- Jan 8, 2011
- 33
- 1
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Still getting ready for this experiment in chicken raising!
What we have is
1. A coop the 3 hens will hopefully roost and lay in. It's small, but should be ok for 3 hens of any size.
2. The coop lives inside of an 8x8x6 foot 8 gauge welded wire predator pen w/ the same welded wire roof. We can expect this to keep larger predators out I'm pretty certain. Not sure if we will need to line the inside with a few feet tall of 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth to keep predators from reaching and grabbing the neck of an unwary hen, but I've been told here that's a possibility.
3. Outside of the predator pen, we will have a larger chicken wire pen that will contain the hens during the day when we're here so they can graze on about 1/8th of an acre of shaded native oak forest.
I'm told here that squirrels and rats may pilfer feed if we leave feed in a feeder per se. We've been guessing we will feed them each day and will only give them enough to eat for the day, and again, let them forage in the larger penned area.
So, the question today: are there any feeding solutions we can use to feed them when we're gone, that the squirrels/rats won't pilfer? If we go away for longer, we figured we'd need someone to come over and take care of feeding/watering them.
Give us your thoughts on this topic and thanks in advance!
Noel
What we have is
1. A coop the 3 hens will hopefully roost and lay in. It's small, but should be ok for 3 hens of any size.
2. The coop lives inside of an 8x8x6 foot 8 gauge welded wire predator pen w/ the same welded wire roof. We can expect this to keep larger predators out I'm pretty certain. Not sure if we will need to line the inside with a few feet tall of 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth to keep predators from reaching and grabbing the neck of an unwary hen, but I've been told here that's a possibility.
3. Outside of the predator pen, we will have a larger chicken wire pen that will contain the hens during the day when we're here so they can graze on about 1/8th of an acre of shaded native oak forest.
I'm told here that squirrels and rats may pilfer feed if we leave feed in a feeder per se. We've been guessing we will feed them each day and will only give them enough to eat for the day, and again, let them forage in the larger penned area.
So, the question today: are there any feeding solutions we can use to feed them when we're gone, that the squirrels/rats won't pilfer? If we go away for longer, we figured we'd need someone to come over and take care of feeding/watering them.
Give us your thoughts on this topic and thanks in advance!
Noel
