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Hello everyone! I've gotten myself into a predicament...

I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the renting chickens concept. What happens to the chickens when they take them away? Do you get the option to keep them if you want?
I mean I guess it would be good for someone that decides chickens are not for them to be able to just have someone take them.

I believe that the chickens join a laying flock once you've had them for the summer. The way it seems to work is that a farm joins the program, they send out started pullets/young hens in the spring, and you give them back laying hens in the fall. You do have the ability to keep them later, but they'll charge you to keep the coop.
 
UPDATE:

Picture of the chickens in their makeshift run. I've been trying to give them at least 15 minutes or so of outside time daily. They should be moving into their new coop sometime in the near future.

View attachment 3515190

Luckily, they seem to be fine for the most part (aside from being cramped). Both are eating well, and they've each laid an egg a day for the past week. No predators so far. I've been moving them every two days, I think regularly having fresh grass/dandelions to pick through has been helping them with any issues of boredom.
Other people have mentioned electric poultry netting and something to put over the top to protect them from hawks, and that's really good advice. It doesn't have to be expensive. You can get an electrified netting kit for less than $200 to make a run and a roll of deer netting from a landscape or hardware store to go over the top of it. I get mine from Tractor Supply. In the configuration you're using now you could just drape a couple of strips over the top of the whole coop and run and use clothespins or other types of clips to hold the netting down. Attach some more around the outside of that fencing to make it harder for something to push through until you get an electrified solution in place. The deer netting comes in 100' x 5' rolls and it goes a long way. You'll find all kinds of uses for it.
 
I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the renting chickens concept. What happens to the chickens when they take them away? Do you get the option to keep them if you want?
I mean I guess it would be good for someone that decides chickens are not for them to be able to just have someone take them.
Not sure if this is where the OP got chickens, but they also operate in my neck of the woods:
http://www.rentthechicken.com/p/adoption.html
 
Ok so I have not done my homework. Meaning I haven’t read through this thread and maybe somebody has already suggested this but if you are thinking of keeping chickens wolf pee is supposed to be a deterrent for bears mink weasels moose coyote ext. sorry if somebody already suggested it!! If wolf pee is a little too gross for you a Solar-LED deterrent lights (I obviously pasted that lol) will keep weasels away (they are basically noise making flood lights) welcome to BYC!!!! I hope this helps sorry if I’m late to the party!!
 
Ok so I have not done my homework. Meaning I haven’t read through this thread and maybe somebody has already suggested this but if you are thinking of keeping chickens wolf pee is supposed to be a deterrent for bears mink weasels moose coyote ext. sorry if somebody already suggested it!! If wolf pee is a little too gross for you a Solar-LED deterrent lights (I obviously pasted that lol) will keep weasels away (they are basically noise making flood lights) welcome to BYC!!!! I hope this helps sorry if I’m late to the party!!

Thanks for the ideas. For the past few days I've been finding the lid off of their feed barrel. Thought it was just the wind, but I found muddy little coon prints today, so I think that I might need to do something. As for the feed, I weighed the lid down with a couple of cinderblocks for now.
 
Thanks for the ideas. For the past few days I've been finding the lid off of their feed barrel. Thought it was just the wind, but I found muddy little coon prints today, so I think that I might need to do something. As for the feed, I weighed the lid down with a couple of cinderblocks for now.
It would be best if the feed barrel is not near the chickens, raccoons will try for them too if they're hungry, and it could attract other predators. In a garage, or barn, or inside your house, or even a good shed is an okay place. You might have to deal with mice or rats (get a metal container) but raccoons would be locked out. Bear are somewhat deterred.
 
Here's the new coop!

PXL_20230528_133619336.jpg


One of them was still in the henhouse when I took this, but they seem to be happy with their new-found space. Moving them between coops was an adventure. The RIR was easy (I just picked her up and put her in the new coop), but the Delaware flew off. Spent about 10 minutes as a free-range chicken before I finally caught her. Right now they each have about 19 square feet in the run and 8 in the coop, so they have lots of room. Thanks for the help everyone!
 
Thanks, I was afraid of that. It was somewhat expensive (around 600$) but it also included about 100lbs of chicken feed and a few other things, so I think that I got an okay deal. What sort of predators would be able to get inside the main coop? The hen house seems pretty durable to me. I do live in VT, so I guess bears could be an issue...

I jumped to page 7 and see you got a new coop. Was this a swap upward from the rent-a-chicken or did you buy your own?

I just bought supplies from Lowes to build the coop I have plans for. It's supposed to be 10-15 chickens , the materials ran about $500 w/ tax here in CA where everything is pricey. Its should end up as a raised 4 x 5 footprint, roughly 6' tall from floor to ceiling. Obviously the ways to use or modify other structures as coops is limitless. Just wanted to give some reference point from another newbie. Also, less chickens --> smaller coop --> less money.
 

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