages have no nests but are designed with sloping wire floors so eggs roll to the outside, where they remain clean and easy to collect. The hens are allotted so little space they can scarcely turn around and must have the tips of their beaks cut off so they won’t eat each other. Anyone who loves chickens abhors this type of caged confinement.

By contrast, a fellow I once visited housed his chickens by ones, twos, and threes in outdoor hutches. Every day he released birds from one hutch to wander freely for a while, then put them back and released those in the next hutch. Barring bad weather, each bird had at least half an hour on the ground daily, more on days when the fellow worked in his yard or garden. When each bird’s time was up, the fellow easily picked it up and lifted it back into its cage — no frantic chasing and catching involved. His birds were the calmest, most well-adjusted chickens I’ve ever seen.

Chickens may be caged for any number of reasons. Exhibition birds are caged while being trained and conditioned for the showroom and to control breeding. Breeder cocks may be caged to keep them from fighting with one another or defeathering hens. In such a case the cocks might be rotated so each has a turn running with the hens. A defeathered hen might be caged until her feathers grow back. A mother hen might be penned up with her chicks to protect them from cats and other predators. Urban and suburban pet chickens are commonly caged in fancy landscaped hutches to keep them from annoying the neighbors or being eaten by a dog. A pop hole and ladder might be added to let the chickens out while the owner works around the yard.

Caging chickens can be less expensive than building a chicken shelter from scratch, especially if the cages are enclosed within an existing structure. When I raised exhibition bantams I scoured the classified section of the local newspaper until I located a rabbitry that was going out of business. For next to nothing I picked up all the cages I needed and modified them to be more spacious. I housed my bantams in pairs and trios in our garage, where I could control their diet for peak health and be sure their valuable eggs would not be hidden, soiled, or stolen by predators. The birds were easily protected from predators, since I closed the garage door at night so raccoons or vagrant dogs couldn’t get under the cages and bite off their feet. On nice days the cages could be moved easily into the yard to let the bantams snack on fresh vegetation through the bottom wire.

Those cages were set up on concrete blocks at each corner, so the droppings fell underneath for easy cleaning. Later we built an outdoor hutch consisting of a row of cages elevated on stout legs and with a shed roof as protection from sun, wind, and rain. From the happy sounds I heard while working in the yard, those chickens were as content as can be.

Cages may be set on sturdy wooden frames, hung from rafters, or attached to the wall. Today I have four all-purpose cages that get frequent temporary use, clipped to the wall with sturdy picture hangers. In the summer we hang them outdoors in the shade of the barn’s eaves; in winter we hang them inside the warm barn.

Heavy breeds should never be housed on wire, and no chicken should be kept on suspended wire as permanent full-time housing. If you need to keep mature chickens caged, make the floor of batten boards or of solid plywood covered with bedding or at least provide resting pads, such as those made for rabbits.

Chickens housed together in a cage must get along, since a chicken that’s bullied would have nowhere to get away. Modifications — adding a sunporch, making the unit multileveled, and providing a dust-bathing area — create a variety of environments where birds can get away from each other and avoid getting bored or bullied.