Help...Trying to convert and old dairy barn into a future fowl area...

[Free Feather]

Basically it comes down to trying to make the chickens so safe she killed them. Her entire flock ended up dying from one thing or another over about a year and a half. The entire flock being 12 birds.

Ha! I definitely know people like that. My grandmother is obsessive about keeping her babies safe. They were never out of the cramped run, she was afraid roost bars will hurt them when they jump down so they slept on the ground or on a cage, treats would attract vermin, roosters will KILL the hens, any kind of carbon stuffs to scratch in like leaves and straw in the run will give them Botulism, etc....
I am babysitting her six girls until she finishes moving back to her farm and gets her pen built. They really like it with me. I let them free range and her hens love it. They are the first ones to start banging into the fence when I take too long to let them out. She had a bantam in with the five large girls and they tortured her mercilessly out of boredom. She is starting to be a little less crazy, and her comb is finally starting to get red at 10 months, but I am afraid it will all be undone when I have to give them back....
I am tempted to pretend they were eaten by predators and just keep them.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Maybe when she sees how they didnt all die and look happier and healthier she will see a better way to keep chickens.

 

[Percheron chick]

I am tempted to pretend they were eaten by predators and just keep them.

but than you are just validating the need to confine them.

 

[Free Feather]

but than you are just validating the need to confine them.

Crap. You are right. She would just get more and be even more freakish about it. She means well, but geez... She does that with all of her animals, and children...
You do lose some free ranging, sometimes a lot, but I do not let them go because I do not care about them. They are much, much happier, especially when everything is green, running around the yard. If I could not range, I would do either paddocks or just a huge pasture. Tractors are too small.

 

[Percheron chick]

Dig around and see if there's a stack of hog panels (4x16 with 4x4 openings). Those should make a decent secure temporary run. The great thing about old farms is there's always a junk pile filled with treasures.

 

[Free Feather]

Dig around and see if there's a stack of hog panels (4x16 with 4x4 openings). Those should make a decent secure temporary run. The great thing about old farms is there's always a junk pile filled with treasures.

So true! You would not believe the jack pots just lying around my place!

 

[Purpletie3]

I lost my flock in one hour last year because I didn't use hardware cloth...14 dead hens... So, now I will build the new ones some barn space and run...

I was crushed. I don't want to do that again!

 

[Purpletie3]

And everywhere we dig there is stuff....so true!

 

[Trexroo]

I have first hand experience with a new solar fencer.

I'd rather get bit by a regular 110 volt household plug than monkey with that evil solar powered agony in a box. I "introduced" livestock to it and it made me a believer.

 

[Purpletie3]

I have first hand experience with a new solar fencer.

I'd rather get bit by a regular 110 volt household plug than monkey with that evil solar powered agony in a box. I "introduced" livestock to it and it made me a believer.

Oh boy...I don't know anyone that would rather get a 110V bite...so, I can only imagine it isn't pretty!