Timeless Chicken Advice

Letters from Grit readers on timeless chicken advice, ventilation, building transformations, classrooms, pickled okra, and Polish Top Hats.

By GRIT readers
Published on April 23, 2021
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ADOBE STOCK/LIGHTPOET

We write to you the good old-fashioned way, firmly believing that the world of electricity and electronics is having its last heyday. We really appreciate the encouragement we feel from Grit to keep up the good work of small farming! We hope you find some benefit from our tips and the historical (and true!) advice below.

Our favorite pet hen, Henny Penny, is a black bantam (Cochin-like). She’s in with the layers, because layers make lousy pets as a rule. She doesn’t lay hardly an egg, but she does help keep the layers calm and petlike with her fine example.

This advice is excerpted from Farming for Boys by Edmund Morris, which was published in 1868. “Others no doubt do better with their poultry in cold weather than myself. But my plan is to confine them in quarters that are roomy, airy, and kept as clean as a thorough cleaning once or twice a week can make them, with warm shelter from cold winds and rain. I am particular about letting them have only clean water to drink, and that always within reach. Then there is a full supply of broken oyster shells, lime, and bone dust with ashes and gravel. All these are necessary to continued good health, and to keep off vermin.”

Here’s what I think: Adequate ventilation is necessary. Provide warm water in winter, one or two times a day. Add drops of Tabasco sauce or a tiny pinch of ground cayenne pepper or hot pepper seeds to winter water. Chickens need extra corn in winter. Provide protection from owls. Sunshine and shade are both essential. Provide plenty of roosting space. Whole grains are OK to feed, as long as there’s plenty of grit. Bury a fence to keep digging predators out; we also use cattle panels with chicken wire tied to them. Roast eggshells until crunchy but not burned, and then crush them into crumbles with a rolling pin to use as a substitute for oyster shells. Use clear plastic (or glass) on windows in winter.

Naturally, it’s good to stave off boredom to help deter cannibalism from setting in. You can do this with well-placed feeding stations, a hanging ball, a window in the roost, and scratch on the floor. You can also try placing stumps in the run for chickens to jump on or run around, and a partial half-wall in the middle of the coop for chickens to run around if being attacked

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