Poultry Stop

Ohio History

Chicken Farm

Heading away from Fort Ancient, we were eager to find a park and eat lunch. However, we were not in too much of a hurry (or I was not, that is) to stop for a look at a chicken operation that we passed. Who would imagine finding such an elaborate poultry set up out in the rolling hills of southwestern Ohio? Needless to say, I was at least a little bit excited. And of course I took plenty of pictures, so you can get excited too! Above you can see the whole setup, with a covered house and outdoor feeder for the laying hens. There were also broiler (meat) chicks being raised, which you can see in the chicken runs in the bottom picture. This is the typical "chicken tractor" arrangement, with twenty or twenty-five meat birds contained in a low, large, wire-enclosed run. You might be able to make out the red hanging feeder on the right, and I suppose that the buckets on top feed water into some kind of waterer down inside. The runs are covered at one end both for shade and for protection from predators reaching through the wire.

Broiler Runs