Idaho?

[Robbo]

The chickens are right out our back door... about 10ft away I would say. But the racoons at night come right up to our back door and look into the house (the neighbor feeds them out of her back door). I think I could hear them. but unsure. This is my first time with chickens / ducks. So I haven't had the experience of hearing them or not yet. They are still young so inside in the brooder but in a few weeks will be old enough to go outside. I am letting the outside during the day right now while they are supervised.

I am all for placing wiring on top as the roof... but I am trying to find something that will be the easiest and cheapest. It is a 12ft by 12ft dog run. Chain link fence. It is an older one so I cannot find a roof for it online. The largest online dog run roofs any place sells now is 10ft x 10ft or 5ft x 12ft. Bummer! I am just thinking it would be hard to get a lot of chicken wire and run it side by side... we would need about 4 chunks of it... and having to hook it together some how since the tallest I can find is 3ft.

 

[annewandering]

You would have to get that chicken wire that is 1/2 inch to be on the safe side too. And its not very strong with the chain fencing that might not be an issue though.
Did you check amazon.com for price comparisons and for width availability?

 

[Chicken Happy]

We put tin roofing over 3/4's of the run (helps when it snows and when they NEED to get out of the coop)...so if you have some around it may be helpful in the $$$ department. Just an idea.

 

[annewandering]

I was thinking that might an idea too. Its not very expensive. The trick would be the support for it but I doubt that would be all that hard to set up.
Amazon has 72 inch wide chicken wire. Its not cheap but they do have it so it is available. That would be two rows to connect.

 

[Robbo]

I was thinking that might an idea too. Its not very expensive. The trick would be the support for it but I doubt that would be all that hard to set up.
Amazon has 72 inch wide chicken wire. Its not cheap but they do have it so it is available. That would be two rows to connect.

That would be perfect! I found this one.. which is an okay price for me $42.00.. but shipping at $35!? Heck no... http://www.amazon.com/Keystone-Steel-187250-Poultry-Netting/dp/B000T33UQ4/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1366173350&sr=8-6&keywords=72%22+chicken+wire

Has anyone seen any other that maybe doens't have such steep shipping? Only using 2 strips would be a life saver and would solve my problem right there. I haven't seen this size in stores though...?



Chicken Happy I would love to use some metal sheets and have been looking into them because we don't have any. I figured to do my run it would be about $120 and that is a bit ify right now since most of my pay checks are going to medication right now. I am thinking about checking out the Rehab for Humanity though. That is where I got a lot of my supplies and maybe if I get lucky they may have some sheeting. Or even wire!

 

[Mo5C]

Wow! $2 is a lot for the vaccination--my chicks that I get from McMurray get vaccinated for 17cents each for Marek's and another 17cents for cocci....as a side note here, i have been very happy with McMurray, the quality of the birds has really surprised me. The Polish have the biggest crests, really fluffy and round and dense, much bigger than the top breeders on here that I have gotten others from, and really good dispositions..and they are sexed female. After going through 12 chicks last year to get 1 white crested black, they either ended up males or cuckoo...so I ordered the sexed female from McMurray, 8 of them...and they were all female and proper color, with really pretty crests.

On the gender question, if you can post pics we would love to help you guess! Each breed is different, but between all the people on here that have raised chicks that turned out to be boys, I bet we can figure it out

As soon as I can get my sister's camera or the tablet I will take pics of all my babies and post them, especialy the RIR chick. I think I lucked out on the cochin's out of the straightrun bunch and got all pullets but I am unsure about the rest of them. What is cocci?

 

[annewandering]

That would be perfect! I found this one.. which is an okay price for me $42.00.. but shipping at $35!? Heck no... http://www.amazon.com/Keystone-Steel-187250-Poultry-Netting/dp/B000T33UQ4/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1366173350&sr=8-6&keywords=72%22+chicken+wire

Has anyone seen any other that maybe doens't have such steep shipping? Only using 2 strips would be a life saver and would solve my problem right there. I haven't seen this size in stores though...?



Chicken Happy I would love to use some metal sheets and have been looking into them because we don't have any. I figured to do my run it would be about $120 and that is a bit ify right now since most of my pay checks are going to medication right now. I am thinking about checking out the Rehab for Humanity though. That is where I got a lot of my supplies and maybe if I get lucky they may have some sheeting. Or even wire!

Ok I have an idea on your wire. Go to your local farm store and ask them to order it for you. I have never done that but I have heard of people doing it. That way no shipping!!
Oh and you are checking craigsllist?

 

[thebirdguy]

You might want to check builders supply stores.. they use a hexagonal wire for stucco that looks exactly like poultry wire, only a lot heavier duty and cheaper!!

 

[BackYardChknLvr]

Question: I live in Boise... I have dug my run (12ftx12ft) into the ground about 4 inches. We do have racoons out this way.

I was curious though... we are trying to figure out a cover situation... and money is tight now (one of my pets is on a tumor treatment costing me over $200 a month. Yikes!) and we were wondering about netting.... if buying a large bird netting would work enough? Is there anything to be worried about climbing and dropping down into the run during the day? I will be locking my 2 chickens and 1 duck in the coop at night and letting them back out in the morning.

What i did with my run i put up 2x4's across the top knoptted on the ends to fit around the bars then i put good stirty strong fence whire across the top then i put a pvc pipe down the middle and put up 2 big boards to angle them. and then i put a tarp over it all to keep rain and snow out of the coop so it stays dry there and i have some nasty coons as well.. but they havent been able to get in since i did that and how i kept the wire down i just used a bunch of zipties

 

[RoseLin]

Mini ranch outside of Boise near Kuna...Hello!