Extended the chicken pen today

[630004]

Just added another section of fence for the chooks (they now have 326 feet of fence line)

 

[aart]

Great!

 

[gtaus]

Wow! Wish I could have a setup like that.

 

[perkolator]

A setup like that in my area would have a hawk/owl in each of those trees, waiting for the buffet when the chicken door opens

 

[630004]

We thought we might lose a few chickens to the hawks here, and so far nothing. The crows are super protective and chase the hawks whenever they see them. The chickens are also pretty good at bailing back into the coup the moment they see something suspicious. We have one rooster and seventeen hens (austrolops and rhode island reds)

We move the fence around each week, so the chickens always have a fresh area. I have found that we have to be a little careful if they find anything very wet, as they will demolish it in a few hours. They have been fantastic and removing the moss from the lawn and cleaning out one irrigation ditch.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I would love to put my chickens to work on the weeds but they aren't allowed in the front yard.

 

[perkolator]

We thought we might lose a few chickens to the hawks here, and so far nothing. The crows are super protective and chase the hawks whenever they see them. The chickens are also pretty good at bailing back into the coup the moment they see something suspicious. We have one rooster and seventeen hens (austrolops and rhode island reds)

Well I wish you the best of luck keeping that up!
2yrs ago we had 26 including 2 roosters. Things were great for a while and slowly they got picked off here and there by ground and aerial predators. Now sadly we're down to two

 

[WIchickMama]

Do they not fly over the fence?

 

[gtaus]

2yrs ago we had 26 including 2 roosters. Things were great for a while and slowly they got picked off here and there by ground and aerial predators. Now sadly we're down to two

Yeah, I live on a lake and we have hawks and Bald Eagles overhead all the time. I keep my chickens in a run with bird netting on top. 3 years and no attacks yet. We have some people in the area that try to free range their chickens. We call them former chicken owners.

 

[gtaus]

We move the fence around each week, so the chickens always have a fresh area.

That sounds like a good plan to keep the grass growing. I know it only took a few months for my chickens to eat all the grass in the chicken rundown to bare dirt, and then they scratched up the dirt. I converted my chicken run into a chicken run compost system after that and have been reaping the rewards of having my chickens make my compost.