Wool hen or wool and feather hen build

[saysfaa]

I started my wool hen build. I'm finding it harder to decide what to do than I thought it would be. I have a couple few weeks to work on the design and build it.

Goals: to safely brood the chicks in the coop (no electricity). And to approximate a broody hen as much as I can.

Safety (related to the wool hen) looks like enough warmth with enough ventilation. And preventing them from eating anything they shouldn't and from getting tangled in anything or smothered under a pile-up or caught in a corner.

The concept is to use the chicks' body heat as the heat source, trapping that heat close to the chicks with wool and feathers. In the other threads, people talked of using:

Body Frames:
Five gallon pails (upside down)
cat litter boxes (cut in half top to bottom, then laid cut side down)
Milk crates (upside down)
Styrofoam coolers
Wire caves (like for Mama Heating Pads)
Cardboard box
Wooden boxes

Entrances:
cutting doors,
raising the body enough for chicks to go under the edge(s),
using existing holes (handle holes on milk crate)

Details of bodies:
Some bodies need to be covered with cloth or press and seal or insulation to prevent pecking/eating (the styrofoam) or getting trapped (the wire) or losing too much heat (the cardboard box, the wire)

Many said insulation under the chicks is essential:
Styrofoam (lid of the cooler used for the main body; must be covered so they don't eat it)
Bedding
Towels
Wool
Foam board (covered so they don't eat it).
Heat source such as plant grow mats

Some did insulation to top of the main body, also. Same options as under plus feather quilts.

Wool:
Most common was strips of cloth (fleece, usually, or wool).
Most agreed wool cloth is better (warm when damp or wet as other fibers aren't, among other reasons)
Some who used wool used felted sweaters, blankets, coats, skirts
One used raw wool
Yarn also worked, but tangled some even though it was pompommed; sachets of seem safer.
Feather dusters were suggested but not used that I noticed.

Attaching the wool:
Glue to solid surface (came loose)
Tying (knot to make one end too big to fit through a hole)
Tying (various knots used)

credit to
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-wool-hen-creating-one-today.1133855/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/any-suggestions-for-my-wool-hen-project.1445045/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wool-hen-but-maybe-snow.1210948/#post-19268255

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...possibly-no-supplemental-heat-at-all.1126460/

I plan to more references here later

land I'm out of time for now, will work on this more, maybe tonight or tomorrow morning or next week

 

[Sally PB]

Pictures....?

 

[saysfaa]

Not much to see so far.
My wool was a woven shawl that was washed twice in cold water, so is lightly felted. It couldn't be used for what I bought it for. Today, I cut it into about thirty strips. Each strip is about an inch wide and six feet long. I need to decide what to make the body out of and how big to make the body before I cut any more or do anything with the blue feather boa(s). I bought a styrofoam cooler at a resale shop and already had all the other options plus some other possibilities but none of those are here right now.

 

[saysfaa]

The "wool" (fiber strips regardless of the source of the fiber).

Polyester fleece, wool blends, and 100% wool have been used successfully in wool hens.

Wool is better than other readily available fibers because it is warmer than most, warm even when wet, and it breaths. Cashmere and alpaca are both about 8 times warmer than wool but less readily available. Rabbit fur is also warmer than sheeps wool but the fibers are much shorter than any of the above and shed easily (actually, I looked it up - only the guard hairs don't have the crimp and scales; the under wool holds together in spinning and will felt easily). For interest and completeness vicuna is warmer than cashmere or alpaca but much less available and qivuit is 30 times warmer than wool and practically unattainable.

Silk might be a workable fiber for this purpose. It is warmer than wool - ounce for ounce (most sources say it isn't as warm as wool but that is because they are comparing volume or garments; silk is among the lightest fibers and usually used as very thin fabrics).

Feathers (ostrich feather dusters) have been used with heating plates to give the chicks as close to a broody hen as possible - place to hide, darkness, feel of feathers and so on. Logically, feathers should be most like a broody hen. I don't think it is that simple because hens have various kinds of feathers and can move at least some of them and can maintain them.

 

[saysfaa]

Drastic change of plans.
The builder of my shed (half or so of which will be the coop), was scheduled to arrive within a month. It arrived today.
I am far from home, visiting family... which put me almost close enough to think it reasonable to consider picking up chicks at Cackle.

So I rushed the wool hen project.

I used an asparagus box from Sam's club (the black box in the picture) It was among the sturdiest options, already had lots of holes, and is waterproof. Here it is before I added the wool.. The other box is a mandarine orange box from Sam's Club. I worked with it first but marking where to drill the holes went really slow and it was hard to get an even grid. The chick's might not care that it is even but I do.

The asparagus box is about 2'x3'x6" maybe. I cut each wool strip in thirds and cut off the fring. Then poked all three down two holes so both ends (all six ends) hung to within about a half inch of the ground when the box was upside down. I had just enough to put at least one set down each hole, most had two, and some had three.
I thought it felt too spread out but the rest of my materials are back home.

 

[saysfaa]

8 Black Australorp and 3 Brown Leghorn pullets (or 90% - 95% chance they are all pullets, smile)

 

[saysfaa]

So, all day driving with no distressed cheeping. But they changed from contented trilling to questioning peeps whenever the car temp dropped below 93. They didn't sleep much if at all until I drove into the garage. It took less than two minutes for them to be completely quiet as I unloaded their stuff.

They woke back up in the light. They went into the bathtub with a rubberized flannel doubled up under puppy pads, and got their water and food.

The asparagus box was designed to go into the outdoor coop; it doesn't fit in an apartment bathtub. The hatchery box does and has holes on top so I moved most of the strips to the hatchery box. I tied each strip to make a loop so the ends hang to just about the floor. The loops also insulate the top, probably. I'll figure out what to do with them in the morning so the chicks don't get caught in them when they jump on the box.

By then, the chicks were piling in the food bowl and getting gradually louder. I moved all the chicks into the box and they stayed there and were a little quieter but still complained.

I noticed the gel pack the hatchery had put in the box was still detectably warm to I put it in too. (I had removed it with the dirty nesting material). They quieted more.

I worried it was the gel pack keeping them warm rather than the wool strips so went to the store before they closed for a heating pad for at least a pack up. Store carried three kinds; all three were totally sold out. I looked for camping equipment hand warmers but it is May, they had fans. Anyway, I did get a microwavable gel pack from the first aid section. And worried all the way back.
They were quiet so I didn't open the gel packs. Room temperature is 71 F.
We will see how they do through the rest of the night.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm following this with a lot of interest! Thanks for documenting. And for the picture of cute chicks.

 

[saysfaa]

So far, so good. No one has cheeped in distress.

 

[saysfaa]

Some of them are afraid to transition from in the box to out of the box. They will gather their courage and suddenly dash out. Oh, just now one walked out ...yay!

And no one has gone in on her own, yet. When they start clumping, I guide them in.