Historical Coops and My Reality

 

From The People's Practical Poultry Book
William M. Lewis
1871

When my husband moved us out into the country I told him I wanted chickens. I raised poultry as a child so I knew what I was getting into and what they would need. He on the other hand…
But before we could even think about purchasing the birds we needed to figure out where we would keep them.
Well right away I had visions of a historically accurate coop and dove into hours of research. There really is a lot out there about chicken coops or pens-especially in the later part of the 19th century.
One of my favorite resources for this topic is The People's Practical Poultry Book; A work on the breeds, breeding, rearing, and general management of poultry. It was written in 1871 by William Lewis a man who really knew his poultry.

Lewis described in detail over a dozen different coops in his book all with their own particular advantages. The barrel and close coops are good for someone who has little means as they don't require much work to put together. Where as the Rhode Island  and Virginia Poultry Houses are for those who would rather have more of a permitted structure for their flock.

He seemed to favor coops that were movable, rat proof, and economical. I found it interesting that Lewis recommended that coops should be made without a floor so that they could me moved from place to place. Not having a floor was a benefit because it saved on costs for the floor, food, and help to keep bugs down. It also allowed the chickens to dust themselves more in the dirt which "help to keep off the vermin."  Apparently this idea of Chicken Farming, by moving the coop every few days, is not a new one!

The Corn Crib

However the most impressive of directions for a chicken coop can be found on page 116. The Octagon Poultry House is just what is sounds like. It is a chicken coop that is built to be in the shape of an octagon and can house up to thirty birds. The building is ten feet wide by six feet tall and sit on legs that raise it about a foot in the air. The picture in the book (above) shows that their are several windows to help with ventilation and even a weathervane on the top. Talk about classy!

Alas I would have no such Octagon Poultry Mansion!

Before & After

Our old farm house sits on two acres and has an even older barn. Attached to barn is a rickety old corn crib. Some time ago, someone decided to make park of it a tool shed. They closed up one end, added a door, and lined the entire inside with wood.

This was to be the coop. It took a while to clean out but once it was it really was not too terribly far off from what was recommended in the 1871 publication. In Lewis's instructions for a "Rhode Island Poultry House" he says that " The house may be built of pine boards, or may be clapboarded and plastered with lime; in either case it should have a good plank floor."

The Run

 

One of the things we decided early on was that the hens would have an enclosed outdoor area to run around in rather then free-ranging on the property. At the moment we do not have a rooster to protect them and we have a problem with predators-mainly raccoons.

Lewis says "We find in the Practical Poultry Keeper what is termed therein a wire-covered run for chickens, and is deemed by the author a sensible way to keep young chicks from being destroyed by cats or rats." We took this advice and made an enclosed run for our hens to be out in. Also realizing that it is probably nor going to keep a raccoon out at night, we shut the door to the inside of their coop once the sun goes down.

The top of the run is covered to provide shade and there is plenty of grass and dirt for them to dig around in. My husband also chose to put a door on fence so we can easily get in and out of the run. Needless to say I am still pretty impressed by how good it looks.

If your not careful a few raccoons
can wipe out an entire flock. So it's
important to wither keep them out
or get rid of them completely.
Two in one trap! Told you
we had a raccoon problem.

One thing that we did that was not recommended is that we decided to cover the original wood planking so as to protect it from the chicken manure and any moisture. Originally, I wanted to cover the floor with tar paper and tack it down. However my father owns a flooring store and had a small piece of laminate flooring that he let us have for the floor. It works very well. After we got the laminate installed, I put down some cedar chips and straw for the bedding.

Our Girls and their Coop

Since we first got our “girls” a few weeks ago, we have also added a sliding door on to the small opening that goes out into the chicken run. With this we are able to shut the coop up at night without having to enter it. We also added a  simple wire screen door on the outside to allow for greater circulation during the hot summer days.

I think our pullets, female chickens under a year old, are happy with the arrangement and although our set up is not 100% historically accurate we did what many of our ancestors would have done. We made do with what we had and it works for us.

Resources Used:
All pictures are my own or where available under Public Domain