Chicken-n-Veg

Posts Tagged ‘hen house’

Earlier this week we fitted an automatic VSBb pop-hole opener to our henhouse. This was really to give us additional peace of mind when we are not there. Whenever we go away we arrange for someone visit daily, to feed the hens and collect the eggs. We cannot, however, expect them to also open up the henhouse every morning and shut it every evening. Also the electric fence has to be turned off to collect the eggs and it would be easy for someone to forget to turn it back on. By having the pop-hole close automatically at dusk, at least the hens should be safe at night when the foxes are most active, even if the fence is not powered. We actually found the gruesome remains of a hens foot in our garden last week and our next door neighbour found three more feet in their garden. Obviously someone in the area has lost some of their hens to foxes, so ours are clearly at risk too.

We got the opener from Flyte So Fancy, our henhouse supplier, as they actually had a custom kit for our Haven henhouse. It included a pre cut door, sliders and pulley wheels. This made fitting very easy – it was just a case of unscrewing the old door fixings and replacing with the supplied kit.

The electronics were housed in a weatherproof box and powered by four AA batteries, which apparently will not need replacing for at least a year. It was fitted on the outside of the house and a motorised draw string opens and closes the pop-hole door according to light levels. The light sensor settings are adjustable with a small screwdriver.

It all seems to be working very well so far. It has been operational for four days and we haven’t had a hen locked out yet ! The only thing we have noticed is that dawn is very early at this time of year – around 4.30am. Our neighbours might not appreciate the noise at this time and also the foxes will still be roaming. So we have now, therefore, ordered an additional battery timer. This will allow us to override when the door  is opened in the morning. We will set it to close automatically at dusk and then open after 7am.

This weekend, in an effort to make looking after our hens even easier than it already is, we made a droppings ‘tray’ to sit under their perch. It was very easy to make and should be suitable for most henhouses that don’t come with a built in tray.

The hens enjoy kicking up their litter material all over the area around the pop hole, making a real mess in their run, jamming up the horizontal slider for their door. The solution was making a dropping tray by modifying a heavy duty tarpaulin. We had a spare one, but they are very cheap to buy. It was measured and cut for size allowing a 7.5-10cm (3-4 inch) turn up on each edge. It was then just a case of hemming the cut edges and sewing the corners. Handles (from cut off material) were also sewn on the sides.

Time will tell how long lasting or successful it is, but they certainly haven’t been able to kick any bits in the first couple of days of use. It should make cleaning out a breeze. It is waterproof so nothing goes through onto the floor of the henhouse.The handles mean it can be easily lifted out and tipped straight in the compost bins. It’s also easier for us to fill it with the litter material and carry it back to the hen house.

It’s been a busy but satisfying weekend and we are now proud owners of five hens. It was an early start on Saturday and we were on our way before 7.00 o’clock to pick up a ‘Haven Henhouse’ from Flyte So Fancy in Pulham, Dorset (refer to previous post for more details). I drove down with just my daughter, so we could get it into our estate car, with the rear seats down. We got there and back with the flat pack kit before lunch. Flyte So Fancy seems to be a very professional company. They build all of their kits on site, in a large workshop. There is also an outside area with lots of assembled henhouses and a big shop with lots of chicken keeping accessories – food, feeders, books, fencing, etc. Unfortunately I was on a tight schedule so I didn’t have a proper look around, but for anyone who does live close buy it would definitely be worth checking out.

The assembly of the henhouse went very smoothly. No missing parts and very clear instructions with colour photos. Where panels had a particular orientation they had been helpfully marked and all screws were in separate, labelled bags, based on screw length.

The finished house was just what we wanted. Very well built with a good sized run. A luxury home for some lucky hens !

It looks like it will be very easy to clean. The roosting  box is at waist height with a hinged door at the rear allowing full access to remove the perches and nest boxes and sweep out the litter. It also has a perspex heart shaped window. It does say on the website that you can choose not to have a window, but we like it. It seems like good way to check that all the hens are inside before closing the door.

With their home built we were off to pick up the hens by 1.00 o’clock. We decided to get them from Cotswold Chickens. There are more convenient, local suppliers but having rung around they did not actually have many point of lay hens for sale. Friends had previously recommended Cotswold Chickens and a quick phone call confirmed that they had plenty of birds available. We ended up buying five point of lay pullets -  two Amber Lees, two Bluebelles, and one Bovan Goldline. These are all hybrids (a cross of two purebreds) which should all lay a good number of eggs, but probably won’t start laying for a month or so. As we were beginners we were given a helpful crash course in the basics, including picking up and holding the hens, clipping their wings,  feeding tips, acclimatising them to their new home, the henhouse cleaning regime, etc. So with the five hens crammed into a box (which they seemed quite happy about – something to do with their roosting nature apparently) and equipped with a basic starter kit (food, feeders, drink tonic, cleaning products, bedding materials) to keep us going for several weeks, we were off.

A soon as we got back we introduced the girls (Henrietta, Snowdrop, Flora, Daisy and Bluebell) to their new home.

They were put straight into the roosting area with some water, and were not allowed into the run. They were left there all night to get them used to the fact that this was their new home.

Another early morning to let the chickens out into the run for the first time. With a baby in the house I don’t think we will need to set an alarm to get us up early !  They spent the day happily eating, drinking and exploring their new home whilst we blocked off any holes in the hedges and fences that would let a hen through. We intend to keep them inside the run for at least a week, getting them totally familiar and comfortable, before letting them out into the garden.

At about 7.00 pm, and with no prompting, they all climbed the ladder and ‘put themselves to bed’. I guess they already feel at home !

We have been planning to get some hens for quite some time (hence the blog name) and spring seems an excellent time to do it. If we get some point of lay hens now they should definitely be providing us with lots of lovely, fresh, free range eggs as we get into summer. A lovely complement to the fresh pickings from the garden. Spinach omlette,….fresh mayonnaise and salad,…..summer fruit meringues,….. mmmmmm.

We are thinking of getting a number point of lay pullets first, hopefully this weekend. Then when these have settled, after a couple of weeks say, getting two or three rescued (ex-battery farm) hens. We have been doing quite a bit of research into suitable hen houses / coops, which will ultimately determine how many we can keep. We have decided to go for a design with an integrated run. There are definitely foxes around at night,and we occasionally see them sunning themselves on our lawn during the day. We intend to let the hens have free reign of the garden whenever we are in the garden. During the times When we are not about, however, we want them to have enough room to stay happy and safe (and for our vegetable beds to stay safe from them !). We also wanted the roosting area to be well off the ground so that vermin would not be tempted to set up home underneath.

We came up with a shortlist of two hen houses we liked the look of and seemed to be consistently well reviewed by others.

• A Boughton 902A Poultry Ark with run extension (suitable for 6-7 hens) from Forsham Cottage Arks
• A Haven Henhouse with extended 9ft run (suitable for 6-8 hens) from Flyte So Fancy

They both seem to be well built, easy to clean, easy to move and reasonably fox proof. We have now decided on the Flyte So Fancy design. This seems to offer a lighter, more airy run. To be honest, however, the main reason is that it is available for instant collection from the companies premises in Dorset. This is only an hour or so away and panders to the impatient “I want it now” part of my character. It means we can pick up and build the henhouse this Saturday and get our hens on the same day !