Help - Unattended Chicken Coop design and build

[parisplus3]

Well that sounds like a cool endeavor...BUT my chickens would be sooo sad if they didn't get their treats twice a day, pet, let out in the yard, tucked in at night etc. My family says they are spoiled though, (go figure) Good Luck

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Sorry, this would be dicey at best in summertime (chances are pretty good something would eat all yer birds) and basically impossible IMHO in wintertime. I suppose you could just eat them all in the fall and get a new batch in spring but you would have to be there daily with the birds for the first six weeks or so, at least, so unless you keep them at home in the city til they are half-grown that'd be impossible too, and in any case I am still skeptical of how well it would work.

i know that a) i can provide clean fresh water on a regular basis without the fear of it freezing

Unless something goes wrong. Like, it spills. Or leaks. Or the power goes out. These things (especially the first two) are not at all uncommon when you have ANIMALS living in there with yer waterer, unfortunately. And if it happens on the third day after you leave, you will come back to birds that have died of thirst, unless they can find sufficient water outdoors.

, b)i can provide enough food for a 4-5 week period with sizable feeders

Except that mice will almost-certainly get into them, and a 4-5 wk supply of food can be gone in less than a week. Seriously.

For protecton, i am fencing the entire area including the top and I plan to free range only after i know that all the birds return home and i know they are safe. I have those electronic eyes to install, Barking dog sensors at night, and i can install a webcam to watch the inside and outside of the coop. Yes - this will be an expensive project, but i don't want ticks on my kids.

A seriously-built run fence with well-installed electric that happens not to fail at the wrong time could "mostly" keep out foxes and coyotes and stray dogs and bears.

However you cannot fence weasels out of a large run, and weasels are very definitely in that area. They aren't much of a daytime problem but they will wreak havoc someday unless you can ensure all your birds are indoors at night behind a locked door, which means not just a reliable auto-opener but ALSO a regular training program for a good while (esp for guineas!). The guineas will want to stay outdoors at night. If they roost in a tree that cannot be accessed by raccoons (from the ground nor from adjacent unprotected trees) this is ok BUT to keep them from flying away you would need to have the run top that you speak of be ABOVE the branches where they're roosting.

A large run top will come down in the snow and is unworkable for a yard-sized run in a Catskills winter.

You also cannot fence out rodents that will steal food. You WILL have them.

If you put in electric fencing and it happens not to fail at the wrong time you could "mostly" keep out raccoons as long as there are no trees outside the run that overhang the run or hang close to treebranches from inside the run.... otherwise, raccoons will get in.

Also, all electric fences fail sometimes, usually at the worst moments, and if you are gone for 3 wks at a time there is a pretty decent chance that you will have bear/coon/coyote type losses.

So how do i keep the coop clean

Sorry, but I think that is irrelevant because I do not see any plausible solutions to the bigger problem of "how do I keep the birds alive".

I really am sorry, I hate to be a wet blanket to all your fun plans, but you just cannot keep poultry safe on an every-3-wks basis. If you were going to hire someone really dependable to check on them a couple-few times a week, then I'd say well maybe you could make it work with a certain amount of luck.... but WEEKS on end? No.

An occasional cottage is just going to have ticks around, it comes down to whether you're ok with that or not.

Best of luck,

Pat​

 

[jamarm02]

All, i know some folks have expressed concerns on keeping the birds alive, If that wasn't a concern of mine, i would not be going through the detail that i am. As an example - with water, during the winter, in the catskill mountains- everything freezes. My concern is that the birds would have no water. The solution to this is a 200 gal tank buried 6 feet below grade with a pump that continusly circulates the water through a 4" PVC pipe that has a slit for the animals to drink from and at the end of the PVC there is a filter to return clean water to the underground tank. The PVC pipe can not fall, spill or be knocked over. If the power goes out, everything just flows to the underground tank and nothing freezes. Additionally, when the power goes out, i automatically get a call at home from the house notifying me of it. I also intend to install wed cams in and out side of the coop to keep an eye on it and if i see an issue - i am 2.5hrs away and can easily get there any day of the week. I am also there overy two weeks - but things happen and sometimes it becomes 3 weeks. I'm prepping for 4-5 weeks to be safe. But on the water side - i suspect that the 200 gallons will last a long time with an estimated 6 birds.

So, i know there are issues, i am still doing it, but i want to do it right. If i need to have someone local look at the birds every few days - that is fine - however i am not lowering my expectations at this point to that level. I will add that if i need - but not plan on it.

the Coop is not yet built, but planning on a 12x16 or 16x16 at this point with a seperate out door run. Current i have an old shed in place with my water solution, and feed solution and so on fulling running with 3 happy bunnies that we rescued from a slaughter house.

signed - trying to do the right thing.

 

[krcote]

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Honestly, I think if you are trying to really do the right thing you have to realize that even though you have the means to build something that in theory could work, you do not have the most important element we can give our animals- TIME. In your situation, I think you have to do the adult thing and understand that even though you desire chickens very badly, this is NOT the way to go about it.

 

[wolfandfinch]

Quote:
Honestly, I think if you are trying to really do the right thing you have to realize that even though you have the means to build something that in theory could work, you do not have the most important element we can give our animals- TIME. In your situation, I think you have to do the adult thing and understand that even though you desire chickens very badly, this is NOT the way to go about it.

Agreed.

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

Well, I will poke my head out and say that I think it sounds pretty cool.

Our livestock are not our pets, and your livestock don't have to be your pets either. Chickens (and very especially guineas) don't need human interaction to be happy, fulfilled, well-cared-for animals. Some people give it to them, but it really does more for the people than it does for the birds. If you're keeping an eye on them and know when they're sick or threatened, you're better off than most people who are gone 12 hours a day.

What you will need to figure out is how to get them through the winter, and how to allow the free ranging that is necessary to eating ticks if you're only up there every once in a while. Guineas are absolutely miraculous against ticks but they need some time to do their job. They can't just be let out and an hour later there are no ticks in the grass. What MAY work is cooping the guineas for six to eight weeks, bonding them with the chickens, and then using an automatic door that's up high (they fly very well), too high for a heavy breed of chicken, and letting them in and out daily from April to November. Weed yourself down to male guineas only, though, or pinion/clip the females so they're stuck in the coop/run - the females always hide a clutch out in the woods and then they're sitting ducks for predators.

The coop/run design will also be important. You may be able to get more bang for your buck by having long, narrow run wings that cover the border between lawn and woods. Bugs on their way in from the woods will have to come through the run and the birds can get them. Whatever you choose, it'll have to be multi-layered (thick welded or chain link for bears, smaller gauge for coons and weasels).

 

[bluebird]

Well just keep a couple and then transport them back and forth with you in a dog grate.

 

[patandchickens]

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I understand that you are quite concerned with this. I just fear that you are unacquainted with the realities of keeping livestock or other outdoor animals.

All the good intentions in the world are not going to change certain basic facts such as "animals frequently crap in their water", "mice steal food until it is all gone", "branches fall on fences", and "if it can go wrong, at some point it will and you had better be around to fix it if you want the animals to still be there next week".

a 200 gal tank buried 6 feet below grade with a pump that continusly circulates the water through a 4" PVC pipe that has a slit for the animals to drink from and at the end of the PVC there is a filter to return clean water to the underground tank. The PVC pipe can not fall, spill or be knocked over.

So what happens when someone craps in the waterer? Your filter is not going to render that water potable (not after it's been sitting there a while) and it will in fact be contaminating your whole udnerground tank. Or what happens when bedding gets kicked into that waterer and clogs up the return drain, causing it to either pump the entire 200 gallons out onto the floor of your coop or maybe just stop working (depending how you've got it plumbed)?

Both of these problems are not uncommon with auto waterers (well, ANY waterers, actually).

when the power goes out, i automatically get a call at home from the house notifying me of it

If against all common sense (IMHO) you decide to do this, at least spend the extra few hundred dollars to ALSO get a system for your electric fence that phones you when the fence charge drops too low. Because you will need it. So you can drive out there every time a branch falls on the wire or an ice storm grounds it out or whatever, and fix it before the predators get in.

If your yard area, where the kids and dog play, is seriously so small that you can fence it in in what you think will be a fairly predatorproof AND poultry-proof way (because if the chickens and guineas fly out, it's doing you no good, plus they'll prolly get et), would it not be easier and cheaper and more humane to the theoretical poultry involved to just get rid of the grass and put down a layer of MULCH all over, and let the kids and dog play on THAT? Ticks don't tend to infest mulched expanses AFAIK. And it would be titanically cheaper and more manageable.

Pat​

 

[easttxchick]

While this may have been addressed already(sorry if it has), one of my many concerns would be moldy feed. Down here where I live, I feed only what they eat in a day due to my fears of mold toxicity-everything else is in sealed containers.
I would also be concerned about them being, for lack of a better term, "feral" due to a lack of human contact.
While I don't question your concern for them at all, I really believe you want to do the right thing by them, I, being the paranoid person that I am, don't know that I could be comfortable with not seeing them for weeks at a time.
Good luck, however you decide to handle it.

 

[jamarm02]

That could be the case, and i said that i can have someone attend to the birds if needed and if that is the case that is not an issue. At the end of the day there could be something for everyone to learn in this and i would appreciate any good ideas and advice. I have implemented a method of delivering an endless supply of fresh water to the hens without the daily chore of carring a water pail to the coop. I think that would be something that many folks could benefit from.