This is the largest chicken house in South Amana, and I would wager in the entire Amana Colonies. It sits atop the hill from which one can see the sprawling river valley and a few of the other villages on a clear day. Since the lower South Amana hotel held residents, customers, and also a kitchen, this chicken house had to be large.
Each kitchen, or in this case the hotel, had to take care of their own chicken coop. This provided chicken meat and fresh eggs. The majority of the chickens were hens. Only enough roosters were kept to ensure that there would be more chickens next year! Some people also kept ducks, geese, and an occasional pig in these pens, though this was probably after 1932.
I was not able to find the construction date on this building. After it was no longer used as a chicken house, it became part of the farm department. It was used for storage, washing machinery, and as a fueling station. It is still used in some capacity by the Amana Society Farms.