How far is "too far" to have your coop/chickens from your home?

[Linda M]

Chicken TV....ain't it the truth!

 

[Trefoil]

Hauling water for chickens in the winter several times a day is not my idea of fun.

 

[HomegrownHudson]

2-3 trips down to the new place to care for the chooks isn't really the issue as much as being close in case of predation issues.

This was actually my concern. If something were to happen at night, we wouldn't know about it until morning. Just wondering if anyone else has these issues and how they handle it.

 

[HomegrownHudson]

Hauling water for chickens in the winter several times a day is not my idea of fun.

There is water and electric already available on the property. So this would not be an issue.

 

[noitulover]

This was actually my concern. If something were to happen at night, we wouldn't know about it until morning. Just wondering if anyone else has these issues and how they handle it.

That's a very valid concern. For the most part, our predators come around much less often if we are out and about in the yard. They want a meal, but not a fight (usually). If you build a coop/run over there, you would need to make that thing EXTRA predator proof. I mean, not a gap bigger than 1/4" anywhere. It's got to keep your chickens safe until you get over there. 1/4" hardware cloth over all windows, covering the whole run (top to bottom and overhead), and buried underground a few feet. We put rocks all around the sides to help discourage anything from digging to get in.

Our current chicken coop is about 25 yards from our house, but our new one will be about 100 yards away (without a clear view of it from the house). I definitely had some reservations about putting it that far away (it's equidistant to the woods), as I probably won't be able to hear the chickens as well if anything goes wrong. My big thing will be making this coop as predator proof as possible (including dogs). We live on a farm and people release their hunting dogs every year on neighboring properties. They always come up to our house (which is really annoying), but haven't yet caused any really damage other than being a PITA. Thank goodness our chickens have always been in the coop/run when they come around. If your dogs can get through a fence though (whether or not they tried to kill the kittens), I would start working now on some training or something. We've got a beagle that is about the tamest, laziest, nicest creature you'll ever meet, but she killed a chicken once. We taught her not to (this is very rare though, most can't be taught). Still, the instinct is there.

 

[bacpacker]

Our coop is 100-150 yards from the house. If you set up a good feed/water system for them, I have found one trip every day or two is plenty. You just have to account for how much your flock consumes and build your systems to exceed the period you plan to visit slightly.

Great ideas about building strong fences, for chcikens as well as any live stock. If it's not tight something will get in. Sometimes not leaving any evidence of the visit. That is the case no matter where you build however.

For myself, I wouldn't be overly concerned about having them on a seperate property as long as you can still manage to take care of them. As close as your other place is, that's no more than one side of my place to the other. It would certainly cut down on the summertime aroma.