odchooks
Songster
- Dec 14, 2020
- 102
- 267
- 146
Hi all! I live in Houston and doing the 6 month “rent the chicken” thing for my 9yo for Christmas with hopes of adopting and getting more if I can get whole family on board. Will be getting a a barred rock and buff Orpington. Joined here to figure out how to do this. Some little girls wish for a pony.. My 9yo has been dreaming of a chicken pet since she was 3. We live in the city but are lucky to have a backyard and a little garden space. They come with a little rental coop and we plan to build chicken tunnels all over the perimeter of the yard.
Hawks opossums and raccoons love our yard already because of our huge tree and the limited city green space so I’m a little worried about that. Also wondering if fox squirrels will be an issue? But for the hawk issue we also host purple martins in the summer. I’ve read that Native Americans hosted them in gourd houses to keep vultures and birds of prey away from tanning hides and they taught the early colonists to host martins to keep hawks from their chickens (They mob birds of prey). So hoping that helps . chickens definitely won’t be able to free range unless we are right there.
Thinking of eventually building a hardware cloth open air coop with a roof because summers are so brutal here but needs to be hurricane resistant so it doesn’t blow away. (I would bring birds inside for a hurricane) . One way I thought would be to make it really open with the roosting area on one end covered on three sides with wooden lattice grown over in chicken safe vines (passion flower vines grow fast and are green all year) to give a little more side rain protection and visual protection - but do you think this would be ok for them? Our winters are really mild and we get a light freeze only once or twice a year.
The rental saves us some time to figure details out...and let me convince the husband to try it out commitment free for 6 months...so excited!
Hawks opossums and raccoons love our yard already because of our huge tree and the limited city green space so I’m a little worried about that. Also wondering if fox squirrels will be an issue? But for the hawk issue we also host purple martins in the summer. I’ve read that Native Americans hosted them in gourd houses to keep vultures and birds of prey away from tanning hides and they taught the early colonists to host martins to keep hawks from their chickens (They mob birds of prey). So hoping that helps . chickens definitely won’t be able to free range unless we are right there.
Thinking of eventually building a hardware cloth open air coop with a roof because summers are so brutal here but needs to be hurricane resistant so it doesn’t blow away. (I would bring birds inside for a hurricane) . One way I thought would be to make it really open with the roosting area on one end covered on three sides with wooden lattice grown over in chicken safe vines (passion flower vines grow fast and are green all year) to give a little more side rain protection and visual protection - but do you think this would be ok for them? Our winters are really mild and we get a light freeze only once or twice a year.
The rental saves us some time to figure details out...and let me convince the husband to try it out commitment free for 6 months...so excited!
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Glad you joined.
Hello and welcome to BYC, You found an Awesome poultry Forum to be a part of with many great knowledgeable members who are more then willing to jump in and help you with any questions you may have. 
