Warming The Shickies(Chickens)
I love my Shickies! I have a great bunch of hens this time around. They come to my voice and some even let me pick them up to pet them. I love my Chickens!
Where their pen is located is no electricity remotely close. We are already maxed out on cords coming out of our house for things like freezers, etc. so no way to have a very long cord out to the chickens. So we have to come up with alternative ways to keep them warm. Usually I would install a heat lamp but as I said before not available to us at this time.
The hen house has a lot of wire on it which means the weather tends to get in whenever its little hearts desire. Soaking their hen beds and the pine pellets very quickly. We came up with a great solution which I hope helps them to stay warm and still have a bit of light as well as ventilation. It isn't pretty but who cares.....at least I can say we tried our very best to get them warmed up.
We took an ol' blanket (warn out comforter that went from being a dog blanket to this) and started at the top with one corner of the blanket and started stapling all the way down the roof line on both sides. Then stapled the sides and across the bottom until we met the door way. I cut the blanket off at the bottom and up the doorway while Mtn Man finished stapling around the door way to finish. Next we took some 6 mil clear plastic and stapled it up using the same kind of method as we did the blanket. We did this on front side and repeated on the back with the leftovers of blanket and used fresh plastic. Keeping the two doors in the back open for use.
Results:
From the inside:
All in all we are quite proud of our job...the shickies are not quite sure why we did that but I would like to imagine them having a party next time a rain storm comes through or the snow starts to blow and they are dry!
Suppose to get down into the 20's tonite(Friday)...didn't get above 48* today(Friday)! And blustery all day(Friday)!!!
Ps. I do hope everyone had a fun night with their kids out trick or treating.....
If you want to leave a COMMENT please EMAIL me (MARYE.MASTERSON@GMAIL.COM) Love hearing from ya! FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK TOO! https://www.facebook.com/adventuresofmylife Copyright © 2014 M.E. Masterson All Photographs Copyright © 2014 M.E. Masterson
Where their pen is located is no electricity remotely close. We are already maxed out on cords coming out of our house for things like freezers, etc. so no way to have a very long cord out to the chickens. So we have to come up with alternative ways to keep them warm. Usually I would install a heat lamp but as I said before not available to us at this time.
The hen house has a lot of wire on it which means the weather tends to get in whenever its little hearts desire. Soaking their hen beds and the pine pellets very quickly. We came up with a great solution which I hope helps them to stay warm and still have a bit of light as well as ventilation. It isn't pretty but who cares.....at least I can say we tried our very best to get them warmed up.
We took an ol' blanket (warn out comforter that went from being a dog blanket to this) and started at the top with one corner of the blanket and started stapling all the way down the roof line on both sides. Then stapled the sides and across the bottom until we met the door way. I cut the blanket off at the bottom and up the doorway while Mtn Man finished stapling around the door way to finish. Next we took some 6 mil clear plastic and stapled it up using the same kind of method as we did the blanket. We did this on front side and repeated on the back with the leftovers of blanket and used fresh plastic. Keeping the two doors in the back open for use.
Results:
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| The open spot was not planned but turned out to be great for light for the hens in the house and added another roost post for them. |
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| I put this plywood in to help guard the hen beds but I probably should have done the same to the top too! |
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| This house comes with two under the roof vents for ventilation |
Suppose to get down into the 20's tonite(Friday)...didn't get above 48* today(Friday)! And blustery all day(Friday)!!!
Ps. I do hope everyone had a fun night with their kids out trick or treating.....
If you want to leave a COMMENT please EMAIL me (MARYE.MASTERSON@GMAIL.COM) Love hearing from ya! FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK TOO! https://www.facebook.com/adventuresofmylife Copyright © 2014 M.E. Masterson All Photographs Copyright © 2014 M.E. Masterson
