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In the Brooder
Apr 12, 2021
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Just bought a new house in the country after bouncing around a few neighborhoods over the past 20 years. House came with a coop and 10 free ranged chickens. Really looking forward to getting back into the chicken world as we had 20+ chickens back in the day. We have a couple of araucanas, baird rocks and a couple others which I cannot remember right now. Moving in mid-May and am planning out a new coop and run. Can't wait for those fresh eggs!!! I guess one question I have is how to acclimate our dog to the chickens. He is a 50# labradoodle and loves to chase squirrels and deer. I will have to train him not to chase the chickens.

My wife and I will be doing a big remodel of the house, but really looking forward to the chickens too!!
 
:welcome Welcome to the forum.

After a number of years since I had meat chickens, I got myself 10 laying hens a few years ago. I am really enjoying this go round with the hens. I always enjoyed raising meat chickens, but never liked harvesting time. With the laying hens, I get to enjoy the eggs every day.

You might be in for an unpleasant surprise if you plan on building a wooden chicken coop. The price of wooden building material where I live is about 4X-5X the cost of just a year ago. When I built my chicken coop a few years ago, a sheet of 4X8 OSB cost about $7.00, today, that same OSB sheet would cost $35.00. A standard 2X4 selling for about $2.00 a couple years ago, now costs $8.00. Lumber prices are extremely high right now.

I had a few wood projects planned for this spring, but I have decided to put them off and/or using non-wood substitutes. For example, my raised wooden garden beds are now being made with galvanized sheet metal panels. My extended chicken run with nice looking wood posts will now be made with metal T-posts. Not a big deal, but I just prefer the look of wood.

Don't know much about training your house dog to play nice with chickens. Trust is earned, not just given, when it comes to dogs and chickens. It would be a shame to lose chickens to your dog, but just as difficult to get upset with your dog if it's his nature to chase down and hunt animals. I grew up with hunting dogs,, and they would catch and kill just about anything they could. But I never had dogs and chickens at the same time. So I wish you the best in working that out. Hope your dogs sees the chickens as something he should protect as part of his family. Some dog breeds are very good at that.
 

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