Keeping Chickens Newsletter

Jerry : Our chicken house is 8ft by 8ft. Attached to one side is a chicken pen that the back side and end are covered as well as the roof. The South side has a clear plastic greenhouse sheet to let the sun in. On the other side is a 30 X 50 ft plastic covered greenhouse we use as a cold frame and storage. In between the greenhouse and the chicken house is a 2 foot tunnel so the chickens can go into the big greenhouse to scratch and enjoy the sun. The waterers are heated dog bowls as the little bantam chickens can't get into the deep heated water bucket and sometimes the heat can't get to the top and it gets ice on it.

We take warmed buckets of water for the old 14 year old blind goose to dip in. I put a 100 watt light bulb under a trash can lid over one end of the roost and they take turns warming up. I leave the light on all the time for them. The feeder is always full and we add scratch grains AND, we buy a head of cabbage and a loaf of cheap bread once a week and they love the treats.

So far this winter, we always get 7 eggs a day up to 12 a day from 16 chickens every day. They haven't stopped laying one day yet. A farmer I have coffee with some mornings says his chickens quit laying. His 12 chickens are in a barn, on the ground, and he feeds them one coffee can of feed a day and they get their water most times from the snow. No heat, sometimes fresh water. And he hasn't gotten any eggs for months. Go figure.

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