Hello from west central Illinois

[ronbonzo]

Greetings. The wife and I are thinking about keeping chickens and this looks like a great place to start. For right now I'm looking for an inexpensive coop and fencing system. I love the idea of the combination coop/tractor but we have far to many critters passing by since we live next to a critter super highway more commonly known as a creek. Any ideas on how to get by as cheaply as possible, at least in the beginning to see if we are cut out for this, would be deeply appreciated.

 

[EngieKisses]

The cheapest way is to get pallets and other wood off of a place like craigslist. We live by a creek too and we use a radio hung in the hen house set on a talk station. It seems to work well keeping out the critters. We have not lost one yet (knocks on wood) to a wild critter. The outside dog did catch one about a year ago though.

 

[SFF]

 

[Chicken Ninja]

from

 

[b.hromada]

Hi Dave!

from S. Florida. Great to have you here!

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

from Indiana

 

[Cats Critters]

 

[schmije]

Welcome! Whereabouts are you in west central Illinois? I'm about an hour north of St. Louis.

 

[TipsyDog]

and

from PA! Check out the Coop and Run Design section under the Index. There is a wealth of info on coops and plenty of pictures of everyone's runs and coops to give you alot of ideas!

Good luck!

 

[hen-thusiast]

and

from UT! I never thought of a creek that way, but you're right, it IS a critter superhighway! LOL