Im a newb need your opinion on weather my chickens are safe or not Pics provided.

[Photoman509]

Hello,
My name is Lance this is my 2nd year raising Hens unfortunatly my first flock were murdered by a stray pitbull that got in my yard. At that time I was letting them free range in my yard and would lock them up in their coop at night. This Year my Chicks are just over 3 months old and I built them a 4 1/2 foot tall Pin and built an extension to the small coop I used last year. I am anticipating the eggs but these are my pets I love them like family and they love me, My fiance laughs at how they react to me as opposed to other people even her the listen to me they follow me around I love it My daughter is 9 and has helped me tend to them both years we were all heartbroken last year and I just want to see what all of you who are more experienced think. By the way our bedroom window is right above there coop so we can hopefully hear if anything unusual is going on in there. Thanks for your time, Lance aka Photoman509 heres a link to the pics

https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/a/6521222/default

 

[Amanda941]

Hey Lance,

I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your first flock. These girls really do become family. After having them around for a while it becomes difficult to remember life without them. I'm glad you kept with it and started a new chicken family.

I've had a backyard flock for the past twelve years or so, and I can tell you that I've experienced everything from chicken diseases to pests, even predators. I have even lost two of my girls to my own dogs due to design flaws in my coop design.

The best advise I can give, especially since your back yard appears pretty similar to mine, is the more secure you can make it for your girls, the better. I'm talkin fort Knox! We have a house built for ours, about four feet off the ground. Basic framing is 4x4's, and the door is opened and secured on the side where their run is. The run itself is completely surrounded by heavy gauge wire and the bottoms of the run are nailed in to the ground with 12 inch rebar. This might sound like overkill, but you would be surprised how far a hungry possum or raccoon can dig to get to a bunch of chickens.

Just do what you can to keep those girls safe! I'll try and post pics of my coop later. I'm happy to try and help answer any questions you have!

 

[Photoman509]

Thank you I cant wait to see it! I am trying to keep things as simple as possible for now without sacrificing their saftey. We are renting and are planning to buy property this tax season and I want a HUGE FLOCK then so I dont want to get to complex till we move but like i said I dont want to sacrifice their safetey which is why I lined the perimiter with cynder blocks and put it next to our bedroom I worry everymorning coming out to check on them hoping they are safe thanks and nice to meet you! Lance

 

[chynasparks]

I too am sorry about your first flock. I am raising my first got 4 pullets June 7th this year, they were 4 weeks. Hubby built the coop just finished today and I moved them in so I'm up worrying about my peeps. They can't free range so they are in a run/ coop enclosure. They have a ladder leading to the nest area. There's a pop hole but no door to close it. Hubby felt since it is all enclosed they don't need the door to the best area. There is a back outside door for me to collect eggs and clean. I'm nervous about no door, but it is what it is. I went in this evening and put them in. They milled around but came back out. It is ther first night so I'm hoping they will take to it. I was wondering if they need that door in order to roost in there or will they be ok without one. Nothing can dig in, we've set it on concrete.

 

[Nicole01]

Im a newb need your opinion on weather my chickens are safe or not Pics provide

AWe built a very sturdy run! Although we do free range and plan/hoping on eventually fencing our backyard(about 3 acres) just for the chickens. They flock is very important to me and the kids. This would take us a while since we will do it in sections.

Our run has a roof plus welded wire and hardware cloth. We didn't plan to have both wires, but I was not happy with the welded wire or the price of the run. It's 22x5x5.5. The roof was added later to convert into a temporary winter coop for spacing.

I actually only shut the run door or they get too hot in the coop at night. I put roosts in the run and the coop to give more space. In the winter i cover the run in plastic, which stops from over crowding. Ill have 16-17 this year. Converting the run as a temporary coop really helps with space since I have a large flock. I was only going to have 2 hens total. Well, that didn't work out which my flock grows every year. All my chickens are lap chickens too. I handled daily as chicks.

I'm really very sorry for your loss. I can't imagine losing a whole flock. I've lost only 1 to a coyote last year and i free range morning till night. Our coop is in the garage, so absolutely nothing can get to them when the coop door is closed. We didn't expect to build such a sturdy coop, it just happened and I'm glad we did.

I think hardware cloth is the best wire to use if you can and make sure your run has a some sort of wire or other type of roof too. I heard planting vines on the run wire provides great shading if you need it. Im trying this myself as the coop faces the west and it gets very hot.

I don't know if this is possible, but my neighbor trained her chicken eating dog(golden retriever) not to eat the chickens. She bought a strong muzzle and had them side by side until he stopped going after them. Maybe this would work? I never thought her dog would live peacefully along chickens, but he does! Or you can free range when the dog is put away or chained up. My neighbor use to take turns with her dog and chickens with the yard. My neighbor was also very lucky and built a very nice large coop extension with all recycled materials.

Good luck and i really hope you don't have any more losses. Chickens are really great pets. I prefer to free range since the eggs taste so much better from the grass, weeds and bugs. They eat the berries off our trees which are packed with nutrients. Ill spend hours with my flock watching them and hanging out with them everyday.

If we ever move, I'm making my husband take down the entire coop and run before the house would go up for sale. It will move with us!

 

[Photoman509]

Thanks everyone for the replies I am definatly going to look into that hardware cloth Ive never heard of it. I still let them free range in my yard when I m home and I have security cameras watching my yard, I also got my concealed pistol license and carry a hand gun so if something does make it into my yard and comes after them I can hopefully stop it before any of them get hurt. I lock them up in their pen when I leave the house though but when i do I flip over a couple of cyder block which always have lots of tasty treats waiting for them lol I mainly put the cynder blocks around the perimiter to keep things from digging under but flipping for bugs turned out to be a bonus

 

[Amanda941]

A couple of pics of our new coop. As you can see we have reised it off the ground quite a bit. This is for safety as well as ease of cleaning. There are windows on three sides, and access doors on two... one that we use to clean out the old bedding amd the other actually has the small chicken door set into it so the birds can come and go during the day. it all get's shut up tight at night so that they are safe. I went a little more decorative with this design, but it's really functional and is working well for us so far.

 

[chynasparks]

Okay, now those are some pampered chickens! Your coop is gorgeous! I'm a newbie as well, but I would say your set up looks safe. And I would add that it doesn't look harsh for your neighbors to look at, in fact, if I were your neighbor I would ask for a tour.

 

[Photoman509]

Wow you must be rich lol That's nicer than my house! lol. I would love to build em something like that someday

 

[Kernel Cluck]

What an beautiful coop. Very nice job.... The Taj Mahal of coops.