Hen Pens / Hen Houses

[Andy C]

Has anyone got any information / pictures etc of an allotment style hen pen / hen house around the mid 60s period?

 

The plans I have for New Hey show that to the west of Huddersfield Road were some hen pens, presumably belonging to people in the terrace row opposite the station entrance gate. Whilst technically they are off the layout, Ive decided, under some pressure from my partners in grime on the layout, to shift them forward a few feet and put them on!

 

Trouble is no photos exist and whilst I have a distant childhood recollection, no real idea what they look like, apart from a vague image of a wooden ridge tent like shed, with hen flaps in the side walls and a door (presumably for folk to collect eggs) in one end. Dimensionally I havent a clue what size they were and whilst I could build something which i think may be right - Id rather someone give me a clue!

 

Its a nice project now the dark nights are here, dont fancy painting the hens though:rolleyes:

[Oldddudders]

Suspect chicken coops then were as varied and homebuilt as they have always been. From any old pieces of wood nailed together into a basic shape - to custom-built things from SilverMist and a host of other garden suppliers - in the days before Garden Centres as such existed. I just Googled on Hen House and found a lot of pics in Google images - take your pick! Apart from having a perch for the little darlings to sit on and kip at night, and some degree of fox-proofing, anything sound will do. Pent/pitched roof, sloping flat roof, square, oblong. Lots of wire netting - to keep them in as well as foxy out. Letting chicken roam your garden can really spoil the place as they scratch everything up, and that would be doubly important on allotments, I guess.

[Kris]

When my parents moved to their current home there was a pair of chicken sheds in the garden. These would have been from the early 70's so I don't know if they are quite the right thing. These were very much home made and non movable. The lids/ roofs were hinged to allow for the collection of eggs (although at times getting into the shed would have been an easier way of collecting). These sheds were about 5ft long and 3ft wide 2ft high at the front and 3ft high at the rear. They were wooden construction, I think one might have been old floor boards, the other was mainly ply. The roof was covered in roofing felt.

[The Stationmaster]

I've just done a quick google and some of the smaller hen houses on there are exactly the same as the ones you could see back in the 1950s and '60s (there's one exactly the same in appearance as a type used by both my grandparents and my aunt and the latter would have obtained hers around 1963-64ish). The only difference looks to be the finish of the timber - much fancier nowadays

http://teachinggoodthings.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_1100.JPG

[Oldddudders]

I've just done a quick google and some of the smaller hen houses on there are exactly the same as the ones you could see back in the 1950s and '60s (there's one exactly the same in appearance as a type used by both my grandparents and my aunt and the latter would have obtained hers around 1963-64ish). The only difference looks to be the finish of the timber - much fancier nowadays

http://teachinggoodthings.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_1100.JPG

I'd call that an Ark, 'cos that's what they were called when we bought one mid-80s. It replaced a DIY job left by the previous owner. We had inherited a cock and several hens when we bought the house. We moved in on a hot August day, and, doing all the moving ourselves from our old house 25 miles away, were truly knackered by the time we got to bed. Windows open all night, natch. And at about 4.30 the next morning - the cockerel let fly! Gah! Prunes! Wide awake in an instant! One of life's little learning experiences.

[Fat Controller]

I've just done a quick google and some of the smaller hen houses on there are exactly the same as the ones you could see back in the 1950s and '60s (there's one exactly the same in appearance as a type used by both my grandparents and my aunt and the latter would have obtained hers around 1963-64ish). The only difference looks to be the finish of the timber - much fancier nowadays

http://teachinggoodthings.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_1100.JPG

The hen cree we inherited when we bought our house in Clara Vale in 1982 was a fairly typical one for the village. Some of the walls were of fairly tidy creosoted wood, but one incorporated a Perspex sheet with 'Per Ardua ad Astra' and the RAF crest on it, as well as a bit of timber which might have been part of the colliery sign. Most of the other sheds, and there were five others amongst the dozen houses in our terrace, were built in a similar 'vernacular' style. Hen crees were very much the poor relations of pigeon lofts, possibly no one would dream of sitting outside a hen cree for long.

When I rebuilt the cree a few years later, after a fox had found its way into the old one, I used the roof from the old Low Fell temporary sorting office as the basis of the structure...

[Andy C]

Thanks folks for what i have so far

I should have said in my OP i'd googled them originally and came up with all these modern designs more suited to a MPs expense claim than the rough and ready things I remember .

 

Mickeys description rings a big bell and sounds exactly like I remember, but SP Steves picture is an absolute gem, thats just the sort of thing im looking for, especially with the rough and ready fencing around to keep Mr fox out. Its so modelable Steve that it may be well be going on the layout. As MRJ puts it, real atmosphere.

 

Cheers, any more like that keep em coming!

[shortliner]

http://media.photobucket.com/image/old%20chicken%20coops/9anda1f/Chook_Run_Coop.jpg

http://matadornetwork.cachefly.net/matadorlife.com/docs///wp-content/images/posts/feature/feature-2267.jpg A frames were fairly typical on allotments

http://tracingterroir.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/chicken-coops-026.jpg

http://portablechickencoopplans.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/cute-chicken-coop-300x262.jpg Mobile one??

http://www.poultry.allotment.org.uk/chicken-keeping/assets/old-poultry-shed.jpg

[Huginn]

Thinking about modelling bits, Metcalfe do a couple of hen huts as part of their cowshed kit - might be a bit too tidy though! - also Preiser do a ready painted pack of hens in 1:87th scale. If you are going to have a crack at building your own, then you might find GreenScene's wire mesh fencing useful, I used it for a pen myself (with tree wire and plastistrut painted up for poles).

[Andy C]

Fencing round this area tended to be very much of the like in Steves picture - whatever people could salvage / "borrow" from work. Our garden fence for example was made from wood which had come out of old spinning frames (the planks had small porcelain guides for the cotton in them) from the Hawk Mill in Shaw, Dad was the company secretary/accountant there and my Uncle Roy the mill joiner - and around the early 60s we had a new fence round the garden. That fence lasted till we left the house in 1976.

[edcayton]

Chicken Shack?

 

Ed

[Fat Controller]

Chicken Shack?

 

Ed

'Need your eggs so bad'.....

[TREEMENDUS]

Hi Andy

 

Coincidentally Iv'e just been working on a small diorama for which will include a hen house. The hen house is being supplied to me from somebody else so i've not actually seen it yet - it will be 1:12 scale and its dimensions are 3' x 4' x 5' high so presumably will have two floors. I imagine these things could be any size, to fit into the space available and to suit the amount of chickens to be housed there. If you are modelling in 4mm it would be tiny though so I would suggest going for something quite a bit bigger

 

Here is a photo of the groundwork so far......

 

 

 

Ant