chicken mistakes (coop building questions)

[rigagirl]

All this is good and now i am ready to redesign for more convenience and a bigger flock. my husband hates that i found this site

 

[jjconcepts]

There is a lot of very good stuff.. thank you - i didn't consider the direction the door swings, as well as getting access without having to go inside.

thanks for everything so far.

as far as the run goes, i have heard of running the wire walls 6-8 inches below the soil, as well as using buried bricks, and the one I am considering is a wire floor with 4-6 inches of soil and hay on top.. we have coyote coons and possums in the yard regularly drinking from our small pond.

I am getting 17 week pullets to put inside.

 

[rigagirl]

I had thought of a few things and my husband told me to draw what i wanted everything to look like and also write down what i wanted, and i didn't get anything that i wanted or what i wanted my coup to look like but it is functionable. I wanted the floor to have wire, i wanted the coup to be off the ground , i wanted the coup to be outside the fence to give them more run space and i wanted 2 doors and i wanted a roosting area. I got none of that.

oops sorry i will stop now.

 

[jjconcepts]

Well, it's all good. I am going to be screwing pallets together, and covering them with old plywood. getting a thermostat, and not sure about the window. ... and so on.

. all i wanted was a few eggs for breakfast.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
Sounds like you have real predator potential. Another way to slow down digging predators is to put the hardware cloth horizontal instead of vertical at the fence. The theory is that a predator will try to dig next to the fence, hit the wire and be unable to go deeper. I saw a post on here where someone said a fox figured out to back up and dig, but that would be extremely rare. If you want to stop them from digging from the outside, put it outside the fence. If you want the digger to stay inside the fence, put it inside. Some people put it on top of the ground and let the grass grow through it but I buried mine a couple of inches. You can put rocks or bricks on it also to help hold it down. Remember to attach it to the bottom of your fence,. J-clips work great. And don't forget to also protect your coop if it is not entirely inside the run.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
Oh boy!

I'd do everything and I mean everything to make the run and coop as tight and strong as possible to avoid predation.

I had a coyote problem years ago. Darn dog was afraid of the coyote & I don't blame her after her boyfriend was beaten within an inch of his life by them. A 22 finally solved the problem but not before I'd lost about half my little flock.

I think there was probably a sharp intake of breath from a lot of chicken-keepers when they read about your coyotes, coons, and possums!

Steve

Welcome to BYC

!!

edited to say: Yeah, that's a good idea from Ridgerunner. Putting the coop entirely inside the run will set up 2 barriers against the predators during the night time hours.

 

[jjconcepts]

Everyone seems to get along.
we have a large garden most of the year and a cat that spends most of the time outdoors.. everyone just seems to come for the water so far, and leaves everything else alone.. they even leave the garbage cans alone.. our neighbors get their cans tossed regularly..
The coop will change that for awhile, but hopefully no .22 will be needed.. the bb's are all i have and hope to use. They animals were here first.

 

[digitS']

. . . chickens are easy pickin's.

 

[PortageGirl]

Quote:
OK, I'm going to say it, most of us are sitting here, shaking our heads... I understand a bit of what you're saying about the animals being here (there) first, but that doesn't mean we need to hand them a dinner reservation either. You seem to be planning for keeping them safe, but your chickens are prey. Plain and simple.

Housecats rarely consider hens food, they'll leave them alone most likely, FERAL cats might try, but are rarely successful.

Coons will climb over, dig under, open latches with their cleaver little fingers, or tear/chew wire to get to hens and eggs, they can also reach in through holes and wire openings and rip heads, legs, wings or just chunks out of a hen, eating what they can reach bit by bit. (Gross I know, but it's the hard truth)

Opossums will dig under, and will eat what they can, drag it out of the pen if they can as well...

Coyotes will kill every one if they can for the joy of killing, then carry one or two off to enjoy at their leisure.

Neighborhood dogs will look at them as toys, flappy noisy toys that are fun to chase, often killing is just an accident, but sometimes it will give them a taste of what it's like to return to being a predator as their ancestors once were... some breeds are closer to their predatory ancestors than others, but either way, your hens will be just as dead, be it toy or dinner.

Fox are also clever, and they are more common than most people realize, they are spreading fast throughout the country, and are every bit as adaptable to human settlements as are possums, raccoons, coyotes.

You also mentioned putting up some protection across the top of the run against winged predators, they too will be eying the chicken dinner buffet you are presenting them, but you seem to be taking that into consideration too...

Anyway, I'm not meaning to sound negative, I live where we have all the same predators, heh. It's all part of the joy of keeping hens! They don't all descend on the coop en mass for supper, but it’s good to plan for the dangers that are there.

 

[jjconcepts]

Thanx for the good points.. I will look a little harder to see that they are locked up.. and safe. the coop will be much improved with all this.
It's good to have a few people to help look at all the angles.. I will let you know how it goes..


thank you.
-joe-