Rathornis
In the Brooder
- May 31, 2025
- 4
- 16
- 31
Looking for a bit of advice. We had a bear incident on the property that's forced me to consolidate my adult (~1 yr, 4 Australorp, 6 BYM bantam) flock with a bunch of 5-week old chicks (probably Australorp) until we can figure out if we're going to hot-wire the coop, relocate it, or try and better secure it some other way.
For the time being, everyone's being housed together in a 20x10 ft shed with a heavy gate on the front and has everything a chicken might want, but no access to an an outdoor run. So far, I've noticed no real conflicts between the two groups, who have been interacting between chain-link fences up until now.
So, my questions:
We're going to be keeping them in this shed for at least a week more (or until we're sure the bear situation is over) but I'm hoping to let them out to forage for a little while during the day, soon. If these were your birds, would you allow chicks that age out loose?
I just have two pans, one of chick crumbles and one of grower ration (+free choice of oyster grit) and am trusting each age group will eat whichever their little birdy bodies crave more. (My usual solution to mixed ages, a creep feeder made out of a dog crate, won't work since the chicks are now the same size as the bantams.) Since this looks to be going on longer than anticipated, should I figure out a way to separate them for the sake of the different feeds?
General bear advice--Specifically, does anyone have a ballpark cost of running even a single electrified wire around a coop/run setup (Their whole little complex is about 20x20 and has three separate gates), and how effective has it been for you? What other bear-proofing considerations have worked?
Thanks!
For the time being, everyone's being housed together in a 20x10 ft shed with a heavy gate on the front and has everything a chicken might want, but no access to an an outdoor run. So far, I've noticed no real conflicts between the two groups, who have been interacting between chain-link fences up until now.
So, my questions:
We're going to be keeping them in this shed for at least a week more (or until we're sure the bear situation is over) but I'm hoping to let them out to forage for a little while during the day, soon. If these were your birds, would you allow chicks that age out loose?
I just have two pans, one of chick crumbles and one of grower ration (+free choice of oyster grit) and am trusting each age group will eat whichever their little birdy bodies crave more. (My usual solution to mixed ages, a creep feeder made out of a dog crate, won't work since the chicks are now the same size as the bantams.) Since this looks to be going on longer than anticipated, should I figure out a way to separate them for the sake of the different feeds?
General bear advice--Specifically, does anyone have a ballpark cost of running even a single electrified wire around a coop/run setup (Their whole little complex is about 20x20 and has three separate gates), and how effective has it been for you? What other bear-proofing considerations have worked?
Thanks!
