Good day everyone - first time poster - first time chicken owner (few weeks) - I tried to read thru as much as I could but there are 1000s of different articles and I felt it was best to create my own post. So - we moved into a property that already has a chicken coop (goat barn inside as well) and we want to make sure they stay safe inside, which we do have a lot of space indoors for nesting, but we want to also have "free range" (50x50) area connected with a 5ft wired 2x1in fencing that goes around entire square shown. As we are coming into it we are in a bind financially and do not have the means to purchase enough materials to enclose it as well. I know that many people just let their chicks run around the property during the day and put them away at night.
In saying that we do not want them to wander to far, with the road and others it would be too chaotic to keep track where we live. So - a 50x50 run that connects directly back into the coop is the plan. We are in the middle of MI farmland as you can kind of tell, and I do not think we would have any real animal threat given its isolation of not too many trees or rodents running around. Do you think we would be good with letting the chicks run around the outdoor space with just the border 5ft fencing while they are out pecking? Then, when they need to come in they just go thru the hatch and it gets closed very tight so if anything did happen to crawl into the run they can't do any damage besides look longingly at them from the 1 window.
That is a lot of text, sorry. My next question is probably on everyone's mind when they do this -- is this really a better long term plan vs spending a few hundred yearly on eggs and chicken? So far, the price for food - electric - care - time - materials - medicine if needed, well I am a numbers guy and I don't see how this balances out to where it becomes a fair trade and not a money pit. My understanding is 1/4lb food per chicken per day is sort of the average, my wife wants to get 20 meat and 20 laying chickens. I am not looking to get rich selling eggs or new chickens, but what kind of plans do the good people in the chicken forum do that either makes it far greater investment than most ventures, or at least breaking even and having fresh chicken and eggs available all the time? We are both new to this and it has become a large disagreement over 10$/month for eggs and maying 40$-50 a month for meat. Not to overdue the question, but feed alone is going to be 100's for this amount of bird food - not including the time, etc. If the apocalypse happens we have a few birds to take care or get eggs, but for some reason I am not getting the process. Thank you again for your time ---- Jake
In saying that we do not want them to wander to far, with the road and others it would be too chaotic to keep track where we live. So - a 50x50 run that connects directly back into the coop is the plan. We are in the middle of MI farmland as you can kind of tell, and I do not think we would have any real animal threat given its isolation of not too many trees or rodents running around. Do you think we would be good with letting the chicks run around the outdoor space with just the border 5ft fencing while they are out pecking? Then, when they need to come in they just go thru the hatch and it gets closed very tight so if anything did happen to crawl into the run they can't do any damage besides look longingly at them from the 1 window.
That is a lot of text, sorry. My next question is probably on everyone's mind when they do this -- is this really a better long term plan vs spending a few hundred yearly on eggs and chicken? So far, the price for food - electric - care - time - materials - medicine if needed, well I am a numbers guy and I don't see how this balances out to where it becomes a fair trade and not a money pit. My understanding is 1/4lb food per chicken per day is sort of the average, my wife wants to get 20 meat and 20 laying chickens. I am not looking to get rich selling eggs or new chickens, but what kind of plans do the good people in the chicken forum do that either makes it far greater investment than most ventures, or at least breaking even and having fresh chicken and eggs available all the time? We are both new to this and it has become a large disagreement over 10$/month for eggs and maying 40$-50 a month for meat. Not to overdue the question, but feed alone is going to be 100's for this amount of bird food - not including the time, etc. If the apocalypse happens we have a few birds to take care or get eggs, but for some reason I am not getting the process. Thank you again for your time ---- Jake