Do I need a bigger run? I hate keeping them locked up...

[Jacky'sMamma]

DH just called me @ work. This is how the call started...

"Honey, you can't leave the chickens in the out in the backyard anymore"

OMG!!! my heart just about STOPPED!!!!

"What happened, how are the girls!?!?!"

He told me that they were fine and that he heard a lot of skwaking and ran outside. The girls had run into the coop and perched on top of the run was a juvenile hawk

Folks, we don't live in the country, by any means! I have been under the false impression that because we live in suburbia nothing would ever happen to my babies!

I always lock them up at night, but in the morning I open the run, let them out in the morning, enjoy my cup-a-coffee and watch them play before going to work. Well... one day, I could not get them rounded up and had to leave. My son was going to be up soon and he would get them in. Things evolved from there and I assumed they would be safe here in the middle of town.

NOW THIS!!!!

the Girls are safe and here I am feeling like a horrible momma! Now they love bing out in the morning and I am afraid to let them out any more. WHAT TO DO!?!?!?!

I can't stop thinking how scared they musta been!
I asked DH to go in and cuddle them for me. All I got was: "Yeah, tha's not gonna happen"

Heather

(my girls are 7 weeks old, and this is my first experience with raising 'em)

 

[aliena614]

i live in the middle of columbus ohio! AND YES WE HEVE BIG HAWKS HERE TOO!!! CHICKEN HAWKS!

So i would suggest for you to get some of those false owls and put them in very visible spots it seems to work!

 

[coffeemama]

So how many hens do you have? Standard or bantam? what size is you coop and run? There are lots of chickens that live life quite content without ever touching a lawn. Once they do though, prepare for some flack when you lock them in!

 

[A Carolina Chick]

Love the Coop!

 

[Jacky'sMamma]

Quote:
I have 5 hens: 2 Delawares, 2 Black Sex Link, and apparently 1 "easter egger" (feed store said that the only two choices were the Delawares and Sex Link but this girl now has green legs and is an orangie/rust color!)

Coop: 5x5 Run: 10x5


Thanks, Carolina Chick!

 

[Robin'sBrood]

That coop is so cute!

 

[FutureChickenMan]

Jacky'sMamma :

Quote:
I have 5 hens: 2 Delawares, 2 Black Sex Link, and apparently 1 "easter egger" (feed store said that the only two choices were the Delawares and Sex Link but this girl now has green legs and is an orangie/rust color!)

Coop: 5x5 Run: 10x5


Thanks, Carolina Chick!

What you have now is adequate, but I wouldn't add any more birds.

General rule of thumb:

Inside 4sq feet per bird
Run 10sq feet per bird​

 

[lovemychicks9]

You have the right amount of room for the amount of chickens you have. I would suggest making sure they are locked in the run and secure before you have to leave them and when you can not be there to watch them and protect them, I hate to keep mine locked in the run but I live in the country and we have lots of predators here and I would feel terrible if anything happened to them because I let them run. Trudy

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

We have a neighborhood Peregrine Falcon. So unless I am home and sitting with the girls. They will be in their run. They wont be safe any other way.

 

[snowydiamonds]

"they won't be safe any other way..."

Put a top on your pen. I've got chain link fence with hardware cloth on my chick pen and large rocks along the bottom, too, over the hardware cloth. It only took my neighbor and I one Saturday to set up our predator proof pen with everything on hand except the rocks which her daughter drove down the coast to pick up for us and we used my wheel barrow to move the rocks from the truck to the pen.