I also have a big yard in the suburbs and one of my young chickens was killed by a hawk, but I managed to chase the hawk off, so there was no doubt how it died. My hens now war=tch the sky pretty carefully and take cover when they see one in the sky.
My town allows up to 4 hens for homes on lots under half an acre. Roosters are not allowed. If you have more than half an acre, you can have more hens.
You can see from the pic above that the coop is slightly off the ground and between 2 trees. They love the space between the tree and the fence up by the coop. They can also duck under the coop and there is a nest box attached to the outside of the coop behind the tree on the right. I also...
There is no enclosed space, but they have free access to the coop. there are vertical elements in the yard like a tree and a power pole that I could attach a "porch" for them to get under.
This is a followup to another thread I started. I a coop and auto feeder/waterer all in the same area. This is the area where my yard birds spend most of their time even though they have access to the full yard all day. I have noticed that they are tearing up the yard in that space. What can...
I keep the feed and the water close to the coop and I built things around the coop for them to get in an under. I positioned the coop such that I could easily look out the window and check up on them. I suspect a good part of the area around the coop will be bare dirt. I might consider doing...
I have a nice lawn with a big back yard in the DFW area, but I have always struggled with certain weeds before my lawn would come out of dormancy. I just realized a few days ago, that I do not have weeds in my back yard. I have the normal stuff out front, but this is the first year ever where...
No, but I did forget it one night, which is how I know it would go all night. I use it to lure them in, then I turn it off before I go to bed and lock up. I then use it again in the morning because I get up before the sun does. It gets them aclimated before I go to work. Before this, I ran a...
I primarily use it to get them in the hen house at night and to wake them before the sun comes up. I wanted to stsop running a cable across the yard. This takes care of the lighting and the chicken cam.