We have 26 CornishX hens, a little over 2 weeks old. Wings are feathered and tail feathers are coming in. We have been brooding indoors. We did this last year but with half the hens.
This year has been hard on us as far as illness. Having twice as many hens and twice as much dust has really started to affect my sons asthma. We just made the choice to move the hens into our woodshed.
We have two plastic pallets on the floor. One plastic pallet on each end. The back wall is the wall of the shed itself (double walled wood). The front is open to the midway point with burlap covering the rest. The pallets are covered in hay. The top is covered in wood with a layer of burlap over the top. So its a big box with 1/2 of one side open. Then entire thing is with a fenced in area that we use for the Cornish hens when the are older but we have covered the walls and doors in tarp. We are using a red heat lamp.
Will this be okay? It was about this time last year that we moved thge last batch but it was much warmer. I'm in WNY, BTW. From now until Tuesday the temps range from 33° - 7°. Next week its looking warmer with a range of 40°-22°.
This is the space that surrounds the inner box. Box inside is a good foot lower that the plastic we covered the outside of the door with.
These show the opening and the materials that surround the hens. It's the height/width of a standard pallet and the length of two pallets together. They have been in there for an hour at this point.
This year has been hard on us as far as illness. Having twice as many hens and twice as much dust has really started to affect my sons asthma. We just made the choice to move the hens into our woodshed.
We have two plastic pallets on the floor. One plastic pallet on each end. The back wall is the wall of the shed itself (double walled wood). The front is open to the midway point with burlap covering the rest. The pallets are covered in hay. The top is covered in wood with a layer of burlap over the top. So its a big box with 1/2 of one side open. Then entire thing is with a fenced in area that we use for the Cornish hens when the are older but we have covered the walls and doors in tarp. We are using a red heat lamp.
Will this be okay? It was about this time last year that we moved thge last batch but it was much warmer. I'm in WNY, BTW. From now until Tuesday the temps range from 33° - 7°. Next week its looking warmer with a range of 40°-22°.
This is the space that surrounds the inner box. Box inside is a good foot lower that the plastic we covered the outside of the door with.
These show the opening and the materials that surround the hens. It's the height/width of a standard pallet and the length of two pallets together. They have been in there for an hour at this point.
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). Come spring/summer we are going to work on a permanent insulated brooder/grow out pen in the woodshed. I don't mind having our layer hens indoors (mainly since we only brood a batch every two years and we like to play with them) they are much easier to manage than the CornishX.
