In the barn are 50, two week old chicks safely nestled in a 4x4x8 plywood box. With two heat lamps and two flannel sheets draped over the chicken wire ceiling, they are all busy doing what chicks do best: eating, pooping, growing and....... peeping. It is amazing to step into an unheated barn in December in Maine and hear the cacophony of tiny peeps. These will be next springs new laying hens. (They are a yellow variety. Last years are all black. This makes aging the chickens very easy!)
Down the hill are this years layers. Currently, they are housed in a kind of Quonset hut type structure. It has a door to it but it is rarely closed. Around the perimeter is an electrical fence which helps to keep the ground predators at bay, Except one time, when the skunks found a place where the fence didn't quit touch the ground and they were able to squeeze under without getting shocked. Luckily, they were only interested in the eggs and to fix the problem only required staking the fence down to cover the hole. There was a very persistent hawk though, which would swoop in every few days and take a chicken. A cover was added to the greenhouse at the time and after the covering was adjusted to fully thwart the hawk, it gave up and moved on. 
As winter begins to become colder, the chickens will be moved to a plastic covered hoop house with wood shaving covering the ground. More shavings will be added as the excrement piles up. This will make great compost and also, help keep the chickens warm. The chicken coups will be connected to the hoop house so the nesting boxes do not have to be relocated. To keep the water from freezing, a 40 watt light bulb is laid on top of a flattened soda can. Next, a metal pan is placed over the bulb to keep the rain out. The water feeder is set on the pan and the water has just enough warmth to not freeze. Later in the winter, a 60 watt bulb may be needed. Awesome!
