Help - Unattended Chicken Coop design and build

[DAFox]

How much have you researched on ticks? Do you live in the woods? Guineas prefer grasslands and will go towards the middle of open areas. Funny thing is that ticks prefer woods and edges of woods. Guineas and chickens may not eradicate ticks and they themselves can become hosts. One study stated that they reduced adult ticks by 30% in one area...but, did not reduce the nymph stage at all. http://books.google.com/books?id=8A...Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ticks guinea fowl&f=false
Wouldn't it be simpler and more cost effective to use the proper insecticides at the proper time and safe practices all the time?
http://nasdonline.org/document/1051/d000846/prevent-tick-bites-prevent-lyme-disease.html I used to work with the author of this article.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do.
Dale-Ann

 

[KazAnder Farms]

I would really like to see some pics of this project so see some newer techniques and technology. I agree the environmental variables may be tricky, ie ice storms etc. Where we don't have that type of extreme weather up here as long as your feed system is funtional that would be something I would like to see. The waterer concept sounds fasciating.

Good luck!

 

[Dogfish]

I have an automatic coop door on my coop. Twice in 300 days the birds have managed to unplug the system, locking them inside the coop. Two days out of 300 it has failed, but I was there to correct it. Just a simple example of automation that can be undone by a chicken.

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

I only read through the first 2 pages of this post and I felt I had to put in my two cents. This seems to be an extreme way to control ticks. I have lived in rural Florida for 28 years. I have a bigger problem keeping ticks off my pets. The only tick I ever got came off my dog. Advantage plus cured her problem. Pulled the tick out of me with a tweezer and put neopsorin on it, that fixed mine. No big deal. Oh bye the way I was a nurse for 25 yrs.
Yes I have chickens but they are my pets and my egg supply. I tend to them daily. I truly think if you continue this endevor you will be disappointed.

 

[Patricia Jane]

I am by far no expert as I have just started raising chickens,. Don't you really think your setting yourself and the chickens up for disaster?!!! I take care of mine daily and spend time with them. I believe they are social birds and need interaction, but then again thats just my opinion.

 

[BayouPoules]

jamarm02,.. because you have posted and asked for our thoughts ,.. I would respectfully like to say at this point that you have received some very good advise from patandchickens, farmer_lew, krcote, easttxchick, farmer_lew, Dogfish and others. What you are attempting to do could have some very sad and unhappy results. I wont repeat all that has been said,. but I agree with the majority because,. we have chickens and have experienced all the daily problems that go along with keeping them. You simply can't control all the variables in the situation no matter how hard you try and to try to do it for such long periods of time is not going to work.
What would happen to the eggs?
What if one got egg bound?
Could you tell on camera?
Could you get there in time o help her?
What if a dangerous animal attacked.
Freak storms can do damage.
Sour crop?
Fighting?
Infections?
Dead bird rotting in the coop?.. It died from being egg bound.
Moldy feed?
Mites and lice on birds,in the feed?
Check out some of the things that can go wrong that are not in our control and need attention immediately ... https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=10

I gently suggest that you reread patandchickens' posts and reconsider your idea. Maybe you could invest some time in keeping chickens where you are now and learning what it takes to care for them before deciding if this is something you really want to do to control ticks..

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

I'm going to stick my neck out and tell you point blank.

 

[gryeyes]

I have had some absolutely wonderful ideas in my 57 years, and even spent countless hours planning, designing, figuring, expanding, extracting, and mulling over said ideas.

Some of them were viable, and some were merely cock-a-mamie ideas.

I'm sorry, but yours falls in the second category.

 

[BayouPoules]

Quote:
OK,.. she said it better...

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I would have to say--- No---

I think that chickens could go a few days without supervision but not if.... their water tipped over, or they got to hot or too cold or if their food was tipped over or one of them got threw a hole in the coop (trust me I have had two smart ones find a hole and thus I go to look for them).... The list can go on. A camera won't do anything but document what may be happening or it may skip over something important, not to mention the daily interactions with the chickens which 1. with my walk through I can see if anyone is hurt or has signs of distress and 2 they are used to me, I can tell when the kids have not been out into the coop for a few weeks as they distrust the kids and thus I have to watch the kids and the birds more so no one gets hurt. and 3. EGGS- you will have egg eaters, you will have rotten eggs

and you will have frozen/too hot eggs and you will if you have a rooster get a few hatches out of the flock.