Chicken Design Project Needs You!

[kcfuerst]

[*]Do you keep chickens as a hobby or as a business?
Both. Started out as pets, but now I sell all my eggs.

[*]How long have you kept chickens?
4 Years.

[*]How many chickens do you have?
10

[*]What breed are they?
Delaware, Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, Black Sexlink

[*]What problems do you face keeping chickens (what is the most time consuming part of keeping chickens)?
Nothing. Everything is a breeze. The thing that takes the longest is cleaning the coop and run at 1.5 hours once every couple weeks. Since I live in the city and am supposed to never let them loose, they only get to free-range an hour a day at dusk. I stay out with them at all times.

[*]Have you had problems with predators in the past? (If so please say what kind of predator and what happened)
While I have lost no birds to a predator, there are plenty of hawks, skunks, possums, raccoons and such around my place. I have made sure my coop and run is predator-proof.

[*]What style of chicken housing do you have (material and size)?
8x8x8 shed-style coop made of wood and siding, concrete floor and deep litter, with 8x40' covered run. You can see it on my BYC page. Run is made of 1/2" welded wire buried 2' in cement and a corregated metal roof and gutters. I have two automatic gravity fed water tanks, and one indoor 22 lb feeder, exhaust fan in the coop for hot days, and a mister system in the run.

[*]Do you find areas of difficulty in different seasons?
During rainy times they don't get to go outdoors much, but they enjoy their large run on those days. No real difficulties.

[*]What happens to the chickens when you go away?
I can be away for a week without having to worry about feeding or watering them. Only need my great neighbor to collect eggs for me.

 

[Wise Woman]

Hi Luke. Lucky you to live in the UK. I am stuck here in So Cal. Here you go.

[*]Do you keep chickens as a hobby or as a business?
Hobby to provide for my family, but I do sell the extra eggs.

[*]How long have you kept chickens?
10 years now

[*]How many chickens do you have?
I currently have 26, but probably 6 or more will be roos and have to go. Also 7 of my hens are old and barely laying right now.

[*]What breed are they?
Rhode Island Reds, Easter Eggers, Blue Easter Eggers, White Easter Eggers, an Olive Egger, Cochins, Blue Marans, Buff Easter Egger, Black Copper Marans. I hope to get some Salmon Faverolles and Lavender Orpingtons next year.

[*]What problems do you face keeping chickens (what is the most time consuming part of keeping chickens)?
Right now it is the way my husband has our coop set up. Even though we are in So Cal, we live in the mountains at 6200 ft and often get 2 to 3 ft of snow at a time. Lugging buckets of hot water out to the coop is very difficult for me. We also do not have a covered run at this point and so the girls are often confined in their coop when it snows. We are building a new coop this summer though and I hope to alleviate all of these problems.

[*]Have you had problems with predators in the past? (If so please say what kind of predator and what happened)
No, for some reason we have not be bothered with predators.

[*]What style of chicken housing do you have (material and size)?
We currently have an 8x8 plywood coop that I hate.

[*]Do you find areas of difficulty in different seasons?
Yes, see above about winter. WE also have to shovel out the run just to get the coop door open.

[*]What happens to the chickens when you go away?
We can never afford to go away so it hasn't been a problem thus far. We are planning an anniversary trip next year and our daughter will stay and care for the animals.

HTH!

 

[LukeS-R]

Hi to everybody who has given me feedback!

I really appreciate it and it has been fantastic to have all this information and I have really enjoyed hearing everyone's stories!
The great thing is that for my project I now have a client as the school I go to is setting up a school farm with some chickens, ducks, pheasants and pigs as well as a little area for growing some vegetables and a little orchard. The teacher in charge has said that the best thing that he feels would be worth it on the site is to have an automated door for the chicken house as it means that even when there aren't any people around the chickens will be able to get out and in safely without predators being a problem. I want to go even further with this idea and try to automate the door over the internet as this could be the idea that furthers the technology that is already around.

I have just overseen the building of the chicken coop, it is in a slightly wooded area with 7 foot high chicken wire fences around it with another foot dug down into the ground below. There is then a wooden bar that goes along the bottom of all the fences to prevent predators getting in underneath. The house is awaiting delivery and so in the future we hope to have a few animals arriving.

It is all very exciting and should prove to be an amazing project that I could not have done without this vital research!

Many Thanks,

Luke

 

[The Yakima Kid]

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Our chickens are a hobby; this current batch we have only kept since February - however I kept them some forty years ago when I was in high school.

We have five; three Black Star egg laying hybrids and two Barred Plymouth Rocks.

Cleaning is probably the most time consuming part of keeping chickens.

We had a skunk that persisted in hanging around the yard at night; it was captured and euthanized. We also have raccoons, opossums, and other skunks in the area; there is also a large, nuisance Thomas cat. Hawks perch in a large eucalyptus tree planted three houses behind us here in California.

We keep an Eglu Go because it keeps our social climbing city government from outlawing chickens as being somehow exceedingly proletarian - but we have persuaded them that having an Eglu Go, a British product is Anglophilia in action, and Anglophilia is popular among those who would intend to be socially upwardly mobile.

We have issues when it rains - usually in autumn, winter, and spring although it may rain a day or two in the summer. There are also issues when the temperature goes above 85 degrees in the summer - in that case we add ice to the waterers.

When we go away we have a trusted neighbor who feeds and waters and removes any eggs; we do not ask her to shut them in at night or let them out in the morning - we just let them choose between run and house on their own and hope predators don't break through the run.

 

[CarolynF]

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Hi Luke,
You must have wire that is stronger than chicken wire!!! You say it's in a slightly wooded area which means you'll have predators whether you see them or not. Stray dogs, raccoons, fox, possoms, etc. can easily break thru chicken wire and will do it any time of day. And if that's what you've used in the 12 inches below ground, the same rule applies. If they can break it above ground, they can break it when digging. Also, a raccoon can easily reach through chicken wire and grab the chickens to rip off their head. You should put 1/2 inch hardware cloth on the bottom 3 feet of the run and use as least 2" x 4" welded, 16 gauge wire in the ground or for the skirt. Don't forget wire on the top to keep out birds of prey.

Please spend some more time reading about making the run predator proof and reading the gruesome reports about predator attacks. You'll be glad in the long run if you've spent more time constructing a safe home.

 

[lauriruth]

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