Tips For Building A Long Lasting And Easy To Use Hen House

Before you venture into the world of raising egg laying hens, you need to build a hen house.  When building a hen house for your chickens, there are a lot of things you should take into account before you start.  A well designed hen house will provide a safe place for your hens to live, will last for years and be easy to maintain.

Why do you need a hen house?

Providing a water proof and predator proof hen house is very important for your hens.  Hens don’t like to be wet so they need somewhere that they can go to get out of the weather.  Wet hens are also prone to diseases so it is very important for their health that they can stay dry.  Laying hens also prefer to lay their eggs in a secure, dark area which you will provide with your hen house.  If you don’t provide a good place for your hens to lay their eggs, you will be running all over your property trying to locate the eggs.

These are some of the basic reasons for building a hen house for your flock.  But there are also a lot of “convenience” things that will just make your life a lot easier. So let’s talk about some hen house design tips that you can use to make your job of caring for your hens much easier.

Water Source

A water source that is close by is a necessity.  You will need water not only for the birds but to allow you to clean out the hen house and run on a regular basis. It’s no fun hauling water from your house and it will be impossible to properly clean the area.

Automatic Water

Yes, you can use chicken waterers or even shallow bowls to water your chickens.  They are usually easy but they do have to be cleaned and filled with fresh water every day. An automatic waterer will make your life much easier as it will automatically provide water on demand for your flock.  You will still need to clean it but you don’t have to worry about your hens running out of water.

Automatic Food Dispenser

You can purchase an automatic food dispenser that will dispense a certain amount of food at specific intervals during the day.  You can mount them on the wall and you never have to worry about your hens running out of food if you are gone for the weekend.

Electricity

Having electricity run to or at least near your hen house is a great convenience.  It gets dark early in the winter and it’s no fun to do your chicken chores in the dark.  If you don’t have an automatic waterer for your hens, you will need to have a de-icer running when it gets cold. You can also plug in a heat light to keep your hen laying eggs year round.

Food Storage

You will need to be able to store your chicken feed, supplements and bedding for the nests close by.  Hauling this stuff on a daily basis back and forth from some place that is not close by is a time waster and inconvenient.

These are just some hen house design tips that you can implement to make your life a lot easier and to make the job of caring for your hens much more pleasant.  Some of these hen house design tips will allow you to actually leave your flock for a few days at a time if you have to go somewhere.  You don’t have to depend on someone to stop by and feed and water your hens.

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