Garden cart with hen house on top

[Mark]

Just thought it was time for an update.

1. After two years of use, the mobility factor doesn't seem very important. It basically allowed us the ability to try various places for a hen house. For a month or two, we moved it around every week. Then one hen died in the afternoon heat, and we decided to put it in the shade. Once there, it seemed so natural and convenient, it didn't make sense to move it, again.

2. It is a bit small for 16 hens. It is probably about right for 12 hens. Currently, we have 13. They all free-range.

3. We have not had any trouble with predators getting into the hen house (knock on wood).

4. Our 3 dogs now ignore the chickens, but loose dogs wandering by have been a problem.

5. We love our chickens! Thanks for all the help!

Mark

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Thanks for the update Mark!

 

[Mark]

November of last year, we had 13 hens. We are now down to 8. Spring has really brought out the predators. I've caught two opossums, and have a trap out tonight for a raccoon.

The opossums were catching hens nesting in the relatively unsecured pen. As the temperatures warmed, a couple of hens started spending the night in the nest boxes. This was new. In the past, broody hens would disappear into the brush for a few weeks. It turned out the nest boxes made it easy for the opossums to trap and catch the broody hens. One opossum got two hens before we caught it. We caught the other opossum a couple of weeks later. By then, we had lost three hens.

Last night, a raccoon caught two hens that had been roosting in the barn. These two had gone wild, and refused to nest with the other hens. I credit their 'going wild' to the size of the hen house....TOO SMALL! The two went wild when there were 14 hens trying to fit into the hen house. The birds all fight for the top row which only has room for 7 hens. Instead of taking a lower run, these two headed for the trees. When it got cold in the winter, they settled into the barn.

There will be major revisions to the Tractor later this spring. 12 chicks will arrive around April 28th. The main thing will be to triple the size of the hen house and make the top row big enough for 20 hens. Also, I'm going to raise the hen boxes at least 4 feet off the ground, and provide no climbing options for a raccoon to climb up and visit. Food and water will be up there, too.

 

[jab91864]

I'm sorry for your loss !!!

I look forward to pics of the re-do on the coop.

 

[Mark]

Another update.

All the chickens are gone. Back in May, a raccoon killed every chicken in the hen house. There were two surviving chickens that had moved out. They were roosting in trees and nothing happened to them. I guess we could have forced them back into the empty hen house, but it didn't feel right. A predator, probably a raccoon got the last of the two wild birds a week ago.

I've been procrastinating about updating and expanding the chicken house, but doing nothing isn't working any, either.

OK. So, what has happened since I last posted here.

1. I didn't make the expand the hen house. It got moved down the hill to the goat pen and everyone seemed pretty happy. The activity of the goats and horse seemed to decrease the predator pressure.

2. We lost about 16 chicks to 'birds of prey' during the spring of 2011. Our hens hatched these chicks in our woods, so we let them handle everything. It didn't work out very well.

3. In late spring 2011, something started picking off a hen every couple of days, in broad daylight. After 6 hens disappeared, it stopped. Our next door neighbor had a flock about the size of ours, and lost a number of hens, too.

4. Then, we had the raccoon break-in during May 2013.

So, what to make of all this.

1. Plan to repair and update locks before disaster occurs. Though I'm still upset about it, the hen house actually worked pretty well. The locking 'hen door' just wore out after 6 years of use. The raccoon break-in was made possible by wear-and-tear on the locking mechanism. The design was not easy to clean or rebuild, so it didn't happen. Lesson, just because it has kept raccoons out for years, doesn't mean it will continue to do so. Design for maintenance!

2. Build bigger than you can imagine needing. Everything was too small. The run was too small. The hen house was too small.

3. Build a covered run big enough to keep the whole flock inside for a month, and big enough to walk in yourself. Locking up free ranging birds is critical, and being able to lure your flock 'inside' the run (with food, of course) is extremely useful.

4. Have a plan for a brooder and fenced area for juveniles. My current thought suggests dividing the 'run' such that juveniles can be kept apart. There needs to be a way to keep the 2 month old chicks in, and let eveyone else out. This requires electricity.

5. Food has to be easy to lock up at night. If at all possible, food and water should never be available to rats, mice, possums or raccoons. Never!

6. Another 'make it bigger' topic: try to get broody hens to raise their chicks in hen-house (with maximum security). I don't know if this is possible, but it sure would help. Keeping free-range broody hens alive has been a real problem. Keeping their chicks alive is equally hard.

7. Plan for maintenance. Floors and ground need to be convenient to clean. Doors and locking mechanisms need to be easy to repair.

****

8. We never had problems with cold weather, but lost several chickens to summer heat. They love water and mud when it gets hot. When temp was over 100, we would turn on a hose a bit above a drip and let it run all day. If the hens are going to be kept in the run for any length of time in the summer, ventilation, shade, clean water and 'clean mud' need to be available.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Wow Mark, thanks for the long-overdue update!

Sorry to hear about the coon attack... we hate them little buggers!

Can you elaborate on the "locking mechanism" and what specifically happened / failed?

 

[aart]

I love seeing threads updated year after year, it's so interesting to see a concept built, tested and improved upon.

Good Luck Mark...can't wait to see what you come up with next!

 

[Mark]

Can you elaborate on the "locking mechanism" and what specifically happened / failed?

The hen house had two doors. One for us, and one for the chickens. The 'human door' was never breached. The 'chicken door' was about 9 inches by 9 inches, and was located at the top of a stair inside the run. The door was based on an automatic door design, but only used gravity and human power. The door itself was much larger then the opening, and fit into runners. It would slide well past the opening and all the edges were concealed behind the channels the door moved within. At the top, there was a metal pin to lock the whole thing in place. The pin and handle to move the door were outside the coop and run.

When new, the channel the door slid through was relatively tight and it was hard to move the door. Over time, the locking pin tended to be ignored. It was hard enough to slide the door with the handle, and the door was a hard plastic cutting board, so there was no way to move the door except with the exterior handle. There was a lot of friction. We went through 3 cutting boards in 6 years because the exterior handle would break.

Unfortunately, the end of the channel seems to have filled up with debris. I would clean it out periodically, but the combination of long term build up at the channel end, reduced friction due to channel wear and/or something falling into the channel so the door didn't slide well past the openning, must have allowed the raccoon to get a claw under the door and pry it open.

The basic idea was good, but wasn't designed to be maintained easily. We had a low run, only 3 feet high. To get in and disassemble the sliding door channels, I had to remove the metal roof and goat fencing. It never happened.

Mark