How far are you thinking you would like it to be? 10 feet? 50 feet? 100 feet?
My birds are housed about 120 feet or so from the back door in full view of the kitchen window. It is near a water hydrant and electric and sits upon the only high ground in that whole lawn area, which is generally flat and slow to drain, even though we are on top of "high ground".......the top of a broad ridge. We recently went through a wet period when it rained for 10 days straight........over 4 inches total.........and the entire lawn area EXCEPT where the coop sits was water logged and squishy. The ground around where the coop sits was wet too, but was first to drain and dry and the deep litter over dirt remained dry. Coop was put exactly where it was put because it was the highest point in that lawn area where it would remain high and dry. The open front then faces south.
Maryland gets enough rain and snow that dealing with the excess CAN be a problem unless when it rains and snows the runoff from those has a place to go and does not sit/pool in and under the coop and run. In those cases, it is good you have a little slope to help you and gravity works, taking any water from rain and snow from high and sending it low, so up higher on the hill where your residence is located is ideal. Again, high is dry.
Second issue.......if the birds are close to your house and can get to it, you can expect they will join you on the patio and on the patio furniture. They will eat and destroy your patio plants and leaving droppings for you to step in until you clean them up. So near your house so as to be convenient to keep an eye on them and go check on them and feed and water them and gather eggs and let them out in the morning and lock them up and night, but unless you don't mind the droppings and damage outside your back (or front) door, somehow separate from your house.
If you will be leaving them in a run, no worries. If allowed to roam, expect them to roam far enough to leave a 2 acre property, where harm can come to them. So if allowed out of a run, be thinking chicken yard........a yard surrounded by a fence to confine and protect them. Then decide if you want that yard to join your house or be kept apart from it. Close, but so close that they can join you on the patio?
My birds are housed about 120 feet or so from the back door in full view of the kitchen window. It is near a water hydrant and electric and sits upon the only high ground in that whole lawn area, which is generally flat and slow to drain, even though we are on top of "high ground".......the top of a broad ridge. We recently went through a wet period when it rained for 10 days straight........over 4 inches total.........and the entire lawn area EXCEPT where the coop sits was water logged and squishy. The ground around where the coop sits was wet too, but was first to drain and dry and the deep litter over dirt remained dry. Coop was put exactly where it was put because it was the highest point in that lawn area where it would remain high and dry. The open front then faces south.
Maryland gets enough rain and snow that dealing with the excess CAN be a problem unless when it rains and snows the runoff from those has a place to go and does not sit/pool in and under the coop and run. In those cases, it is good you have a little slope to help you and gravity works, taking any water from rain and snow from high and sending it low, so up higher on the hill where your residence is located is ideal. Again, high is dry.
Second issue.......if the birds are close to your house and can get to it, you can expect they will join you on the patio and on the patio furniture. They will eat and destroy your patio plants and leaving droppings for you to step in until you clean them up. So near your house so as to be convenient to keep an eye on them and go check on them and feed and water them and gather eggs and let them out in the morning and lock them up and night, but unless you don't mind the droppings and damage outside your back (or front) door, somehow separate from your house.
If you will be leaving them in a run, no worries. If allowed to roam, expect them to roam far enough to leave a 2 acre property, where harm can come to them. So if allowed out of a run, be thinking chicken yard........a yard surrounded by a fence to confine and protect them. Then decide if you want that yard to join your house or be kept apart from it. Close, but so close that they can join you on the patio?
