- Jun 24, 2009
- 64
- 1
- 41
Hi,
Thi is a gret forum, I've been reading for several weeks.
I had chickens always as a kid, but none for the last 35 years so so.
We have 10 girls now- 2 who are about 6 months old and are laying, and 8 who were hatched around Easter.
We have moved them from the garage to the barn.
We converted a stall in our horse barn, which is actually a run-in shed type.
one 10X10 stall already had a small dog-door and 2 sets of dutch doors. We created an outdoor run thats L shaped with a large central area (we have two sheds placed on an L configuration and the sides that meet form an L shape on one side, if you follow me. We fenced that in as well as a strip down the back of each shed. So basically we've got a 10 X 10 central run, and two arms that are 7X 10.
We finished off the inside of the stall. It was dirt floor for horses but we put in a floor of 2X8s. There's an attached tack room, about 10X4, open to the stall, so we ran chicken wire up from the top of the stall to the ceiling.There are 2 windows, about 2X2, screened, with louvers.
There's a ridge vent in the ceiling.
We put up roosts made out of repurposed wooden closet rods. We made a bench about 2 feet off the ground with a garage workbench our nieghbors were throwing out. It's about 10X3. We put the nesting boxes on that.
The "aviary" consists of heavier guage green wire about 2X3 inch openings, about 5 feet high, on the inside. that's covered with a layer of chicken wire on the outside. Then there's a layer of heavier guage plastic mesh 1X1 or so, from 5 feet up to 8 feet up. The "ceiling" is a variety of meshes, some heavier than others, which comes across from the barn to the 4X4s of the fence, so essentially the whole run is netted/fenced.
The girls have their chicken door open during the day and closed at night.
We can't let them free range because of all the predators here. We have 13 acres of woods and wetlands. HAwks, fox, coyotes, weasles, fisher cats, raccoons, and occasionally a bobcat.
We are feeding laying crumbles and oyster shells. We give the girls kitchen scraps like apple peels, greens, pasta (their favorite), etc.
We have shavings on the floor inside.
The "aviary" is mostly dirt with lots of composty leaves- and thus lots of worms and bugs.
Can you think of anything else we should be doing?
Oh yeah- the fencing was dropped down into as much of a trench that we could dig, due to rocks and roots- about 6-8 inches, and cemented in. We're tried to make it as predator-proof as possible, sinch our daughter loves these birds as pets. She will be selling her eggs to help fund her Girl Scout Gold project when the rest of our girls begin laying in the fall.
Sorry for the long post. We are enjoying our girls and their different personalities- we have 2 red sex linked, 2 Buff Orps, 2 Austrolopes, 2 barred rocks and 2 silver lace Wyandottes.
Many Thanks!
Cindy
Thi is a gret forum, I've been reading for several weeks.
I had chickens always as a kid, but none for the last 35 years so so.
We have 10 girls now- 2 who are about 6 months old and are laying, and 8 who were hatched around Easter.
We have moved them from the garage to the barn.
We converted a stall in our horse barn, which is actually a run-in shed type.
one 10X10 stall already had a small dog-door and 2 sets of dutch doors. We created an outdoor run thats L shaped with a large central area (we have two sheds placed on an L configuration and the sides that meet form an L shape on one side, if you follow me. We fenced that in as well as a strip down the back of each shed. So basically we've got a 10 X 10 central run, and two arms that are 7X 10.
We finished off the inside of the stall. It was dirt floor for horses but we put in a floor of 2X8s. There's an attached tack room, about 10X4, open to the stall, so we ran chicken wire up from the top of the stall to the ceiling.There are 2 windows, about 2X2, screened, with louvers.
There's a ridge vent in the ceiling.
We put up roosts made out of repurposed wooden closet rods. We made a bench about 2 feet off the ground with a garage workbench our nieghbors were throwing out. It's about 10X3. We put the nesting boxes on that.
The "aviary" consists of heavier guage green wire about 2X3 inch openings, about 5 feet high, on the inside. that's covered with a layer of chicken wire on the outside. Then there's a layer of heavier guage plastic mesh 1X1 or so, from 5 feet up to 8 feet up. The "ceiling" is a variety of meshes, some heavier than others, which comes across from the barn to the 4X4s of the fence, so essentially the whole run is netted/fenced.
The girls have their chicken door open during the day and closed at night.
We can't let them free range because of all the predators here. We have 13 acres of woods and wetlands. HAwks, fox, coyotes, weasles, fisher cats, raccoons, and occasionally a bobcat.
We are feeding laying crumbles and oyster shells. We give the girls kitchen scraps like apple peels, greens, pasta (their favorite), etc.
We have shavings on the floor inside.
The "aviary" is mostly dirt with lots of composty leaves- and thus lots of worms and bugs.
Can you think of anything else we should be doing?
Oh yeah- the fencing was dropped down into as much of a trench that we could dig, due to rocks and roots- about 6-8 inches, and cemented in. We're tried to make it as predator-proof as possible, sinch our daughter loves these birds as pets. She will be selling her eggs to help fund her Girl Scout Gold project when the rest of our girls begin laying in the fall.
Sorry for the long post. We are enjoying our girls and their different personalities- we have 2 red sex linked, 2 Buff Orps, 2 Austrolopes, 2 barred rocks and 2 silver lace Wyandottes.
Many Thanks!
Cindy
