The Broody Hen House

Several of my hens have decided to go broody lately. I had 4 in the coop that were pretty cranky when ever I approached. Kinda cuts into the egg business when all the hens start laying in the broodys' boxes, so I fashioned a separate hen house for them and moved them out. I probably lost a couple chicks in the process, but overall It was a good move. Over time I will have more success and lose less than I would with them in the coop. I have 2 hens that have hatched out their clutches since the move, and two more to go.


I picked up this doghouse from Craigslist at no cost, made a door for it from some lumber I had laying around and added a lock and trim. It's 4x4...must have been a pretty big dog! Its heavy as all get out, but Josh & I managed to carry it out of the yard and lift it onto the bed of the truck, dumping it off at home was the easy part. I didn't have any hinges laying around, so I used some pieces of strapping instead. The hens love it.


I put a couple of eye screws into the door and side, a bungee between the two holds the door open during the day.


My nesting boxes: an empty speaker box, problem is the eggs seem to roll out kind of easily. A cardboard box, the envy of all the hens, and a kitty litter box on its end. That one got rejected by all, seems on the floor in the corner was better, oh well. Need to put some more of those cool cardboard boxes in next time!

I've also got eggs in the incubator again. I had a request from the person that bought one of my roosters to hatch them out a batch of chicks. I just candled a few and they seem to be doing well. The embryo looks like a spider, with the chick body curled in the center and veins radiating out from there. I tried to photograph it, not sure how it will show up.


Hope it shows up when clicked on, the chick is in the top right. Its just been in the incubator 4 days now. Set to hatch out on 9/2.

At $4 each, I'll make $48 for a dozen eggs. I would like to expand my chick business at some point. It would be nice to make a little extra money each spring...or even year round. At the current $3/dozen I sell them for, I am barely covering the cost of my feed. Once I process this years roos I'll be a little bit ahead. I've got a few customers who pay me $12 each for a processed chicken. When I really look at it, its a lot of work for the money, but it makes our eggs and processed birds free and a little cash to spare. The best part is that they're so fun to have around.

Em & I made some root beer today, it takes a week to ferment and become carbonated. I'll let you know how it turned out. If its good I'll make some for when Mom & Dad come to visit in a couple weeks, that and some home made ice cream...can you say root beer floats? YUM!! I'm drooling already. The alcohol content is low, between .35 and .5%. Compared to 6% for a beer, it would take about 1.5 gallons to equal a 12 oz. beer, so in that respect its pretty negligible. If my next blog enrty resembles a drunken dyslexic you'll know something went wrong.