Many people raise chickens to enjoy healthy eggs. I know that’s what got us started. And even more fun is to have a colorful egg basket—without dying!
Many first-time chicken keepers are unaware that different breeds of chickens lay different colored eggs. Without any dyeing, you can have a colorful Easter basket year round! Our grandchildren love to identify the breeds that their breakfast eggs came from by the colors.
At Storybook Farm, we work hard on mating our heritage breed cocks and hens to produce birds better than they are, following the APA Standard of Perfection (SOP). But, there’s a time to get less serious and just have fun! We happen to have heritage breeds that lay bluish eggs, dark chocolate eggs, and deep tan eggs. From these breeds, one can cross them to get a hen that will lay what are commonly called “Easter eggs” and “olive eggs.” The cross-bred hens are correspondingly called “Easter Eggers” and “Olive Eggers.” The reason that breeding these birds is “not serious” is because Easter Eggers (EEs) and Olive Eggers (OEs) are not recognized as breeds by the APA. But, it sure is fun to have those different colored eggs in your basket each week!
So, what breeds do you combine to get Easter and olive egg colors? For OEs, you need a breed that gives dark brown eggs: Marans and Welsummers are popular choices for this element. And you need a breed that lays a blue, or blue green egg: most often, and Ameraucana. For EEs, you want to start with a tan egg (many breeds lay this kind), and cross it with a blue or blue green egg. The resulting color will be more of a true green than an olive color.
It does not matter if the cock or the hen are of the two breeds you are mixing. You can put an Ameraucana cock over a Marans hen, or vice versa. The resulting hens from these interbreeding can be quite lovely. They almost always have cute muffs around their faces (from their Ameraucana genes) and their feather colors can be all over the place. And, you can develop egg colors still further by breeding successive generations of mixed breeds. The chart at the left gives you ideas of how they can develop, as does the photo below.
Here at Storybook Farm, we have Black Copper Marans (who lay dark brown eggs), Ameraucanas (who lay the blue eggs), and Light Sussex, who lay differing tan colored eggs. (See a sample of our eggs in the photo at the start of this article.)
If you are interested in purchasing either hatching eggs or chicks, we can accommodate you with a special order. Please see our Shop for details on orders of this kind.
We have enjoyed breeding Black Copper Marans for years. We love their large, dark, almost chocolate colored eggs. We love their docile temperaments. But, we’ve been having trouble raising show-worthy cockerels. These are not supposed to have white underfluff, but ours somehow always do! So, this year, we decided we’d take a break from Black Coppers and try to raise Wheaten Marans. They have the same dark eggs and delightful temperaments, but white underfluff is no problem for them! I’ve been looking around for a source for show quality Wheaten Marans, and found a good one in Marans Unlimited, in Tx. That’s a long drive for me from WV, but luckily Bev and Sandy (the sister team who breeds these award-winning Wheaten Marans) agreed to bring some hatching eggs to a chicken show that we were both attending.
Did you know that they have chicken shows? They sure do, all over the country. Chicken fanciers bathe and condition their chickens for the shows, and when they get to the show, they spray and wipe their feathers with a silk scarf, and moisten their feet and combs with Vaseline. It’s pretty amazing to wander through a huge room full of varied and beautiful fowl of various sizes, shapes, and colors. (There’s a great documentary about the process of breeding and showing chickens entitled “Chicken People.” Find it and watch it if I’ve peaked your interest! It’s fascinating.)
Scott and I at the Dixie Classic in Knoxville, TN
This year, I went with my husband to the Dixie Classic, which is a major chicken show given annually each first weekend of December. The first of December happens to be our wedding anniversary: this year, number 39! I had been more sure than ever that I’d been blessed with the husband of my dreams when Scott agreed to take me to the Dixie Classic for our anniversary last year. We had a great time, and so decided to return this year. Not only did Scott take me to Knoxville for the weekend, but he even wore a matching chicken shirt to the show. What a guy!
We were to meet Bev and Sandy at Knoxville and get the precious Wheaten Marans eggs that they had promised to bring. We did indeed meet them there, and get the eggs, but God had a beautiful gift waiting for me at Knoxville. I also came home with a beautiful pair of young adult Wheaten Marans! We called the pullet “Anni” and the cockerel “Vern.” (Annivernsary, get it? 😉)
It all started when I saw Annie. She struck me as SO beautiful: balanced, with a wide tail spread (something that I’ve been working hard at in my lines) and clean, lovely plumage. She was also a Blue Wheaten, which is among my favorite color patterns. I found out who had brought her and said to her, “I want your pullet!!” Then, I quickly amended according to my original intent, “I mean, I want eggs from your pullet this spring!” She smiled sweetly and said, “I’ll let you have her!”
I was dumbfounded! After a few minutes more conversation, when she found I had no cockerel of age to breed to her, she decided to let me have the male that she had brought to sell, too. As you see in the picture above, they are a lovely pair.
Annie and Me
And as you can see in the picture to the right, I am one happy gal to have been so blessed on my anniversary! Bev and Sandy were not sure the the fertility of the eggs they brought, since it’s the dead of winter and their birds aren’t laying well, so they gave me the eggs and they are now in the incubator. If all goes well, we’ll have Wheaten and Black Copper chicks hatching on Christmas Day. I’m grateful to be in the Marans Chicken Club of the USA, where I’ve found mentors and friends who are helping me to succeed with breeding quality chickens!
Today is a slushy, cold, wet day in the mountains of West Virginia! It’s a day where we’ve seen rain, sleet, and mushy snow falling, as well as a weak sunshine hours ago. I think they call it “winter mix.” It’s a great day to sit inside and write a blog post about chickens!
As unwelcoming as the weather was this morning, Scott went out (faithful man that he is) to feed and water and found our first Ameraucana eggs! We’ve been raising these girls since March of 2017, and hadn’t seen a single egg yet. Part of that was that the days got short just as they should have come into lay, and none of our 25 laying hens was giving us a single egg. It’s healthy for the mature hens to get a laying break right after they molt, but the pullets didn’t really need one.
Two weeks ago, we put on lights, and the eggs have been coming back slowly. Interestingly, first it was a mix of mature and pullet Light Sussex eggs, in various shades of pink and tan. Then came the Black Copper Marans’ dark chocolate eggs—pullet size only. And now, we see the first Ameraucana eggs—blue green and quite large for pullet eggs, which leads me to suspect that they either did, or could have, laid earlier in the year if the lights had been right.
We do so love having a colorful mix of eggs in our basket. We love also the insides: free ranging layers lead to dark orange yolks and freshness unparalleled by what we can buy in the store. (I know, because we’ve been buying eggs through the fall before we turned on the lights.)
All this year, I’ve been growing out my new Ameraucana breeding stock, and they have turned out so nice! I am beyond thrilled!
Splash Pullet
In case you’re unfamiliar, the Ameraucana is a relatively new breed of chicken, having only been accepted by the American Poultry Association in 1984. They have quickly gained popularity, however, and are bred in a number of color varieties. We breed blacks, blues (which are both APA approved) and also splash. This last variety is a fun change from the more run-of-the-mill color schemes among chickens (see a picture of one of our splash pullets, right). Our original stock came from the show-stopper lines of Paul and Angela Smith in Texas.
Here at Storybook Farm, we raise four breeds of Large Fowl. By far, our favorites for personality, egg color, and overall cuteness are the Ameraucanas! They are not large birds as compared to our Light Sussex and Marans, but they are quick, bright, and funny. I love their feathery muffs that half hide their faces, while their expressive eyes peek out at you and twinkle merrily. Ours are curious, but shy. I have known people to make real pets of them, however, with a little effort–and a fair number of treats!
Three Beautiful Boys: Black, Splash, Blue
Ameraucanas are layers of large, blue eggs–the color of robin’s eggs! Their feather colors are beautiful: the blacks have a deep green sheen. The blues have delicate lacing on their feathers. The splash are a funky mixture of black and white. If it’s a fun factor you’re after, you’ve come to the right place with Ameraucanas!
We managed to raise three beautiful boys this year. Our black cock, especially, is large and lovely, but the other two are great as well. Because we have one of each, we can mix and match with our four blue hens and two splash hens to get all three color combinations. In case you’ve never learned this before, the “blue” gene is actually acting to dilute black coloration in feathers are achieved by breeding differing colors together. Chicks inherit one of a pair of genes from each parent. The combinations that result give the following colors in chickens:
When there is no blue gene present in the pair, any black markings will be normally colored (i.e. they will appear black)
When there is one blue gene present in the pair, any feathers that would have been black on the bird will be diluted to blue (which can appear as anything from a slate gray to a darker, colonial blue color).
When there are two blue genes present in the pair, any black will be diluted to (blue splashed) white. This variety is called “splash.”
We are so looking forward to being able to offer hatching eggs and day-old chicks from these parents in the coming 2019 hatching season! First, we have to brave the cold, but we are praying that they’ll all come through just fine, and we’ll have lots of beautiful babies to share come spring! If you’d like to reserve chicks for 2019, please email us today.
I have decided to use a time-tested method of gathering information about my laying hens. It’s called trap nesting. Using one of various methods, you trap your hens as they enter their nest boxes individually to lay, and then manually release them afterwards. Thus, you can identify without a doubt which hen laid which egg, and keep highly accurate records. It is a bit labor intensive, because traps must be checked every couple of hours since hens get quite thirsty after laying and are eager to exit the nest.
There are a myriad of reasons for trap nesting practices. Here are a handful of them:
Find out how consistently (or if?) your hens are laying.
Identify your best layers so that you breed them, and thus over time, increase overall egg production in your flock.
Link eggs with specific hens when seeking to breed for egg color enhancements in the flock (very handy when breeding Marans for those darker eggs, for instance).
Identify eggs with specific hens when doing flock mating. Thus, you can house more than one hen with a single cock, yet know exactly which specific paring produces exactly which eggs. Then, you can label and incubate and tag chicks and know with certainty what your blood lines are.
Find out who your egg eater is (it might be a rat!).
There are more, and I am undertaking trap nesting for all these reasons. This is the first post on this topic, and I anticipate sharing more as I go down this road. This post is about my build.
Chez Poulez converted
I have an old building that came with my farm when we bought it, seven years ago now. It was a tractor run below and a grain storage building above. The whole thing is about 24’ x 18’; the lower half (12’ x 18’) has long been converted into a coop for my layer flock. This part of the original building had been outfitted with a 3’ x 18’ corn-crib extension, which was partitioned off from the main space, so we didn’t use until this year. The extension has a central door in the 18’ lone wall; thus, the crib has a left side and a right side. Last winter, we put a pop door into the left side and created some sheltered roosts.
Before demolition
This summer, I’ve broken into the right side to create improved nests with (removable) trap door flaps. This is that right side before I began demolition. We had faced it with some 1/2” plywood because the first use we made of this space was for my horse. So, this was her kickboard.
It took some doing to remove this plywood, and under it were ancient (really tough) boards that were held on by rusted, tough old nails. It was definitely good exercise to pry all this wall apart.
Corn crib exposed after demolition.
After I got all of these boards off, I was confronted with verticle studs, which were of varying depths. I had to decide whether to replace these with a new header or leave them as they were. I decided on the latter because, well, I’m no carpenter, and these are chickens. 😬
It’s not easy to see, but the floorboards of the crib section were loose, and some were rotted. I removed, cleaned, and then put them back. In places where they couldn’t be used, I patched them with new boards, and then put down a layer of 1/4” hardware cloth. This was followed by some insulation, and then a tilted floor of plywood. (I tilted it from back to front in the hope that eggs, when laid, would roll forward to where I can more easily retrieve them.
Wire over dividers; 2nd tier floor
I then constructed 12” high dividers that were 24” deep, and 1” x 2” supports for them that are 15” tall in the front. These then support the 2” x 3” beam that runs across the fronts of the boxes, forming the lip for the second tier of nesting boxes. All in all, there are 14 boxes: 7 below and 7 above. (On the roof of the second tier, we now store bales of shavings—and trap rats. 😏
On the lower tier, there is a 4”-6” space above each divider, between nesting boxes. I originally intended this to be only 3” at the most, and was content that no hens would hurt themselves trying to get through them, but as the 2” x 3” cross beam was laid in place, the vertical space increased. We ended up putting 1/4” hardware cloth down the length of the boxes on top of the 12” dividers so that the hens would not seek to exit the boxes on the sides after being trapped.
In the picture above, you can get an idea of the slope of the roll-away nesting boxes. This is both the ceiling of the first tier and the floor of the second tier. You can also see the 1/4” hardware cloth that we inserted to keep hens from exiting through the space.
Finished: 14 nest boxes
Finally, all the nesting boxes were constructed, and it was time to create the trap doors. I used 1/4” luan, embroidery floss, a jigsaw, a staple gun, finishing nails, and Velcro in constructing these. In my next post, I’ll detail how I designed them, and how they operate, but for now, here’s a picture of the first three set into place: boxes # 2, 4, and 6. They are on the lower tier, and are numbered right to left (since we enter the coop on the right side).
Below is a close up shot of #2, set and waiting for a hen to enter.
This post will tell about a hard left turn that I took this week in my chicken keeping practices. Let me start by quoting three wise sayings:
Anonymous Proverb: “You learn something new every day.”
King Solomon famously wrote, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”
The Apostle Paul wrote, “I will show you a more excellent way.”
This post will offer echos of all of these.
You Learn Something New… If You’re Willing to Learn
I love learning new things about keeping chickens, even though I’m four years young in the hobby. To this end, I’m an avid researcher. One of the best resources for me (especially since I lack a mentor in real life and live on an isolated mountain farm in WV) is the community called Backyard Chickens. There is a wealth of experience and a wonderful supportive, welcoming atmosphere on the forums at backyardchickens.com. When I first started keeping chickens, it was my daily (often hourly) go-to spot; nowadays, I often go there for recreation or just to surf and learn.
So, after I discovered and built my first Hover Brooder, I was excited to share about it with that community and added a post to an existing thread about brooders. In response, a wonderful, experienced, and kind chicken keeper, named Diane, commented on my post. She supported the Hover Brooder I had built, but also related that it was possible to raise chickens outdoors without heat lamps and in a way far more natural to the rhythms of life and growth of young chicks that God originally ordained.
I am so glad that I had the humility to explore her method, even though I was at the time so excited about my own.
There’s Nothing New… Or Is There?
Broody Hen
It’s new to me, but the method that Diane introduced mimics the way that God created the brooding process for chicks. (Diane will be the first to share that it’s not her method; her post about this method was the one that caught a lot of eyes, has remained active over years, and still has her present on it to answer questions—again and again!) This widely known, modern adaptation to natural brooding is generally known as the Mama Heating Pad (MHP) method.
In the wild, mama chickens set on their eggs (brood them) for 21 days. When new chicks emerge from their eggs, weak and wet, they rest and then dry, and then gain strength, all under the hen’s body and soft downy feathers that warm them from above. Very soon, they peek out from under their mama, and then as she rises to eat, drink, and scavage and scratch for food, they follow and mimic her. If they get chilled, they run back under mama’s fluff to warm up, then reemerge. After about four weeks, they are fully feathered, and too large to fit under mama. They then huddle next to each other and mama as they leave her side more and more.
Completed MHP cave
In a nutshell, with the MHP method a heating pad is placed low to the floor of a brooder pen, over shavings or straw: your choice. The pad is supported by a simple wire frame made of garden fencing (or some use more elaborate supports, like old cookie cooling racks), and covered by an old towel, which is then covered in Press N Seal, for help with keeping it clean.
The theory of this arrangement is that the chicks run under the heating pad and warm their backs via direct contact with it. (The heating pad must NOT have an auto-off feature, or MUST have the ability to DISABLE that auto-off feature).
Once under “mama,” new chicks may sleep under “her” as well. After being sufficiently warmed by “mama,” they often emerge to eat, drink, and/or explore their surroundings. As soon as they are chilled, they scurry back under “mama” for another warm up. When ambient temperatures are warm enough, they will also doze on “mama’s” back!
Chicks warming up
As night approaches, and light dwindles, the chicks naturally fill up their crops and bed down under “mama.” Chickens, like most birds, do not eat, drink, or move around at night. They eat and drink heavily before dark, and then roost for the night. Broody hens will collect their chicks under themselves, settle down, and sleep. So will their chicks—warm under her feathers. The MHP simulates all of this: and you have blessed quiet and dark all night long in the brooder.
And, because the MHP does not work by heating ambient airs… either under the MHP or outside of it… but by direct contact with chicks’ backs, this brooder can be used effectively in sub-freezing barn environments, even as mama chickens can brood their young in such environments.
So, while this is a new-to-me method, and is using modern electricity, it is also an old, old approach to brooding baby chicks: about as close as you can get to simulating a true mama chicken without having a broody hen.
A More Excellent Way!
How is this more excellent? Glad you asked!
Let me count the ways!
There is no danger of fire from heat lamps, which has always been a concern to those who use them.
There are no accidental burns from heat lamps, which is great especially when grandchildren are helping with (and/or enjoying) newly hatched chicks.
The MHP method supports the establishment of night/day cycle in chicks which is the most natural to them.
Chicks choose their degree of warmth and/or activity freely.
You can brood in unheated spaces: garages, barns, etc. (They still need protection from predators and drafts.)
It uses less electricity to heat a pad than two heat lamps (for redundancy). This fact also reduces the danger of overloading the circuit, causing a breaker to trip in the night and losing all heat (which has happened to us).
Chicks learn natural day/night cycles; they are not unduly stressed by constant bright light. This has to be as good for them as it is for us: deep night sleeps and active days with eating/drinking has to equal happier, healthier, better adjusted chicks, at least to my way of thinking.
We go through less feed/water as a result of their sleeping soundly all night.
Chicks may feather faster. (I have yet to experience this one for myself.)
You’ll find pictures and information galore there, but if you want a summary, here it is:
The original idea is that you take garden wire (2×4” welded wire is probably best, since it’s more rigid than poultry netting, and yet open enough to allow chicks to get maximum contact with the heating pad) and bend it into a shallow arc, forming a cave of sorts. (Some newer adaptations use a cookie cooling sheet for support, and may use more rigid sides. I did this latter modification with my second MHP; see below.) Again, you want to make sure that the structure slopes upwards from back to front such that the ceiling in the back will be about 2.5” above the shavings (for day-old peeps).
Wire frame properly bent
Over this wire frame, we then put a naked heating pad. Most such have writing on one side, indicating the side you’re to put next to the human body. Put this side down, towards the chicks. Make sure to buy one that does NOT have an auto-off feature, or has the ability to turn off this feature. You don’t want the pad kicking off automatically—ever! (They can be hard to find. Here’s a large model that’s sold on Amazon and at WalMart (and in the picture above, showing what you’ll need). Currently, they sell for around $20 w/free shipping on Amazon. It has NO auto-off feature. I set mine on medium, no matter the ambient air, for day-old to week-old chicks.)
Draped towel and Press N Seal half added
Over the pad, drape a hand towel, large enough to lap over the front and back.
Affix some Press ‘N Seal wrap to the top of the towel (wrapping the sides) as a poop deflector. (After each use of the MHP, you can either wipe this surface, or remove it and redo it to clean up.)
Put the MHP assembly over shavings or straw. It should be that it slopes front to back: make it 2.5” above the flooring in the back, and about 4” above on the front, with the towel falling over the front about 2” as an “awning.”
Cover the sides and back, if desired, with shavings/straw. (Some leave the back open for egress; some close it with a towel and then back that with deep shavings. This latter was my approach. It depends somewhat on ambient air temps and also on how large the hatch is. What you want to avoid is chicks getting trapped inside. My pads are 12” x 24”, and my hatch was 10 chicks: plenty of room for everyone to come and go freely.)
MHP in trough brooder indoors
Cover the top of the MHP with shavings/straw. The chicks will hang out there when the ambient temps are warm, and snuggle/snooze in the warmth of the top of the MHP.
Over time, as chicks grow (and they grow fast) you’ll want to raise the MHP and lower the heat setting on your heating pad. You can raise it by simply putting lumber, stones, bricks, or whatever under the sides of the MHP.
Details About My MHP for Outdoor Brooding:
Outdoor MHP w/heat lamp
I ended up with kind of a hybrid between the original design (just bent wire) and those with rigid frames. We cut a 2” x 8” board diagonally such that each piece was 2.5” at the back and 4” at the front, and 12” long. We put a 23” 2×4 at the back, and screwed the side pieces to it. Then, we attached garden wire to the top, with the pad on top of that.
The 2×4 back was higher than the low ends of the sides, making a lip of sorts, such that the pad cannot slip backwards.
The wire was stapled to the flat tops of the two sides.
Then, I put a towel over the pad, and affixed the Press N Seal to it, and filled in with shavings below, as well as an insulative board, since this pen is off the floor in an unheated barn. The towel was arranged with a generous “awning” in the front, again, to keep heat in and cold air out, and we added plenty of wood shavings under and on top.
Transferring My 5-Day Old Chicks to Outdoor Conditions
Some under; some out
We already had heat lamps installed above the pen, So I warmed up the ambient air with one heat lamp over their food/water, and left it on until 8:30 PM that night. (It’s on a timer: it will be their “sun,”going on each day at 6:30 AM, about an hour before sunrise here.
When I transferred them, I was taking them from ambient 70° airs in the house to ambient 48° in the barn at noon on a sunny March day. The solo heat lamp was my way of making MYSELF feel better… 🙂 Because I incubate hatches every week, I have a series of grow out pens for brooding. And because it’s raised, I also put wooden fence board under the MHP for added floor insulation.
Happily adjusted
I brought the chicks out, starting at noon, and made excuses for sticking around the barn working with adult pens all afternoon, preparing for an expected snowfall and making improvements on my Family Coops. The chicks did great. They went in and out of their MHP cave, ate and drank, and took naps just as they had in the house.
In the morning, at 9 AM, the heat lamp had gone back on and the water was liquid. Two chicks were out eating and drinking, and eight more were cozy under their MHP, hanging out.
Conclusions
In and Out: Their Choice!
For me, there is no way I’m going back to heat lamps, in any form, including the hover brooder I was so proud of last week. 🤗 The only reason I would is if I had too many chicks/hatch to fit under MHPs… and I don’t foresee that in our operation. However, for those who might have that issue, I’m leaving up my post about the Hover Brooder. After all, no one method works for all chicken keepers!
UPDATE: 5 days later…
Chicks are all happy, healthy, and growing! They have been living in our unheated barn while we received 16” of snow, and have had most nights in the low 20°s. Last night was 16°! Chicks were all doing fine this morning.
It’s approaching mid-March, and temperatures on our mountain farm are in the teens and twenties most nights. We expect (and hope!) to have our first hatchlings coming out of their nice, warm shells this Tuesday, and they will go up to the barn after drying off in the house brooder for 24 hours. Brrrrrr!
Brooding in Freezing Weather Outside? Yes, you can!
Plamondon’s schematic
I wouldn’t have even considered doing this if it weren’t for information I learned from this great book: Success With Baby Chicks by Robert Plamondon. The book is chock full of really useful information, much of it gleaned by Plamondon from research done by reading “a hundred books on poultrykeeping at Oregon State University’s Valley Library, and surveyed a hundred years of poultry journals and magazines.”* In this book, Plamondon shares how to build a style of chick brooders that were used widely during the 1940s and onward, but have been largely lost today. He calls them “hovers.”
Plamondon taught me that I could build a hover big enough to warm 200 chickens for under $20 in under two hours. Well, I’m raising far fewer chicks than that… but that’s okay. Plamondon scales his design so that you can build one that warms 50, 100, or 200 chicks. I built one even smaller today: intended for my average hatch of 30 chicks.
As Plamondon explains on his excellent website, that introduces the hover:
The basic facts can be summarized as follows:
Baby chicks need heat, but are very small, so only the heat at floor level matters.
Radiant heat, such as from heat lamps, can keep a chick warm even if the air temperature is cold, but radiant heat alone is expensive.
Heat lamps and reflector floodlight bulbs are the most convenient source of heat. Both types make good brooder lamps.
Heat rises, so it tends to heat the ceiling rather than the floor. Trapping the heat with an insulated ceiling above the chicks (a “hover”) will save energy.
Using a combination of radiant heat and an insulated hover will provide the best of both worlds, using one-third the electricity while keeping the chicks safer and more comfortable.
Winter brooding is straightforward with this equipment.
A lightweight plywood brooder box with two heat lamps can be built in a couple of hours and will last for years.
Our Hover: It Took Less Than Two Hours to Build!
Here are pictures of the hover we built today. We have pens for day-old chicks that are a scant 24” deep, so we chose to make ours 19” x 24” (which is slightly smaller than Plamondon’s smallest design, 24” x 24”).
Pieces cut and ready
First, we cut out legs, cleats, side pieces, and the lid (without corners removed).
Finished “box” of the hover
Then, we assembled these into a box (with no lid) because we are not skilled carpenters and knew our box would not be perfect. We then turned the box over on top of the lid piece and scribed the finished dimensions on the lid. We then cut the lid to fit.
Put shavings here!
It sets inside the walls on, the cleats, 4” down from the top. This is so you can put 4” of shavings on the top of this hover box, giving great insulation to the hover, and further saving energy costs.
Wiring the hover
Then, my brilliant husband wired the hover.
The design calls for two lights (for redundancy in case one light bulb burns out) set in porcelain sockets and mounted in the center of the two 19” sides of the hover. Scott chose to wire them together on a single circuit.
One light mounted
There is no need for a thermometer, or even a light switch, though our porcelain mounts did come with pull chains.
Voila! Our finished hover! Tomorrow, we’ll be plugging it in and filling the pen with shavings. I’ll be monitoring the temperatures to assure that the babies will be warm and toasty, even in freezing weather!
Finished wired hover
My husband used a tuna can to cover the hole where the wires are threaded from the light sockets so that the birdies can’t get to them as they grow larger.
We have taken it up to the barn and installed it with only two 40 watt lightbulbs to start warming up the space. Later today, we’ll grab two higher powered bulbs from our local hardware store: we need a total of 120 watts in this size hover for below-freezing temperatures. See the picture below of the glowing goodness!
Installed hover
*Purchase Success With Baby Chickshere! Find out more details about hovers here.
UPDATE: 10 days later, I can show you an even more excellent way to brood chicks. Read HERE why we never used the hover pictured… though, I’ve left this post up because there are different strokes for different folks, and this remains a viable option.
Well, we have completed the GREAT COOP MOVE of 2018. It only took three days… ONLY~
We moved seven 500 lb. breeding coops UPhill on Saturday morning. Then we rested; exhausted.
Why Did We Move Them?
Coops in the Garden
We built the Family Coops in the summer/fall of 2017. We put them in what had been our garden plot, because we haven’t had a lot of success gardening, and I wanted to be able to keep an eye on my flocks. It was one of those “it seemed like a good idea at the time” things.
It actually was a great location for us, and worked really well. That is, until late January 2018, when we had snow, followed by a brief thaw, followed by torrents of rain. The rain washed all that chicken poo on top of the slick, frozen snow and right into our spring water. Luckily, we have two wells; we were able to switch to the less good, but not contaminated, well.
But we realized that we were going to have to relocate seven heavy coops (made heavier by the recent addition of wooden floors) UPhill.
Our Wonderful Church Family
We live in a rural area where folks still “do” for one another, and where mud is an accepted fact of life. Most people here are farmers. So, when we put out the call, we had three strong guys show up to help lug the coops up the hill. We could not have done it without them literally helping us to carry these burdens, and are so grateful!
How the Move Went Down
So, on Saturday morning at 9 AM, the men showed up and they moved seven 500 lb. breeding coops UPhill on Saturday morning. We decided to move the birds in their coops. The birds had already been shut in all of Friday because we had 70 mph winds here and had to keep them safe.
The men started by carrying the first two coops all the way up. Then, I got out there and saw how much they were struggling. I suggested that we use our truck for the rest of the move.
It proved a welcome suggestion! At that point, the men began carrying them each of the remaining five coops up from the garden (just about 100 feet) and then hoisting them onto the truck. Then we drove each one up the hill (pictured) in the truck, and they unloaded them at the top of the hill. We then drove back down, and moved the next one.
They were all moved by about 11 AM. Then the men had to pound in legs and level them in their new locations. That took until about 12:30 PM. At that point, most of our help had to leave.
Then we rested; exhausted but grateful that the heaviest part of the business was done.
But Wait—There Was More!
New Location
On Sunday afternoon, we decided that getting the runs built for our birds (so that they could get out of their coops after this, their 3rd day locked in) was critical enough to qualify as a “work of mercy and necessity. All we got done in the afternoon, however, was the ticklish job of relocating the pop door for our layer flock, and building a chicken tunnel out to their run, so that we could later erect the new runs around them.
On Monday, we had a slow start. We had first to clean up the area where the coops had been, taking down all the wire for seven separate runs (and their stakes, hooks, and gates). That took awhile. Then, we started to erect the new runs on sloping land, some of it with rocks jutting out. We felt pressured by the fact that the birds had been “cooped up” since Thursday night… so this was going on Day 4. But, as hard as we tried, we were able to build 4 of 7 runs, and let those birds out.
Cock Fight!
In the process of building the runs and moving the coops, we relocated some of the birds’ relative positions. As they were let out into new runs, our best Light Sussex cock and our best Silver Penciled Rock cock found themselves separated by only a wire fence, and they did not like it, not one little bit! As I worked on more runs on Monday evening, I watched these two cocks get into a massive fight through the wire that left them both bleeeding.
I broke up the fight, knowing that freezing temperatures were coming overnight, and not wanting them to get frostbite from their wounds.
When I came out on Tuesdaymorning, I found that our Light Sussex cock, Buddy, kept his left eye shut, and was hoping that he hadn’t lost it! I kept my eye on him as I finished building the last of the runs. He seemed okay, except for not opening that eye.
In the afternoon, we found time to apply warm compresses and antibiotic ointment to Buddy’s eye. We are grateful that he opened this injured eye (see picture) and it seems that it was the lid that was injured. You can see how battered he got in the fight: all the black areas are wounds!
Finishing Up
We finished all 7 runs, and new ramps, on Tuesday morning, just ahead of a new Northeaster coming through. We were so grateful to have this chore behind us, and now face cleaning up our well so we can use it again this summer.
When there is no blue gene present in the pair, any black markings will be normally colored (i.e. they will appear black)
So, on Saturday morning at 9 AM, the men showed up and they moved seven 500 lb. breeding coops UPhill on Saturday morning. We decided to move the birds in their coops. The birds had already been shut in all of Friday because we had 70 mph winds here and had to keep them safe.
In the process of building the runs and moving the coops, we relocated some of the birds’ relative positions. As they were let out into new runs, our best Light Sussex cock and our best Silver Penciled Rock cock found themselves separated by only a wire fence, and they did not like it, not one little bit! As I worked on more runs on Monday evening, I watched these two cocks get into a massive fight through the wire that left them both bleeeding.