Just getting started, and wondering what more experienced chicken keepers suggest...

[JackieY]

Hi there!
We have decided to go ahead with our super small-scale chicken keeping plans, after waffling for many years. My husband is adamant that having 4-8 laying hens for bug control is contingent upon two conditions. The first is that they do not add too much to our farm chores (we have three low maintenance pasture-pet horses, whom I have had for 19 years, so they came with me to the marriage! We also have two daughters, 1 and 6, and are starting some veggie gardens this year, too.) the second condition is that they can't cost too much money (he is in school full time for the next year and a half). So, here are my plans so far, and I'm wondering if any of you helpful folks can set me straight or affirm that I'm not too far off track!
We have twelve acres, so during the summer I'd like to free range them during the day.
At night, they'll be closed up in a mobile coop with a small run (I'm thinking a 4' x 6' footprint, encased in hardware cloth on all sides, including floor, with the enclosed wooden coop portion and nesting boxes on the upper level, approximately 4' x 3') I know the run portion isn't huge, but they'll be out most days in the summer time, I hope. Is this big enough? Any "must have" features that I should plan for? I'm designing and building this myself, and I'm hoping to use materials we have around (metal roofing, ship lap rough sawn lumber, other scrap pieces) and only purchase the hardware cloth and some hinges / fixtures.
I live in Maine, though, and for about four or five months, the chickens won't be outside. We have an empty stall in the barn, and I was thinking about enclosing the stall (12' x 12') in chicken wire and moving the tractor / coop into the stall during the winter months. Will that small coop / nesting area still be sufficient at night, and do you think they'll stay warm enough? Has anyone done something similar, and do you have hints or suggestions? I'm guessing I'd still have to close them into the tractor at night to protect from predators that could get through the chicken wire.
I haven't pegged down a source for my birds yet ($10/bird from most mail order sources, once you factor in shipping, seems steep); do hardware stores and feed stores even carry day-old chicks this late in the season? And can one get just hens from the store like that, or am I likely to end up with a rooster?
Brooder wise, I was thinking about using a large Rubbermaid tote (approximately 30 gallons) and crafting a hardware cloth cover for it to keep my cat from introducing himself to the chicks. We have a standard clip-on light fixture, so I think that I can just buy heat lamp bulbs for that (or do they need a special fixture?) and keep our mini-flock in the basement. Will that suffice? If I get eight birds, I realize that I will shortly have to craft a larger cardboard enclosure to provide more space, but I thought it would be easier to keep a smaller enclosure warm.
Finally, I think that feed and other maintenance items (grit, etc.) will probably run around $10/ month for 4-8 birds. Does that seem in line with your experience, or am I missing something huge?

Thanks so much for your help! I'm excited (and my six year old is even more excited) but also a little nervous about doing this unless I'm armed with lots of info! Sorry for the long post, too... I should mention that I'm a writer in my day job.

Cheers,
Jackie

 

[ChickenCanoe]

...
We have twelve acres, so during the summer I'd like to free range them during the day.
At night, they'll be closed up in a mobile coop with a small run (I'm thinking a 4' x 6' footprint, encased in hardware cloth on all sides, including floor, with the enclosed wooden coop portion and nesting boxes on the upper level, approximately 4' x 3') I know the run portion isn't huge, but they'll be out most days in the summer time, I hope. Is this big enough? Any "must have" features that I should plan for? I'm designing and building this myself, and I'm hoping to use materials we have around (metal roofing, ship lap rough sawn lumber, other scrap pieces) and only purchase the hardware cloth and some hinges / fixtures.
I live in Maine, though, and for about four or five months, the chickens won't be outside. We have an empty stall in the barn, and I was thinking about enclosing the stall (12' x 12') in chicken wire and moving the tractor / coop into the stall during the winter months. Will that small coop / nesting area still be sufficient at night, and do you think they'll stay warm enough? Has anyone done something similar, and do you have hints or suggestions? I'm guessing I'd still have to close them into the tractor at night to protect from predators that could get through the chicken wire.

I haven't pegged down a source for my birds yet ($10/bird from most mail order sources, once you factor in shipping, seems steep); do hardware stores and feed stores even carry day-old chicks this late in the season? And can one get just hens from the store like that, or am I likely to end up with a rooster?

Brooder wise, I was thinking about using a large Rubbermaid tote (approximately 30 gallons) and crafting a hardware cloth cover for it to keep my cat from introducing himself to the chicks. We have a standard clip-on light fixture, so I think that I can just buy heat lamp bulbs for that (or do they need a special fixture?) and keep our mini-flock in the basement. Will that suffice? If I get eight birds, I realize that I will shortly have to craft a larger cardboard enclosure to provide more space, but I thought it would be easier to keep a smaller enclosure warm.

If you want them indoors, (which I don't recommend because of the dust) cheaper than a Rubbermaid tub are the large moving boxes at Lowes. They are 24" X 36" and $1.39 ea.. You can put 2 or more together as they grow cutting doorways between them. In either case, a heat lamp is probably too hot in that small space. A drop light with a 75 watt bulb is probably sufficient. Chicks only need 24 hour light for about the first 3 days so they can eat and drink anytime they want. After that they benefit from an ever increasing dark period. I prefer a ceramic heat emitter like those for reptiles to a heat lamp so I can control the day length. The following are available in anywhere from 75-250 watts. http://www.ebay.com/itm/110V-150W-P...976?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2584ae3b90 For your clip light fixture, check the max wattage. A ceramic brooder lamp fixture, available from lowes or home depot (in the aisle with the extension cords) is a safer choice and they aren't expensive. However, in summer, they won't need heat very long. It's a low of about 60 at night here, 80+ days and I have six, 2 1/2 week chicks outside without heat.

A lot will depend on time of year (getting some of their food foraging), the price of your feed (varies wildly). I've found that I conserve feed more when I ferment it. They don't waste it like they do when fed dry.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/645057/fermented-feeds-anyone-using-them
...

Cheers,
Jackie

 

[Ridgerunner]

Good post, Canoe. There is some good advice in there.

Jackie, you’ll find we don’t all do things exactly alike. We are in so many different situations and climates with different goals and management techniques, there is hardly ever any one right way to do things where every other way is wrong. Chickens are really adaptable and many different things work. Your challenge is to figure out what we say applies to your unique situation.

If you are going to free range them, why a mobile coop? Those mobile coops need to be moved. That adds to the work load. I tried that one summer and will never do it again. Too much work. Why not just build a permanent coop in that stall to start with?

Different people use different strategies to protect them from predators. My strategy is a predator-resistant run and a predator proof coop. Don’t believe people if they tell you that predators are only active at night. They are not. Many predators normally considered nocturnal will hunt during the day, like bobcats, foxes, even raccoons. They are more active at night and they have more undisturbed time to attack your coop while you are sleeping, but you will still be at risk during the day, especially free ranging. Some things, like dogs and hawks, mostly hunt during the day. I found it really beneficial to have a safer place to put them during the day a big help when I had a predator problem when I free ranged. Lock them up securely at night and be able to put them somewhere pretty safe during the day if you need to. That stall sounds perfect.

I don’t free range any more. The wild animals were not the problem. People like to abandon dogs out here. I lost so many from dog attacks I finally bought electric netting to provide daytime protection. It has worked but it limits their foraging ability.

My parents totally free ranged. They never locked their chickens up and would go years between predator attacks. All the time I was growing up I remember only two incidences, one a fox and one a dog that had to be dealt with. Other people suffer severe losses the first day they try to free range. We are all different with different predator pressures. I see free ranging the biggest risk to your plan. You may be like my parents and have extremely few problems or you may be immediately wiped out. No one can tell you for sure what will happen in your unique situation. A good outside dog can go a long way toward making it safer, but even that is not an absolute guarantee.

My parents never fed the chickens during the good weather months. The chickens were able to forage for themselves and do well. But that depends on the quality of forage you have. You need different grasses and weeds, grass and weed seeds, and creepy crawlies. Dead leaf litter to scratch through is a valuable resource. They will benefit by having horse poop to scratch through, finding partially digested nutrients and maybe a few creepy crawlies trying to live in there. You’ll also benefit because their scratching will spread it out so it will break down faster and you and your kids will have fewer land mines to step in. In the winter months, you will have to supplement their feed.

You’ll probably have to fence your garden to keep the chickens out. They love many things you will probably grow plus if you mulch, they really love scratching and digging in mulch. They’ll scatter it everywhere, in the garden or any landscaping beds.

Another possible source for chickens is the Maine thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1370/maine/13580

You might find someone local that could help you out.

You don’t have to have a lot of fancy equipment to raise chicks. Dad kept a cardboard box on the back porch with a 60 watt incandescent bulb for heat. It does not have to be red or any special color or any special kind. It has to heat up one area that they can go to for warmth. If that barn has electricity you can raise them out there. A lot of us, including me, have personal preferences for how we do things, but in reality people normally care about these things a whole lot more than the chickens do.

If your birds free range or just have contact with the ground, they will find their own grit. Or just throw them some small gravel, say from a sand or gravel bar in a stream. You don’t have to buy that. Grit is just gravel they eat to help grind up food in their gizzard. They don’t have teeth so they use gravel to grind up their food.

Chickens, just like wild birds, can get a lot of calcium from their environment; certain plants they eat, shells or bones of creepy crawlies, and, if your native rock is limestone, from the gravel they eat as grit. You can let their egg shells tell you if you need to supplement the calcium or not. If the shells are hard they are getting enough calcium. If they are soft or thin, offering them some oyster shell is a good idea.

I’ve probably given enough information overload. Hope you decide to join us on the adventure.

 

[donrae]

Something else to consider....

Is it possible to skip the coop/run and just harden the stall and use it as their home? You don't have to enclose it all the way to the roof of the barn, if it's high, you can put a ceiling on the stall of the materials you'd use for the coop, plus some hardware cloth. I think for the same materials you could enclose that stall pretty well and have lots more room. Not being able to see your set up, I don't know if it's possible as stalls vary a lot

I just think your coop/run area sounds very small for that many birds. It could work just as a nesting and sleeping area, but if they needed to be confined there any length of time, I think you'd get some nasty behaviors from your hens.

The acreage and free range sounds great, but do you have a plan for dealing with predators while they're ranging?

If the ranging works well for you, I don't think you'll need to feed them hardly at all during the warm months. I'd still keep feed available, but I'm sure they'd rather eat what they find, especially when they hit the horse's area! Chickens love horse manure and are great at controlling flies by scratching through the piles. You're probably close to cost for winter/confined times.

I second the don't brood in the house, start them in the coop. I just hate the thought of inhaling all that dust. If you get the stall hardened, you can just start them right in it if you can run a heat lamp out there.

You can re-assure your honey that chickens don't have to be a lot of extra work! I have two horses also, the chickens, have had hogs and goats, etc. I'm always one to keep chores simple. One of the nice things you can do with chickens is to buy a large enough feeder and waterer you don't have to feed and water every day, just check levels. Use deep litter in that stall, rake it around once a week or so, and that will be about the extent of your chores every day. Oh, and collecting eggs!

 

[topdog24]

I agree with all of the comments and information given so far, my grand parents and my parents free ranged all their chickens but locked them up every night, but they would always feed the chickens near the door to the hen house about dusk, so they could eat and go to bed with a happy stomach.

Good luck in your venture