Enclosed Chicken Coop?

[Chezpowell]

We are in the early stages of preparing for the arrival of new chicks. We understand the chicks will need warmth and care early; but once they are ready for the coop, does the coop have to be completely enclosed? We are working with an existing old barn where 2 walls are already built. We live in Central Louisiana where winters are mostly mild with occasional freezing temeratures. However, it is typically very HOT in the summer Should we completely enclose or is chicken wire enough on the other 2 sides?

The Powells

 

[crazyhen]

I think that in L. you can enclose with hardware cloth. No chicken wire. Every animal preditor can bite through that. You need a secure place at night for them. If it is going to be really windy and cold put a thick tarp or plastic up to about 4 inches from the top on those two sides. In the summer you will not need the tarp for sure. I have a small coop on the coast on NC. I use occ. It has solid walls up 4 feet and hardware cloth sides from there up also hardware cloth on the floor to pervent anything from digging under it. We recently had some very low 20's . They did fine with the plastic up to protect them from the wind. Now if you have young chicks you may have to hang a heat lamp for awhile. Cover the sides with the plastic. Just make sure you double hang it so it will not fall. good luck Gloria Jean

 

[AtomicPenguin]

I built an enclosure for my chickens under a large metal 'barn'. Two walls are wire fencing. The other two and the roof are sheet metal. Once they are feathered out they should be fine. Mine get along fine without a heat source as well. Most important I think is to design it so that they are not going to be exposed to the weather - mainly a northern wind.