Building a Barn, Drought Resistant Plants n' Safe For Chickens - Landscaping Help Please :) and Than

[Whittni]

First Plan:
Building a chicken Corral, with nice landscaping. I really like succulent plants and I've heard they won't hurt chickens, are there varieties that will hurt them? I was thinking live stumps with succulents in them? There's a picture below.

Can I have a list with pictures of drought resistant and chicken safe plants? I want something that will just be green all year and NO CACTI. If I fell on it I want nothing to be hurt except the plant.

I'm fine with real looking fake flowers but I do want real plants in the ground...thoughts? Pictures?


I saw this on Google and thought it looked cool, but if I did this I wouldn't have rotten stumps, I'd have full ones and ujst cut a chunk out for the plants and they'd be the "hens and chickens" kind.

Second Plan:
We've decided to construct a "Bantam Barn" in our unused side of our house. Its where I'll keep my show chickens and my dad will have a spot for his quail trio. The barn will be 17' long by 5' across and no more than 7' tall.

The barn would resemble this but block out the sight of my neighbor's garage.


The question about the barn is How Big should each chicken pen be? I figured 2-3 chickens in each and the barn would let you walk in a foot or so before the chicken pens? I'm also planning for a small swamp cooler to keep the temperture cooler in the coop.

Thoughts?

Thank you.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Well, I can't help you with the plants. I don't think what grows in Arkansas would grow the same in Utah. However, I will tell you, chickens seem to have a natural ability to tell what is edible and what's not, unless it is man made. My chickens free range on my 20 acres where there are plenty of poisonous plants and not one chicken has ever been poisoned. As for the bantam barn, if the chickens would not have a run, I would make sure that each chicken has 5 sq feet of space at least. If there is a run, then that could be less, like 2.5 feet per bird. If there will be no run, then you could put 17 bantams in a 17' by 5' barn (going on the 5 sq ft per bird theory) but that doesn't take into account a part of the barn used for walking space. If you want 2-3 chickens in each pen, then you would need about 7 different pens. Personally though, I would put 3-4 chickens in each pen. This is really all just theorizing, so leave lots of room for error. I do not think that if the barn is just 5 ft in width that there will be walking room in front of the pens. That would be really tight. I would probably make the barn 14 feet by 7 1/2 feet myself. I would leave room for a 2 1/2 ft-3 ft walk way. That would leave about 66.5 sq feet of space for the bantams. I would then divide it into 4 separate pens that would be about 16.6 sq ft each. I would put 3-4 bantams in each pen. That would be room for up to 16 bantams in the barn and allow for walk space.

 

[Mud Pie]

Your thoughts on having plants around the chicken run is something I am trying to do. The sedums on the ground between the logs in your picture are loved by my hens. I use to have a lot of it, but they ate it!

I have made a circle of logs about 5' in diameter in the center of the little hen yard. I then filled the logged in area with some soil and garden waste. I have dug worms and placed them in the center to establish a worm colony . The logs hold moisture and draw various types of bugs (termites and carpenter ants) that the chickens love. I water the logs and area from time to time to keep it slightly moist. I roll out a log on one side of the log circle and they scratch around looking for interesting dining. After about 4 months, the bug garden seems to be well established. I toss garden waste on one side to keep the bugs happy and growing. The chickens are healthy and happy in their little bug garden.