Help with chicken coop and run

[jeria]

Good idea taking food in at night, will have to make that a habit.

 

[cholland]

I keep the feeder full of pellets in the coop, rodent safe. I put fermented feed in the run in the morning and throw some scratch around in the afternoon.
Don't want any free loaders.

I used to keep dog food in a rubber made tub outside. Raccoons ate a hole in the corner and ate 20lbs of dog food in one night. It was like an automatic feeder.
Been using metal cans and not leaving anything out but the compost pile at night ever since.
Deer in the garden, that's another story.

 

[djunafarms]

I also have the ecoflex jumbo fontana chicken barn. We like it but it does need modifications. We added locks on the pop door and on the lid to the nesting box, the existing "locks" are a joke. We are also working on adding ventilation and hinging the roof. It's a chore to have to take off all those individual roof panels in order to have access to clean the inside. We also mounted a pvc waterer and feeder inside the barn so there is no food out at night. Good luck with everything.

 

[debid]

So, I'm wondering... If you have to make all kinds of modifications, is it worth buying a prefab? Why not just build it how you want?

 

[djunafarms]

I know what you're saying, but yeah it was worth it for us. We got it on sale, and all those modifications together probably took only about one or two days. We just are not very handy...I just bought my first saw last weekend. So, building our own coop is not in the cards right now though I'd like to do that eventually. I know the prefab coop turned out better than anything we currently have the capability of building!

 

[jjchickmom]

I also have the ecoflex jumbo fontana chicken barn. We like it but it does need modifications. We added locks on the pop door and on the lid to the nesting box, the existing "locks" are a joke. We are also working on adding ventilation and hinging the roof. It's a chore to have to take off all those individual roof panels in order to have access to clean the inside. We also mounted a pvc waterer and feeder inside the barn so there is no food out at night. Good luck with everything.

Could you post a picture of the types of locks you used on your Ecoflex or a link showing a similar type of lock?

If you did not know the egg door has a screw hole to screw in a screw to keep it locked. The guy at Family Farm and Home showed me that feature.

I was thinking that for additional ventilation in hot summer weather you could remove one of the roof panels and attach some hardware cloth. We will try a few methods and post what works.

 

[jjchickmom]

We bought our 10X10 Kennel and coop. We use most of the suggestions to beef up security. I was thinking some solar motion lights zip tied or wired to the fence would help to deter predators as well. I was thinking one on each side.

For those of you that have a kennel run. How do you secure the small gaps between the gate door and gate frame? I don't see a chicken squeezing out or raccoon getting in through them but maybe a mink or weasel.

We got a kennel shade cover to keep hawks out. Would that keep a raccoon out or should we add chicken wire below it to add more security?

We plan on using hardware cloth under the sides and 3-4 feet from the ground up the panels to discourage grabby raccoons.

 

[djunafarms]

Could you post a picture of the types of locks you used on your Ecoflex or a link showing a similar type of lock?

If you did not know the egg door has a screw hole to screw in a screw to keep it locked. The guy at Family Farm and Home showed me that feature.

I was thinking that for additional ventilation in hot summer weather you could remove one of the roof panels and attach some hardware cloth. We will try a few methods and post what works.

Hey there, sorry for the delay, we added hasp locks to all doors, including the pop door, nesting box and the door to the attached pen (which I know you're not using). Just small outdoor hasp locks kind of like this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-2-1-2-in-Satin-Brass-Fixed-Staple-Safety-Hasp-15118/202033913 which we lock with carabiners.

Yes, we do use the thumb screw that keeps the nesting box closed but it is only on one side, the other side can still be pretty easily pried up. Yours is probably safer because it's inside a run, but ours is exposed.

We wound up removing the two topmost panels on the sides for ventilation. They are small, Triangle shaped panels. Covered the holes with hardware cloth. Thought about removing a roof panel but I still wanted them to have a waterproof roof.

Good luck!

 

[jjchickmom]

Hey there, sorry for the delay, we added hasp locks to all doors, including the pop door, nesting box and the door to the attached pen (which I know you're not using). Just small outdoor hasp locks kind of like this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-2-1-2-in-Satin-Brass-Fixed-Staple-Safety-Hasp-15118/202033913 which we lock with carabiners.

Yes, we do use the thumb screw that keeps the nesting box closed but it is only on one side, the other side can still be pretty easily pried up. Yours is probably safer because it's inside a run, but ours is exposed.

We wound up removing the two topmost panels on the sides for ventilation. They are small, Triangle shaped panels. Covered the holes with hardware cloth. Thought about removing a roof panel but I still wanted them to have a waterproof roof.

Good luck!

Thanks

 

[SandyinWI]

I have a dog kennel run that gets a lot of larger predator attention. The hardware cloth down low keeps everything out for now but if any of the smaller critters get the notion to climb, the stuff will hit the fan. I'd like to 1) reinforce the upper part with the smaller wire and 2) rebuild the doors to shrink the gap around them. We haven't had weasel/mink/marten attention yet but it's a definite worry.

Do you have a picture of how you did the dog kennel door? That is where I am running into trouble. The plan is to kind of build a door frame from wood that would block the opening from the outside and wrap it all in hardware cloth. THANKS!