Finally got my side yard back in order from building the run and converting the shed into a coop. It has been a mess with trash and scrap wood everywhere. My boyfriend and I are NOT carpenters and made everything up as we went along. We only let the girls in the run during the day (locked up in the coop at night) so it's pretty well predator proof but used the larger galvanized mesh to save a little money and doubled it up along the bottom 1/2 of most of the walls and have a 2ft skirt coming out off the bottom. Still need to get a little more to double up the last wall. I'll take a picture of the inside of the coop once the nest boxes are done, the girls are only 2 1/2 months so we won't need them for a while. The small garden I made today and has black oil sunflower seeds planted in it. The chicks don't go in the rocks so as long as I can keep wild birds from eating the sprouts they "should" grow.
So far we haven't had any issue with the oleander. I was super paranoid about it but we have about 40-50 of these HUGE ones that surround the entire back yard (they were there when we moved in) so removing them really wasn't an option. I did a lot of research before getting chickens because I was afraid of them getting sick from them but found info saying birds are relatively insensitive to them unlike humans, dogs, and other mammals though my little dog hasn't had any issues either but he's not outside much (little foofoo too good for being outside kinda dog). So I'll keep my fingers crossed we never have problems with poisoning. I do keep the branches trimmed back from the run and keep the run raked from the leaves and flowers as much as I can.
We picked a bad time of year to build being in Scottsdale, AZ in the summer and my boyfriend doesn't tolerate heat well so it was slow going. There's still some stuff I need to do, like make a nicer more permanent ramp up into the coop and maybe figure out a nicer roof for the covered side of the run, maybe a few pieces of standing seam roofing. But for the most part it's done, not the prettiest, fanciest coop/run but I'm pretty happy with it. They have a little roost in the corner, plenty of shade and the hose running in the top is their mister. The inside of the coop is sand which I'm loving as litter so I'll be laying a few inches of sand in the run as well.
So far we haven't had any issue with the oleander. I was super paranoid about it but we have about 40-50 of these HUGE ones that surround the entire back yard (they were there when we moved in) so removing them really wasn't an option. I did a lot of research before getting chickens because I was afraid of them getting sick from them but found info saying birds are relatively insensitive to them unlike humans, dogs, and other mammals though my little dog hasn't had any issues either but he's not outside much (little foofoo too good for being outside kinda dog). So I'll keep my fingers crossed we never have problems with poisoning. I do keep the branches trimmed back from the run and keep the run raked from the leaves and flowers as much as I can.
We picked a bad time of year to build being in Scottsdale, AZ in the summer and my boyfriend doesn't tolerate heat well so it was slow going. There's still some stuff I need to do, like make a nicer more permanent ramp up into the coop and maybe figure out a nicer roof for the covered side of the run, maybe a few pieces of standing seam roofing. But for the most part it's done, not the prettiest, fanciest coop/run but I'm pretty happy with it. They have a little roost in the corner, plenty of shade and the hose running in the top is their mister. The inside of the coop is sand which I'm loving as litter so I'll be laying a few inches of sand in the run as well.
