New to raptor motherhood

[Cheryl Pyles]

Hey there never raised birds before. My husband and I have been dreaming of having a big property and raising our own food. We are living on ten acres now in a travel trailer while a new manufactured home is built. We have been researching what we we want to raise and how for over 2 years. We are planning on permaculture- roatating the bird yard weekly- haven’t decided on rotating coop or spoke wheel yard with stationary cop yet.
White African geese, Guinea fowl, Jersey chickens

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I thought the question was really about raptors.
Welcome to the site and it should be an interesting adventure for you.
A single coop with a wagon wheel approach is a good option for rotating pasture and save money on housing. That said, I always recommend chicken keepers have at least two housing options and preferably separated by a considerable distance. (pathogens can spread pretty far through the air)
The reason is that inevitably, you'll have sick, injured or new birds as well as broody hens and/or baby chicks you shouldn't raise with the adults. An additional building will serve as a quarantine building.
It may be best to have the geese in different quarters than the JGs.
Guineas can be a chore because they aren't as bright and often don't want to go inside at night.

 

[lazy gardener]

Your thread title is confusing. Raptors are birds of prey. Can you put your general location in your profile? It will help folks to connect with you and give climate specific information.

What are your long term goals? What is your maximum flock size? Do you intend to raise your own chicks? Harvest your own meat?

While some folks do successfully keep a flock full time in a portable tractor, those tractors need to be quite small in order to be truly portable, and it is very difficult to make a tractor predator proof. My recommendation would be to build a permanent coop, and add a tractor that can double as secondary housing, broody or isolation pen, cockerel grow out pen, or simply be moved around the yard to let a group of birds prep soil for a new garden bed/spot.

What ever you build, make it predator proof, and put lots of ventilation in it, no matter what your climate.

I have no experience with housing geese or Guineas, so can't help you there. For chickens, the general rule of thumb for back yard flock is a MINIMUM of 4 s.f. in coop and 10 s.f. in run per chicken. You might look into Premier1 electronet poultry fencing.

 

[chickadoodles]

Hi Cheryl and welcome to BYC!
We have a coop page that has ton's of pics of coops and tractors if you would like to get some ideas.

 

[N F C]

Good advice from the previous greeters so I'll just say hello and thanks for joining us!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The OP may want to post some questions in the following forums.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance.9/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/geese.47/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/guinea-fowl.45/

 

[chicken4prez]

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself comfortable.

 

[Bridger Davis]

Welcome to BYC! It's nice to have you here! You'll soon find that the members here are like family! If you need info about chickens, drumstick diva is your gal. If you need some help regarding ducks, talk to chickens really. Have fun with the site and feel free to contact me as well if you need help with chickens OR ducks!

B.A.D.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi Cheryl and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us As @lazy gardener suggested, electric netting from premier 1 is a great start. Everything at my place moves. My longer term portable shelters are 8'X12.5' and six foot tall (cattle panel construction, but I would not use them without the hot wire). I use 8X8X2.5 shelters with 3 hot wires at the bottom for my meat birds and for grow out pens. I also have a 3' variant for my turkey (which is a total pain for me but works for them). I think the next one I build will be much taller. Again welcome.

 

[ronott1]

Welcome to Back Yard Chickens!

Guessing you will settle of both types of coops