FAQ's

Ponds, marshes, small lakes, backwaters, potholes and other small wetland areas that hold water during the spring, are some prime examples of installation spots. Hen houses do best in waterways without a lot of movement or current. Placement is also important to consider in freezing environments, where the natural movement of ice in winter could affect your base pipes.  Houses should be placed over the water, about 6 feet from any overhanging trees, and at least 3 feet above the waterline.  Our cradles have two pre-drilled holes in the support tubes for height adjustments, so if you think you will have high water in the spring, leaning towards a higher placement is best. Try to stay no more than 5 feet off of the waterline to allow for easy yearly maintenance. 

Those of us in the Midwest that experience cold winters have an advantage when installing and maintaining hen houses.  Use the ice on your pond or marsh areas and install your hen houses in the winter months where you can easily move about on the ice.  An ice auger or chisel is all you’ll need to make a hole for pounding in your base pipes.  Position your hen houses perpendicular to your prevailing winds to lessen the loss of nesting material inside; typically placed at a NE/SW angle.  Mallards will start nesting in early spring, and in Minnesota, for example, we like to have all of our structures ready to go by early March. 

Yearly maintenance is completed during the late winter months and is really quite easy. Simply remove the old nesting grass from the inside of the nesting tube, and replenish with Timothy grass or similar natural prairie grasses.  This is a great time to check for the previous year's nest success by observing nesting bowls, shell fragments and other signs of nest usage!  Fill the tubes 2/3rds of the way full with nesting material, leaving enough open space to see through about the top 1/3 of the tube. These grasses are readily available at fleet and farm supply stores, or you can pick up one of our Maintenance Bundles which include nesting material and flax straw for patching nesting tubes.  

You should inspect the nesting tube's outer flax material yearly and simply stuff in more flax straw or a sturdy straw substitute as needed to fill any gaps in the tube.  If you want to completely start over, you can also do an 'overhaul' on the flax portion of the tube.  Remove the hog rings from the outer wire, unroll the nesting tube and replenish your straw.  Roll back up, re-hog ring and you are good for many seasons. 

Ducks will not bring nesting materials into the hen house, so it is important to fill your tubes 2/3rds of the way full every year with nice nesting material. We like to use Timothy grass or similar natural prairie grasses for the nesting material. Predation found in ground nesting is largely avoided when ducks choose to nest in a hen house! 

• 8ft-10ft steel base pipe (8 FT pipe Included in our Complete Kits) 
• Ice Chisel, ice-auger, Jiffy Ice Scout or waders for open water install 
• Post driver 
• Pliers 
• 2 - 9/16 wrenches or sockets  

Our hen houses come ready to go with the nesting tube, adjustable cradle, fastening wire, and nesting material.  All you will need to get your hen house into action is an 8ft-10ft base pipe - 1.25in. x 1.25in. square steel tube 

(8 FT pipe Included in our Complete Kits). 

We currently do not offer a freight-shipping option for our hen houses or base pipes. Shipping these large over-sized items is not a viable option at this time.  We will arrange local pickup upon ordering.  Please contact us if you'd like to discuss pick-up options.