A wool hen - creating one today

[Goingsolo 24]

I read about the woolen hen and I have now successfully used it twice. I used my first one in a little ''house structure" for my 2 week old Astrolops. During the day they run in an outdoor area but at night they scoot into the woolen hen "house" and I place them on the patio so they can't escape. No additional heat is used. My second hen is smaller and being used in my brooder box with my day old chicks. Here I had a 45watt lamp for the first 24 hours but I am now on a 18watt which is above the woolen hen. It's winter here so a bit if added warm is needed. They sleep inside the house but all being well in a few days I can put the light off. But the woolen hen has enabled me to use 18watt compared to a 45watt. I love this concept so much.

 

[Pork Pie]

I read about the woolen hen and I have now successfully used it twice. I used my first one in a little ''house structure" for my 2 week old Astrolops. During the day they run in an outdoor area but at night they scoot into the woolen hen "house" and I place them on the patio so they can't escape. No adfitionsl heat is used. My second hen is smaller and being used in my brooder box with my day old chicks. Here I had a 45watt lamp for the first 24 hours but I am now on a 18watt which is above the woolen hen. It's winter here so a bit if added warm is needed. They sleep inside the house but all being well in a few days I can put the light off. But the woolen hen has enabled me to use 18watt compared to a 45watt. I love this concept so much.

Photos would be helpful. Just intrigued, but what temps do you think your house is on a night time?

 

[Goingsolo 24]

Photos would be helpful. Just intrigued, but what temps do you think your house is on a night time?

It drops to around 12deg Celcius inside and outside we've reached 3deg.

 

[Pork Pie]

It drops to around 12deg Celcius inside and outside we've reached 3deg.

Thanks for the feedback and the pic

 

[trufadog]

ok, we lapsed and used the light (125 watts) for a week and a half during the day unless they were having a field trip outside. Now they are in an easier to make wool hen. It's a sideways plastic tub that just barely fits in the back of the dog crate. I put a shrunken, very thick wool sweater wrapped around it and put in the fluff on the bottom. They didn't want to tuck themselves in for about a week, but now they go inside and sleep. We have them out in the big girl coop with a dog fence on a few bricks so they can scoot in if they are getting away from our only adult chicken left. We feel like we are going to make some new mistakes soon...They have already discovered the door to the yard that the adult chicken can go out, so we now have to lock her out in the yard and lock them in the coop so we don't lose any chicks to flying predators.

I'm very happy with our second version of a the wool hen. The cylindrical five gallon bucket didn't give them enough space because they would all fall to the middle.

 

[HenBags]

I made a wool hen and absolutely swear by it. I made mine with a styrofoam cooler, an old fleece robe, and some old kids fleece pullovers over a broken heating pad (so I could clean the pullover and not get the whole floor gross). Hot glued a small fleece blanket to pull down like a door, but it got over 100 when it was down. They piled up at times, but it was over 95 inside a corner and they would move about as needed. They were in closed in screen porch that didn’t have any insulation or temp control.

 

[aart]

They were in closed in screen porch that didn’t have any insulation or temp control.

What was the ambient temp?

 

[Mrs. K]

Chicks can produce a lot of heat. Works so slick.

I don't know what her ambient temperature was, but mine was around 40 degrees F.

mk

If you look close, I think the other temperature was 61.

 

[aart]

If you look close, I think the other temperature was 61.

Maybe....I read it as 16.1.... guessing % percent humidity.
Hopefully @HenBags comes back and tells us.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Fantastic thread!
Thank you for sharing everyone... Im deffinetly going to give this a go next spring when I begin hatching again. I hate heat lamps for the same reasons already meantioned here.. and I would love to be able to brood them out in the coops and runs with the rest of the flock.