Getting Starting...Again!

cristina

Chirping
12 Years
Apr 29, 2011
48
4
94
Lloyd Harbor
I can't believe it's been 4 years since I've been on BYC! I was a total newbie raising 3 RIRs and you all welcomed and advised me with such love and patience and wisdom! Since then we've doubled our (human) brood (totaling 4), and moved to a new house/neighborhood (raccoon and deer country). So I'm VERY excited to resume chicken-raising. My youngest is 17 months now, so I'm prepared now to add chicken-raising to my daily agenda, along with homeschooling. Looking forward to it. Anyway......

We have nothing now...no chickens, no coop, no fence....only land. My plan is to carve out a (large) area of the backyard for about 10 hens with a fence, and just put a no-frills coop for them that would give them a safe and comfortable place to roost, lay, and be protected from predators. Anybody have any ideas or photos of something like this? That would save me from browsing zillions of listings. Does this sound about right? I'm rusty on my chicken-raising. All the equipment from our last flock was all homeade, which I loved, but I personally built the fence when I was 7 months pregnant, so it's quality (and appearance) was compromised, to say the least ;)

Anyway, any new beginnings advice you can offer is appreciated! I've already spoken to two helpful gentlemen from whom I plan to buy pullets. I really just want some guidance on the initial set up of their home (fence, coop, etc).

I also plan to integrate some goats in the next year or two, so it would be great if their shelter could double for the goats too. Is that possible?

Thank you BYC community!!! Sorry for lengthy message. I'm sooooo excited!! :)
 
Greetings from Kansas, cristina, and
welcome-byc.gif
! Or should I say welcome back! Happy you are back in the chicken game! You might ask the folks in the link below about housing chickens and goats together: https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/22/other-pets-livestock
Best wishes!
 
I have a very simple but baffling (for me, anyway) question....

In me preparations to house the hens I have yet to get (gonna have a coop/shelter with large fenced-in free range area), I'm confused as to how to keep them protected at night WITHOUT going out to the coop every night to shut their door. Is this possible? Their fenced in run area will not have a "ceiling" fence...just around the sides to keep them from getting out.

I want to protect my (soon-to-be) flock better than I did my last one, so I'm trying my best, given the family constraints I have (going out to the coop every night once they're in is not practical for us).

Thank you!
 
Hey cristina

I have no experience with them because our run is completely enclosed and we have a low predator risk and warm climate so our coop door is always open, but you can get automatic coop doors.

If you pop ‘automatic coop door’ into the search option you will see numerous threads on the subject.

Good luck.
 

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