Any suggestions for my wool hen project?

[MFFarmYukon]

Two things I would suggest…. Try putting a jar of warm water or a hot water bottle for the first few days, this would preheat one area which might attract them in until they learn to use it. For the curtains, I would suggest sewing the wool strips spaced out onto a “tube” just like a regular curtain has, that will eliminate the need for spacers and will make washing and reassembly quick and easy

 

[WILIFORD]

Two things I would suggest…. Try putting a jar of warm water or a hot water bottle for the first few days, this would preheat one area which might attract them in until they learn to use it. For the curtains, I would suggest sewing the wool strips spaced out onto a “tube” just like a regular curtain has, that will eliminate the need for spacers and will make washing and reassembly quick and easy

Once I created a kind of an alcove entrance, that seemed to correct the problem with getting them to use it. However I do like your suggestion on the curtain style design. I'm getting ready to use it in the next few weeks. I just put 40 eggs in the incubator yesterday.

 

[Sally PB]

Please keep updating this thread to let us know how it goes.

 

[jher77]

@WILIFORD can you post pics to show what you modified. I'm tinkering around with a wool hen right now myself with a small ohio brooder box I don't use anymore. I don't have wool so I'm using fleece (polyester). I thought I'd make one in case the power went out and I'd have a backup.

Was the spacers needed between the strips?

 

[WILIFORD]

@WILIFORD can you post pics to show what you modified. I'm tinkering around with a wool hen right now myself with a small ohio brooder box I don't use anymore. I don't have wool so I'm using fleece (polyester). I thought I'd make one in case the power went out and I'd have a backup.

Was the spacers needed between the strips?

The first picture shows a significantly increased the door size, as well as a second door was added door. I do not know the exact measurements off hand, but to put it in prospective, the front wall (with the entrances) is a 1X12X3/4 inch board, approximately 48" long. In this picture if you look closely, you can see I removed wool strips from immediately in front of entrance areas 9creating a alcove), as I had mentioned in one of my previous post.

The second picture really just shows the red LED battery powered string of lights I put installed. I have to say, I don't believe the LED's provided much benefit. I currently have 36 eggs in the incubator that are due to go in lockdown in about 3 day. I am going to see how the do without the LED's. I will update this post with my findings. This pic does a good job of showing the amount of ventilation I have in the ceiling. I personally believe, the larger doors, and the removal of a few strips of wool at the entrance, was what aided most in having them voluntarily start using it.

I also constructed a smaller version wool hen to fit in one of the black storage totes (the one with the yellow lid) you can get at the big box stores. I used it last year for the first week, while they were in the house. I built this using the same approach as may larger unit, with a larger entrance, and alcove at the entrance.

My approach this year will be as follows.

1) I plan to use the smaller wool hens in the black totes. That way as soon as they come out of the incubator, I can wing sex them and place them in separate brood boxes sorted by sex. This should help with two things. Firstly, I can mark the ones I have ID'd as roo's without having to sort through a mixed brood, as all of the roo's will be in one tub, and the hens in the other. Then once they are old enough, I can verify to see how accurate wing sexing is on this breed. Secondly, I think a single tub will be pretty crowd, if all 36 eggs were to be viable. 25 of them looked great when candled at 10 day, the other 11 showed signs of development, but no movement. There were 5 others that were were cast out at day 10 candling, as they were never fertile.

2) This year I want to go through the whole process, from hatch, to 6 weeks, without using any artificial light or heat source. I plan to keep them in the totes, in the house for the first week, then move to my larger outdoor brood until 6 weeks old. I may sale some chicks during that time, but I plan to keep some of them myself.

I know this is lengthy, but if anyone can benefit from what I think I got right, and what I think I got wrong, it will have been worth the extra words.

I hope this helps!
More to come

 

[WILIFORD]

@WILIFORD can you post pics to show what you modified. I'm tinkering around with a wool hen right now myself with a small ohio brooder box I don't use anymore. I don't have wool so I'm using fleece (polyester). I thought I'd make one in case the power went out and I'd have a backup.

Was the spacers needed between the strips?

I think wool is superior to any other material in this situation. My first one I used a $20 wool blanket I found at our local military supply store. The other two I built, I used a new military wool blanket I found on Amazon for $22. I also read a post, where someone made one using a wool coat they had picked up at a thrift store for like $5. Wool has a lot of benefits, that I don't think you'll find in other materials. to answer you r question on the spacers, I could have made it easier on myself had I just made like curtains and then cut slits every inch from the bottom, almost to the top. It sure would have saved a lot of time. In fact the last two smaller ones I construct, I did in this manner, rather than using the spacers.