Fresh Air or Bust To stay healthy, your chickens need plenty of ventilation--probably more than they're getting today. This was discovered over 100 years ago, but has been largely forgotten.

Instead, today's small-flock housing tends to be dank, dark, and smelly. Chickens, like miners' canaries, are easily harmed by poor air quality. Wet litter breeds disease, and darkness forces chickens, like parrots, to be artificially inactive. "Dank, dark, and smelly" is a deadly combination

Closed chicken houses are so harmful that knocking out a wall can cause an...