Location, location, location--it took a month but it is done

[Ecosanda]

About a month ago, I first came across this wonderful website as we were about to build a new chicken coop. I got lots of ideas here, some of which we adapted for our special circumstance. I took pictures through most of the construction phase and now have them posted online in a Picassa album I am pleased that we used a lot of recycled materials. I think all we bought new was a half dozen 4x4's, 2x6's, OSB, a dozen 1" PVC pipe, a roll of "netting" and a roll of roofing.

From the forum, we leaned about making a raised coop, which we had never done before, and pull out poop trays. I am proud of my idea to use old shower doors for that function. I read about people using linoleum to make the floor easier to clean, but I thought it might be too easily scraped, so since we had some ceramic tile left from a bathroom project, our coop has a ceramic tile floor. Can anyone else make claim to that?

Being in suburbia, we don't have a real predator problem. We have had a problem with rats, but after reading many items on the forum, we decided that it was not worth even attempting to rat proof the chicken yard.

My subject location, location, location, refers to our waterfront property. So besides the ceramic floor, our chickens have a water view

Now I have to do some research in this forum to see if we can improve our feed station and watering system.

Thanks so much to all of you for being out there.

 

[gryeyes]

I agree about BYC - I could NEVER have accomplished as much without it, nor could I have felt as good about my chicken keeping skills as this support has allowed.

But about yours... WOW. Lovely view! I really like those nest boxes, too. Dang, you did GOOD!

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Please be careful. I wouldn't count on there not being raccoons where you live. They're pretty much everywhere. Too many people don't realize raccoons are around until they lose some chickens to them.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

Elmo is right. We live in a small town and for years we had possums in our trees...BIG possums...as large as a coon which we might have had but never saw. Hopefully our run will keep out any critter; hardware cloth up 2' then 1" welded wire, a pvc roof, and cement curbing/walk/foundation around perimeter.

 

[Hugerat]

I live in a suburb of Chicago and am 5 miles due north of ohare airport.

I have spotted in my fully fenced yard; raccoons, fox, coyotes, possums and of course squirrels and rabbits. Last night one of my dogs was sprayed by a skunk. Not all of these are frequent guests but they would be if there was a cage full of food in the yard. When I build it will be done in a fully predator proof way.

Do not assume because you live in an urban area that you are free of predators.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

I have been dealing with skunks this planting season...they have dug up a lot of my garden. They started on the asparagus, moved on to the beds with tomatoes and unearthed several then it was the peas and now they are in my strawberry bed. I trapped one but one doing the latest damage has not been tempted by cat food so I will add some peanut butter!

I know once the chickens are in their run and coop, the skunks will do everything in their power to get into the run.

 

[Ecosanda]

Thanks y'all, and thanks for reading my post....and looking at my pictures. I know there can be critters in suburbia, but we have some special "location" features that make it unlikely. We have a freeway just west of us and a waterway at the back of our property. That freeway pretty much stops a lot of the creature traffic. We have large gardens, and they would have attracted some creatures if they were out there. We have kept chickens on this property for about a decade. There was an old raccoon years ago, but have not seen anything bigger than a squirrel in years. Our old coop was far less predator proof than this one. We have solid wood wall under the egg boxes at the north end of the coop, a chain link fence with four feet of garden soil behind it on the east, a solid end with a screen door on the south, and an earth berm and 12 inch board on the west. I realize if there were motivated critters, they could dig under any of that. The netting was mostly to keep the birds in and wild birds out. We may have made the mistake of using aviary netting instead of poultry netting....we will see. It is nice because it does not really block the view of the water from my apartment, but we are not sure how long it will hold up, and of course, if there was a predator, I suspect they could destroy it easily.

It was fun watching the chickens exporing their new home this morning. I was quite excited by the first one who walked up the ladder. Her picture was added.