1 thing I wish I knew when I was starting out...

[Roxannemc]

I agree with everyone. .SIZE.......m y baby chicks were so SO tiny ....i had NO IDEA how BIG LF chickens get!
Picture each of your grown chickens as about 2 .6 ' tall and about 24 inches wide to be sure

Also i didnt know they like to play jump and fly a little in the air so if they are in it all the time. not free range . at all .height is more important than a dumb city bred girl like me knew.

My Silver laced Brahma roos head now goes over the what i thought was a decent height tractor run i built for the 2 of them when they were 3 months old by about 3 inches!
Thought they needed it long not high Its 2 ft high and hes about 2 ' 3 " tall now at 8 months
Luckily it doesnt have wire on the top so far just a tarp and 1/3rd of the run is 4 ft high

So Taller run is first thing for me when it warms up .Bigger taller tractor coop wouldnt hurt either

 

[amenfarm]

That a fort Knox coop and run is essential for chicken keeping. We built the coop with hardware wire so nothing could reach in and pull chickens through the wire. When we set up the dog run, 10x10x6, we have not gone around the base and added a apron wire to keep predators from digging in. The girls have to be carried to the run because we haven't set one up beside the coop yet because of space constants. Turns out it's a good thing they have to be carried over--my husband caught the neighbor's two dogs trying to dig in. If you have chickens you will have a predator find you at some point--Build with that in mind. Chicken wire is for chickens--and will not protect from anything other than another chicken.

 

[chickenmomma16]

Love the pictures!  thanks!!!  This might sound dumb but we never clipped wings growing up and my chicks don't come until middle of March--- but if you clip their wings so they can't fly over fences, which I intend to do, how high of a roost can they get up on?  will they need a ramp? or should we build a roosting ladder and can they then climb that ladder?  Insight would be helpful!  Thanks!

That's a tough one to answer. I think it all depends on the breed. The heavier the breed the harder it is for them to fly. I clipped half of their wing feathers and I still had one hen light breed fly over our 6ft + high fence. But on my heavier chickens I didn't have to clip at all they were to fat to take flight.

 

[Kikiriki]

I wish I had known 3 chickens could denude my entire backyard of grass! Over 1500 sq ft!!

And I wish I known that I would be filling in 6 inch deep holes all over the yard! I now have a temporary fence that confines them to the half of the back yard not directly behind the house.

I wish I had known to buy grass seed to make sod trays for them in the winter.

I wish I known that cheap wood for a ladder would cause them bumble foot: no more ladder, no more foot problems!

I wish I had made their coop wider so they could more easily come down off the roost with a less steep ladder than the one they no longer have!

I wish I had put the roost farther from the wall to prevent poop runs, which also would have required a wider coop.

I wish I had made their nest box out of something portable, so I could take them to a fresh forage area without distressing them. (my mom is dying for them to come clean out her swale after seeing what they did to my yard!)

I wish I had really thought about how many eggs I need! Three strong layers means way too many eggs for us: I give them away weekly: half a dozen to a family that is struggling and has young children, some to my next door neighbor, four to my mom, and the occasional half dozen to various other friends!

I really wish I could run an air conditioning vent to their coop for the summer because I really worried about them last year.

I am glad they have sand as the coop base: it cleans up really easily and if I had a poop tray, I would keep an inch of sand in it. The poo dries out really fast and there is little odor unless we have a very very heavy rain for days.

I am glad I painted the interior of the coop because it make cleaning easier.

I am glad I gave them plenty of roost space so they can pick their spot and spread apart when it is hot.

I am glad I used extra weed block fabric I had to cover the run: it creates deeper shade and allows airflow.

I am glad my girls do not get chicken feed with GMO corn: steam rolled oats and BOSS and all the bugs they can eat and greens before they denuded the yard kept them healthy and laying (at a reduced rate) through the winter. Eating their eggs does not give me gas, but store bought eggs do.

 

[Lawrence62]

I learned this like everyone else - the hard way. Pay careful attention to the placement of your in-coop waterer. In my first two coops, I put their waterer a ways from the (people) access door. This necessitated either entering the coop and getting my boots all dirty or practically standing on my head to reach the waterer to clean it or put in fresh water. On my last coop, I made an elevated shelf attached to a swing out door that held the waterer. When the door is shut, the waterer swings under the poop board preventing messy water and cumbersome access. I highly recommend it.

 

[NC ChickenKate]

My 8 hens are living in their second coop and I agree with chickenmomma16 about the Sweet PDZ under the roost. My 8 ft. long 2 x 4 roost has a fixed 6" wide x 4 " deep tray filled with 3 1/2 inches of PDZ. Because the only windows of the roost are across the North side of the coop, the tray is affixed to the South side of the roost. Chickens will roost with their heads toward the window and their fluffy butts away from the window. I'd estimate 99.5% of all their poop falls into the tray. The PDZ dries the poo and takes all the odor away. No odor, no flies, easiest of clean-ups even in the hot, muggy humid Summers here in the South Eastern coast. Their first coop used the deep litter method. MAJOR cleanup every 4 to 6 months and it was a great breeding ground for flies. The shavings were everywhere around the 1/2 acre even into the house. The 50 lb. sack of PDZ lasted over six months and cost less than $25. The largest bales of pine shavings I could find cost $18 a bale and I'd go through a bale every 2 months, so there has been a cost savings there too. First coop was 7" x 7" with a 7' x 8' yard and I could walk into both of them. It had four 12" x 12" nest boxes and they traded off using only two of them, sometimes cramming two or three birds into one. The second coop is 8" long by 2 1/2 ft wide and two stories with the roost on the top floor and two 12" hi x 16" deep x 24" wide nest boxes on the bottom floor. There are hinged doors front and back to be able to access the roost, the roost's poo tray, the nest boxes and egg collection from outside the coop. It took my 8 hens two days to learn how to navigate the ramps up and down to get to their 12' x 16' roofed yard. They still occasionally cram two or three into a box to lay at the same time but now there is plenty of room. Smaller coop, larger roofed yard, Sweet PDZ tray under the roost = happier hens and owner.

 

[ruffles]

All of our 32 chickens are kept in dog kennels, over 200 feet,

I have been fearful to use any electricity around the chickens, even if it were feasible.

 

[JanetS]

Kikiriki

I also live in Florida and know about the heat. This is what we did for our chickens last summer. We put a fan in the run(has roof) and also one in their coop(which is 3' x 6') aimed at the
nesting boxes. We also bought Vitamins & Electrolytes powder from TSC and put this in their water. Doing this made a big difference. Our chickens did great with the heat.

 

[BullChick]

I agree about the use of sand. It is not talked about often. I use it in the big coop even in the winter. It stays clean with a litter scoop or a pitchfork with 1/4" hardware cloth zip tied on. When the coop gets wet due to anything (mud, rain, snow or a spilled waterer) the pine chips will stink worse than with your guinea pigs. Sand can be turned, and the dry sand is exposed. Also, in the winter, a rake will get the poop out in no time flat!
During summer, the sand will stay cooler during the day, and keep the flock happier when dust bathing. As one sand user said, chickens spend a lot of time on the perch while in the coop. Don't fret about the sand temperature come winter.

 

[chicki-vicki]

oh good one - putting the roost away from the wall for poop reasons - admittedly I had not even thught of that - I am in the planning stage I have been serching and researching - ther is a 12x16 building on my hubby's newly aquired land it sure looks like a chicken coop to me - the fort knox constructionI got that idea and will be doing everything I possible can. I'm not sure how much room let's say 6 chickens would need? I was thinkg spliting the building in half - half coop - half stroage. They will have a large run , halfhard covered and halve open but netted. Any input would be appreciated