- Thread starter
- #11
imacowgirl2
Songster
My housing setup for these birds:
8’x10’ hoop coop, with sides that I will mostly roll up within the next week or so as it gets warm consistently here.
Run is roughly 20’ wide by 15’ long - the whole run is roughly 40’ long but I have about 25’ off that fenced off and only turn them in that part occasionally, with hopes that I may be able to get the grass to survive long(er) term to provide some ranging area for the hens and rooster who are long term occupants.
Water is an 8 gallon vacuum galvanized container…I’m not 100% happy with it because of how hard it if to refill, especially if it doesn’t go empty first, so I’m planning on replacing this with a large trash can with poultry cups. For my layers, I prefer vertical or horizontal nipples, but I just feel like these birds can’t get enough water out of the nipples.
For feed, we are using a 10 foot vinyl gutter, attached to the outside of the run fence, with a piece of vinyl siding attached to the fence above it to provide a partial roof and to keep the layer flock out of the meatbird feed. This has worked really well…the only drawback is that the rooster can’t get his head through the fence due to his large wattle and comb, so I provide him some food in a small dish on the inside of the pen next to where the gutter is.
And a couple pics of the pretty ladies, who are hanging out in the layer hens “free range pen” until I get enough eggs collected to set:
8’x10’ hoop coop, with sides that I will mostly roll up within the next week or so as it gets warm consistently here.
Run is roughly 20’ wide by 15’ long - the whole run is roughly 40’ long but I have about 25’ off that fenced off and only turn them in that part occasionally, with hopes that I may be able to get the grass to survive long(er) term to provide some ranging area for the hens and rooster who are long term occupants.
Water is an 8 gallon vacuum galvanized container…I’m not 100% happy with it because of how hard it if to refill, especially if it doesn’t go empty first, so I’m planning on replacing this with a large trash can with poultry cups. For my layers, I prefer vertical or horizontal nipples, but I just feel like these birds can’t get enough water out of the nipples.
For feed, we are using a 10 foot vinyl gutter, attached to the outside of the run fence, with a piece of vinyl siding attached to the fence above it to provide a partial roof and to keep the layer flock out of the meatbird feed. This has worked really well…the only drawback is that the rooster can’t get his head through the fence due to his large wattle and comb, so I provide him some food in a small dish on the inside of the pen next to where the gutter is.
And a couple pics of the pretty ladies, who are hanging out in the layer hens “free range pen” until I get enough eggs collected to set: