Chicken Bath

It's been an unusually mild winter here, the say. El Nino has seen to that. And yet, the months of snow and cold have stretched out as slowly as they can. I'm just impatient, that's all. 

In the Fall we prepared a place in the shed (make that, set up a huge cage that takes all the space in our shed) for the Hens. I didn't want them to have to endure the ferocity of winter in their Little Yellow Hen House and I knew that the amount of snowfall would make it difficult / impossible to access them. So, into the shed they went. We made it as comfortable as we could. Straw bales, roosts, heated waterer, nesting spaces. We got mats for the floor so their little toes wouldn't freeze on the cold concrete and put a heater in there to raise the temperature just a little, - oh, and a thermometer to check the temperature in there several times a day. (We're just a teeny bit doting).

Well, it worked! The chickens have survived! They've thrived! On the less cold days, we open the shed door to let in sunlight and fresh air. Two of them, Dolly and Henrietta moulted in the Fall, and stopped laying. They took a well-deserved break and in January as daylight increased they started laying again. Good little Hens! We love our fresh eggs every day! And one thing we know they love is their bath! A wheelbarrow containing sand, ash and diatomaceous earth serves as their favourite entertainment and essential grooming station. The dust flies as three contented Hens enjoy splashing about. It's funny, when one Hen goes in, they all pile in together. I just sit there, on the garden chair, and smile at them. 

The Hen House, aka, "Cluckingham Palace"

This is it, the very long post that I've been working on, literally, for several months. The Hen House reveal! Warning... this is a long one. You read below that I started work on the Hen House back in April. Well, the short version is that we now have three happy hens in a bright and Happy Hen House and on most days we get two eggs between them!

Ha! I can do this! I said. I built a workbench, how hard can a chicken coop be? Ya, right! It was a mighty challenge, especially with little building skills. But hey, I have watched so much HGTV that I felt that DIY skills had infused my system. There were a few tears, but mostly there was triumph, one little step at a time. 

My drawings...

The initial plan - modified a few times during the build

The Hen House would be 5' wide, 4' high (excluding the roof) and 3' deep. The whole thing stands over 6' from the ground to the top of the roof. The wood and wire panels would be 3'x5' each and would be assembled together piece by piece also allowing relatively easy extensions as time goes on.

I don't have fancy tools but I'm grateful for my various saws! I need a second cordless drill/driver, - the electric one is very heavy after a while.

I am VERY worried about how my little Hens will survive the bitter winters here (Southern Manitoba!!) Winter temperatures regularly plummet below -30C sometimes with a windchill of -40C. Most of the time we're hovering between -12C and -25C (normal winter temps). I insulated the Hen House and roof with thick blocks of styrofoam. I'm still worried.

I was very excited to get to the painting stage. I chose a lovely egg-yolky yellow outside and white inside. 

I was very pleased with how the run panels turned out! I took inspiration for them from here. Oh, I have to say that I collected lots of ideas and made several boards on Pinterest. Lots of clever people out there - thank you! I used concrete deck blocks to hold the legs of the Hen House. Levelling those little babies was not the easiest thing I've ever done... The other very hard thing in this whole project was getting the roof right. Blimey! My calculations were out and I made a few mistakes, but thankfully I was able to work with them. 

Yay! Then came Chicken-day! Peggy and I went to the Poultry Auction in Beausejour (MB) on 2nd May. It was a hairy affair for me and I was anxious for all the poor creatures in their cages. But I was determined to be a big girl and come home with some hens. I waved my bidding card around and after paying much more money than I should have we came home with Isobel (Plymouth Barred Rock), Dolly (Columbian Rock) and Henrietta (Ameraucana). No I didn't know their ages, their past or their story...but I was so damn keen and I was determined to make it work. I did really want four hens, (still do) but I was happy to come home with three that day! We made a temporary home for the hens in our Growing Room. We separated them from each other but soon enough they were all in one compartment and did not seem to want to kill each other...all was well. 

We had some roof shingles left over from when they built our house. Really glad to get them used! Let me say, insulating and finishing the inside of the roof was probably the most awkward and difficult job (there were some tears). 

After doing alot of research I decided to put sand in the House. It's so easy to clean. I mix some diatomaceous earth with the sand to keep the coop bug free and the sand nice and dry. The heat was really on for me to get the Hen House complete... they were stuck in our Growing Room and our plants were all over the place. 

Moving day was a delight! The little hens seemed to know exactly what to do! They went up and down their ladder and soon found the nest boxes to lay their eggs. I put a roost in the house and one in the run. 

Since the initial build I have made two major alterations to the run... The first run was "L-shaped". I have no idea why. It was awkward. I reconfigured the shape to a square and it was immediately altogether better. Each panel is screwed to the other and attached to the house. I stapled hardware cloth to the top to prevent predators from coming in and I also placed heavy-duty plastic on the "roof" of the run to keep it dry. I put wire panels under the house as well to give the hens a bit more outside space. It turns out that they love to have little naps under the house. 

The nest box works really well. It has a little lock on it so cannot be accidentally opened by little racoon fingers. I put paving blocks around the Hen House to help contain some of the mud when it is wet. We have black sticky mud here! When the inside of the run is damp I put some fresh straw down to make it easier for the Hens. 

The second alteration of the run included an extension. I built more panels and attached them. The run space is now 6'x9' plus the space under the house, 3'x5'. I will make it bigger as time progresses. We also had another project...putting up a three-bin compost area. We used fence-posts and boards to create a large contained composting site. We also did significant landscaping in the area, - laying down crushed rock over an underlay to keep down the mud and neaten up the whole area. The Hen House gets some lovely sun, and when needed the shade from the many Oak trees provides well-needed relief. 

After re-laying the paving stones around the Hen House along with edging the whole place looks much neater. I placed some pots of flowers and herbs around the house along with some night lights. I am delighted with the result and ever so proud that I managed to build this all by myself. I got some (expensive) transparent corrugated roofing to place over the run to keep it nice and dry. I am also happy to say that the roof of the house is leak-free. It works for us! The house is well ventilated and insulated. I'm still worried for winter but our little Hens will be brought back into our nice Growing Room as soon as the temperatures get too bad. We do all we can to keep our little Hens happy!

Chicken Mania

We have to have chickens. How can we live in the country and not have chickens? Urban chickens may still be against the law in many Canadian Cities but we are in the country where chickens are supposed to live. We have always wanted chickens but haven't quite got round to it yet but this could be the year. Actually Suzanna wants chickens more than I do but please don't tell her that........

Plans are afoot. We are spending endless hours discussing where to put the hen house (palace). It's not easy.....there is very little flat ground in/on our yard ("Yard" is Canadian for garden and surrounds of the house. "Garden" is Canadian for a veg patch  This can get very confusing for little me, especially as a yard to me is a farm yard, a lumber yard or a builder's yard or three feet)

We finally took last year's recycling to the appropriate place and so freed up the trailer for a trip to the lumber yard and bought the timber for the chicken house, coop or hen house as I prefer to call it. Plans are not only afoot but they are also sort of down on paper as I follow in my Father's and my Grandfather's inspiring footsteps. They drew up plans for ships and houses and never anything as humble as a hen house but I am a late starter.








Suzanna has started construction and at the time of writing we have a upside down floor and legs in the garage and concrete blocks where it will go. Yes one of the concrete blocks is broken.....it bounced off the trailer on the gravel road and broke in bits. It was so heavy I thought it would be fine on the trailer but yes it bounced off! Luckily no-one was behind us.


We have already bought a rooster.
He is black and white with a bright red comb and feet and he is very beautiful and very quiet. That's the way we like our roosters. He is also a bit static..I cannot say wooden as he is metallic.  However he stands as a challenge to us to get the hen house and run done very soon so we can get some chickens.....

The names of the chickens will be Isobel, Harriet and Henrietta with a fourth one whose name eludes me just at the moment. They will be speckeldy and very winter hardy.

Please do say: "How is the Hen house coming on?"
Don't say:"Are you raising chickens for food?"