How to keep my chickens safe

[pslane]

Mostly I raise Serama Bantams and they are safe inside their nice little coop with a run and an indoor area. But recently I decided I wanted to raise some large breed chickens and I got 3 Buff Orpingtons at the local feed store. Took me a long time to realize that all 3 were roosters. They looked like pullets at first. Then there was crowing. Then aggression.

With these big breed chickens I want to have them outside the coop mostly because I hate to confine such big chickens. They have such fun roaming the yard and finding bugs to eat.

I found a good home for the biggest one. He was attacking my Chihuahua! Today a neighbor's dog killed another one and there is one left.

I'm thinking about buying a few Barred Rocks soon and I would like to know if there are any pictures anywhere of fenced in areas w/top wire that I could look at to get some ideas on how to keep the chickens safe. Does anybody know of any links to pictures or does anybody have any suggestions on the subject? I will not keep large breed chickens in a confined area, but free range is a death sentence at my place.

Thanks

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Check out the coop designs page :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html

hundreds of possibilities! If your only looking for a couple large birds just check out the small coops. they are combined coops and runs alot of them, and what you're probably looking for!

also remember to put a skirt of 1-2 feet of extra hardware cloth or even chicken wire on the bottom to sit out like a skirt (can always dig up an couple inches of dirt, lay down skirt and then recover with dirt and replant grass) this way it will look neater as a permanant coop. Given 10 sq ft a bird in a run is minimum suggestion for a large chicken, so you have 1 roo, and you want to get lets say 4 Barred Rocks, so 5 birds = 50 sq ft. 5X10 run and 4 sq ft per bird in a coop minimum means 20 sq ft - 4X5 coop minimum.

hope this helps some.

Seriously check out all the awesome plans and ideas from fellow BYCers on that link, it'll give you some great ideas!

 

[pslane]

Thanks for the info! What I'm really looking for is a good safe run area for them. I just recently spent a bundle on building a chicken coop for my bantams so for the large chickens, I want a large run and something small for shelter and egg laying. They don't want to be inside anyway unless the weather is bad. So if I can get someone to build a large run, I can probably get an indoor area bought ready made.

I found a run on the coops page that just might fit the bill.