Rural Gardening: Henny Penny and Future Friends, 1 by DrDoolotz

DrDoolotz wrote:
Oh, I forgot to respond to the chicken fairy's question. I mean TF's question.

Yes, if the hens are sitting on any eggs when I get there to pick them up, I will transport the hen with the eggs she is sitting on. If there are hens sitting on hatched chicks, I will try to get those too. One problem is that the hens lay eggs up in the rafters. There is a space between the rafters and the wall. If you disturb the hen and the chicks are active, they will jump up onto the rafter and down on the side of the wall. If that happens, they will die because there is no way to get to them without cutting holes in the wall. So I will try my best to rescue as many chicks as possible. On the last batch of 9 chicks (from Allie), we lost 3 down the wall. It's horrible to me but the farm owners sort of take it as "nature in action." They don't have any nest boxes. The hens just lay anywhere and they seem to prefer the rafters.

Here are some pix of the coop for them that we are building.

This is the nest box set up I made for them. I am going to paint it blue and burgundy. This is just primer. It has industrial grade vinyl flooring in the bottoms for easy cleanup.