Chicken run ands coop - planning stages

[wvcruffler]

Howdy all,
The old pen is over 15 years old and the fencing has disintegrated to the point that raccoons have made some inroads and killed a good many birds this year. I am moving the pen far away from the woods to an enclosure where I used to keep my alpacas and llamas. Currently is is 138' wide and probably 3x that long. i am penning one end of it nearer to my house so that the 138' is the length and with with will be a little short of 60' (so I can possibly get by with 400' total of fencing). Right now it is sheep fence (the big square stuff). I am going to use the 2"x4"x48" welded wire "no climb" fence. I will move one or both of the previous wood coops (which are basically those wooden lawn tractor sheds with a hole cut in the back for the chicken ramp. The current pen has a fenced roof. This pen is far too big to roof or even for no-fly netting. There are 6 large trees along the side of the pen that will provide shade and some protection from eagles/hawks. I am going to see if I can run some electric fence tape along the top of the fence posts to keep the raccoons out. I suppose it is a work in progress. I wonder if anyone has a solar-powered chicken door closer so I don't have to truck out there every night. Anyway, as I work on this project I will try to post pics.

Did I forget to mention the duck pond I am putting in there? Gus the Goose is almost 20 now and needs a pond to play in.

Well, call me crazy, but I think this will be a big improvement over the small enclosure they are in now!

Dr.Phil

 

[bills]

A solar powered chicken door closer.

.now that is something I would like as well..Opens at dawn, closes at dusk..what a concept. Be great if you wanted to go away for a few nights, and couldn't find a chicken sitter..

That will be a heck of a run! The chickens should love the room to roam. Definitely harder to secure, but the electric wire should help with the climbers. What about the diggers? Are you able to do anything about that issue?

 

[wvcruffler]

Quote:
I have a patient who has some Anatolian-Great Pyr crosses that I can get for free. Might be the plan.
Phil

 

[Happy Chooks]

Not solar powered, but I have the inside mount automatic door from Foy's Pigeon Supply. It has a light sensor and works on 4 AA batteries. I love it, it works beautifully. I have 2 of them right now, and going to order a 3rd for my new coop. I just changed the batteries this week, they have been in there almost 1 1/2 years. We were going out of town for a few days and I didn't want to worry that the batteries would die while we were gone.