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Many town and city dwellers are becoming interested in homesite farming these days . . . and, where local ordinances permit, such an operation might well include a small flock of poultry. If you’ve always wanted to keep a few chickens, but held off because you thought that the project required more room than you can spare from your limited plot . . . well, it doesn’t have to!

When necessary, although they won’t be as happy as they would in a large run, chickens can be kept in a very restricted area and still enjoy good health and a reasonable degree of comfort. That’s the goal I had in mind when I planned the cage you see in the accompanying illustrations. The coop measures 7-1/2 by 3 feet and provides brooding, growing, and laying facilities for 10 to 12 birds . . . enough to produce half a dozen eggs a day, which is more than sufficient for the average family. If you live in a mild climate where temperature, seldom drop to freezing, this system may be just right for you.

On the other hand—though I believe the cage is well suited to Fig 1 backyard poultry—keeping in the more temperate areas in the U.S.—it wasn’t invented for that purpose. I designed it the island of Mauritius (where I served as a micro-farming specialist with the Peace Corps) for use by the Rural Reconstruction Project, a division of the Mauritian Economic Planning Unit.

Mauritius lies off the African coast to the east of Madagascar, and its climate forced me to a compromise between my own inclinations and the realities of life in that latitude. Personally, I prefer to keep chickens in roomy grow ground enclosures . . . but because of the severity of coccidiosis in many tropical countries, such confinement often proves less humane than the clean environment of a cage.

Colony cage, complete with burlap blinds
and egg shelf.

On the other hand, I hate battery cages. To allow a bird only enough room to stand and sit—without even space to turn around—is incredibly cruel. The EPU colony cage is, I think, by far preferable . . . and even offers a few advantages over the admittedly more natural surroundings of the conventional chicken run:

Fig 2

[1] Ease and economy of construction
[2] Increased efficiency, which allows you more time for other chores
[3] High percentage of clean eggs, and tow incidence of cracked or crushed shells
[4] Prevention of roundworms and coccidiosis—that nefarious chick killer—by means of the wire floor
[5] Easy collection of manure for use in the garden