Wool hen or wool and feather hen build

[saysfaa]

We were just having a little discussion about getting roosts before too long. They are 18 days old. These Black Australorps are Mulligan, Birdie, and Bogey up and Par Four on the ground in front. The Brown Leghorns are Pumpkin, Spice, and Nutmeg.

 

[ladybrasa]

Sorry, I haven’t read through everything, but just wanted to comment quickly about feather dusters as a possible material. In my experience, yes! They love it. If they “get” it ... the batches this year won’t go near them, but last year they loved it. What I want to say though, from what I’ve read, do not use ostrich feather dusters, only turkey feather ones. Apparently some people have used the ostrich feathers which are more filamentous and chicks have gotten tangled and injured in them!

 

[WILIFORD]

Good job. I picked up a couple of ideas to try on my next brood. I posted a article on the wool hen I built about 5 months ago. I brooded 16 Dominique's with my wool hen, outside, with no heat source, and night time temps in the mid 30's to low 40's. A couple of things i learned are as follows. Great idea with the asparagus box. I would never have thought of that, but it looks ideal for this.

1) I didn't a need to insulate the box. The only temp that matters, is the temperature where the chicks are, Not the temperature of the box interior. If you think about it, The momma hen sitting on them keeps them warm, even if the environmental temperature is low. So all you need to do to confirm this, is stick your hand in the wool hen between the chicks, and the wool strips, and you will find it surprisingly very warm. Additionally if you have good ventilation you will not be able to retain the heat in the box interior.

2) My chicks were initially afraid to enter the wool hen. I removed a few strips of wool near the entrance to create an alcove, this made them step inside the entrance. They then became curious and enter the box. I also added a very short strand of battery powered red LED Christmas light to the interior to encourage them to enter it. The batteries lasted about 4 days on continuous run. By the time the first batteries went dead, they were comfortable with using it, so I did not need to use the LED's any longer. I'm not sure how much benefit the lights were.