Hello from Centennial

[snmarchi]

Hello fellow Coloradans! I live in Centennial (used to be part of Littleton) which is SE of Denver Near University Blvd and Arapahoe Rd. I have 5, almost 10 week old chickens. We raised them from 2 days old. I am not sure if they are all female, but hoping so. Centennial city ordinance only allows roosters up to the age of 6 months, and also I am looking for eggs only!
1 Silver Laced Wyandotte
1 Easter Egger (sold as an Araucana/Ameraucana)
1 Black Australorp
2 Rhode Island Reds

We just finished the predator barrier with 18" of wire underground and cement at the bottom of the wire. All the wire is 19 gauge black vinyl-coated stainless steel hardware cloth with 1/2" square.openings. we also reinforced the coup with wire, and have latches with clips on all the doors to the predator cage and coup, so there is a double barrier at night.




On top of that we have solid clay ground, so if the foxes or coyotes can get through this, they deserve a chicken dinner! Our Irish Wolfhound is very gentle with them, but our Great Dane is a threat. We just put the birds out yesterday, so I am planning to acclimate them to the dogs, and the dogs to them slowly.

I am looking forward to chatting with you!

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings. Came to this post from your post on the Colorado thread. Congrats on becoming a new "Chickeneer". I'm not trying to be mean, but will try to point out a couple of issues/problems you have... Your coop and run (though very nice looking) are way too small/inadequate for 5 large fowl (LF) birds. What you have is borderline acceptable for 2 LF birds or maybe 3 bantam sized birds.

Typically, LF birds really require/need ~4 square feet per bird inside the coop and a minimum of about 10 square feet per bird in the run. When they roost, they really need about 1 linear foot of roost or a bit more per bird to have enough room to move/stretch/get comfortable. Think sardines in a can. Another issue will be inadequate ventilation. In the cold winters here, without lots of ventilation to let moisture escape, you're going to have frost bite and frozen combs/wattles & toes issues. You need air to be able to come into the coop down low and exit up high, without causing a draft on the roost area.

You'll want to watch for bullying, especially by the RRs (Rhode Island Reds), as they can become very dominant/aggressive birds, especially in very confined spaces.

 

[snmarchi]

Thanks so much for the advice! I am not sure how many of my birds will turn out to be girls. When we got the coup I was planning on 3 - so we will see. We do have a large yard with lots of goodies to eat, at least in the summer, so we let them free range frequently. So far, no bullying, but they are almost 16 weeks, so still growing.

The dimensions are 10'x6' x5'tall. So from your information, we should have put that outside the coup for an adequate run.

We have 2 Rhode Island Reds, 1 Black Ostralorp, 1 Wyandotte, and 1 EasterEgger. Are they all considered LF?

The coop, although cute, is very impractical for Colorado and very flimsy. Do you have any recommendation about how to reinforce it, or should we just add on a new, bigger, more substantial coup on the outside the run?

Thanks again for the advice!