Hello all- I am a new chick owner and I am already obsessed! I picked up 6 Easter Eggers last week and I want to get a few Barred Rocks and RIR's. So here are my questions.... If I were to get the BR and RIR's on 4-19 will there be a problem introducing the two little groups? I also would love some expert advice on what to do with my run. It was a pen that my dogs used to poop in that is surrounded on three sides with 4 board horse fence. The fourth side is a stone wall (no cement) with a fence on top. There is an ares by the gate that floods during heavy rain but the rest is on a slight slope. I am getting a coop from the feed store that I was going to put inside of the run and it has a solar panel on the top for the light. The other option is to put the coop on the outside of the run but with the chicken door pushed right up to the fence so there is a pass through. My reasoning for that is since there is a solar panel I don't want to block the sun with a roof over the run. Should there be a roof over the run which is grass now? The chickens will not really be allowed in my main yard bc we have a very open field yard and birds are always circling. The run is 27'x37'. What would be the cost for enclosing and covering this area (we are not handy enough to do it ourselves)? I want it to look nice! I am sure that there are mice, moles and possible garter snakes living in and around that wall and I was wondering if I should be worried about them. Will a garter snake bother a chicken? Should there be hardware cloth between the wall and the run? We have never seen any other animals in our yard probably because of the dogs. Our garden has never been touched by any animals (knock on wood) and it is not fenced in at all, so will the chickens attract predators or are they relatively safe? What would you do with my run to make it a chicken palace? Thanks!
Just a note - the circling birds are probably turkey vultures. I see them a lot when I am outside, but they don't hurt my chickens. You could still very easily have hawks though.
Hi and from Ohio. So glad you joined. You could easily put wire around the wood fence to keep the chickens in. The coop placement could be either way but I would think about the place to where the coop can provide some shade from the sun since there aren't any trees. I put up a pole in the middle of my run so I could cover my with a heavy duty net. Good luck.
With a heavy duty net are you worried about raccoons or possums? Won't they climb the wire and get in?
