I designed this hen house with my friend Alonzo who built it for me.
The exterior "Nest Condo" makes it very easy to collect the eggs and clean out the nests.
Alonzo came up with the 7' tall portable "ladder" like roosts. We have 2 of them in the hen house. These fold toward one side when we go in to clean out the hen house.
The fake windows are just black paint and I used fake flowers to keep the bird from eating them! They still occasionally pull them down.
We have a switch for lights inside so we can check on the hens & to make it easier to clean.
My chicken yard design is a series of large completely wired yards because we have so many hawks (and hunting dogs who would love to eat all my chickens!) The 5 yards each have a door and I can run them all into one (with cabbage or mealworms!) while we rake & put in straw for the girls so they dont get in the way. We have about 40 hens which produce multi colored eggs. They love their hen house too.
Elena Lamberson
Silversmith Egg Farm
Johns Island, SC
The Nest Condo door is a regular door cut in half. We keep a bale of straw or hay nearby so we can easily change the bedding in the nests. It has been recently painted white and I plan to paint some colorful chickens on the doors.
The "shutters" I got at Habitat For Humanity for $5. The pickets were rescues from a friends burn pile. We cut the rotten bottoms off and painted them white.
Portable 7' roost. It is hinged at the top so we can fold it up and move it to one side for cleaning. We have 2 of them in the hen house and they accommodate all of the hensl
There is a "human" door and a chicken door.
Little Leghorn hen selecting the perfect nest for her next egg
One of the 5 "straw yards" - each has a door so we can move them around for cleaning, or isolate certain chickens, etc. Right now I have 4 Roosters isolated in one of the rooms as I am looking for homes for them. In addition to their regular food, the chickens get a bunch of greens and 2 scoops of mixed grains/mealworms every day. We love our chickens!
