Must they be inside overnight?

[silkiechicken]

If you are sure that nothing can get into your run, as your run would be like a tractor, then they can sleep outside. Mine sleep outside in their tractor area just fine. I let them free range though so they can go where ever they please in the day and go inside at night. Just make sure it is secure. I wouldn't lock them into a 3x3 cube for a weekend though.

 

[greenmulberry]

Just make it so nothing can grab them and nothing can break the wire.

I can't reliably lock my chickens up every night, they have a coop and a secure run. If it ever comes to pass that something does bust in, I will just have to work harder to make the run stronger, because I sure as heck don't have time and availability to let them in and out of the coop and dusk and dawn. I mean geeze, in the winter it is already night when I get home from work!

I do free range them if I am going to be around, like weekends, and lock up the run after they go in and into the coop to roost at night.

 

[pipermark]

The Silkies I have started raising do not always go into the coop. I have wire top and sides. I lost one to something. I think it must have reached through the wire. If you leave them out, you might lose one, less chance if they are standard birds.
Having said that , I still dont chase them in at night.

 

[emen8]

Quote:
What exactly makes a run a "tractor?" Originally I made a run the same height and width as the coop, extending it out by six additional feet, making an area 3'x9', including the area under the coop. It's about six feet high. When I realized this wasn't enough room for them to roam around, I added a wing (pun intended) that's 8'x4', but only about 27" high. Since I'm getting worried about predators, and also about weekends when I might travel, I'm thinking about covering a few more feet of the run with plywood sides & top, creating a well-protected area both inside & outside. I just have to come up with some way of making it easy to open up for "normal" days. I sure wish I'd planned this better from the beginning--this project keeps expanding!

 

[Galaxie_Man]

Quote:
I installed an electric powered attic fan through the roof of the coop for ventilation. There is no permanent power out there, we use an outdoor rated extension cord to plug in the coop. A trench for power or burying fencing would be an expensive excavation project where I live. The soil is comprised of what is called "glacial rubble" left over from the last ice age. Digging a hole to put in a small shrub is a challenge, never mind a trench that large and deep. As you start to dig, you don't get very far before the first rock strike. It could be the size of a potato, a basketball, a car engine, or the whole car. So since I can't dig in the area, I assume critters can't either. My outdoor pen is constructed of PT 2 X 4's resting on the ground and weighs a ton. It will be re-inforced at the bottom with hardware cloth this weekend.

Mom to: 5 Ameraucana pullets (Doodoo, Carmen, Blondie, Sissy, Dixie), 1 Black X link pullet (Halle), 1 Ameraucana roo (Maurice)

I'm glad to see I'm not the only nut naming chickens. Of my original flock I still have Sally (Ameracauna), Annette (RIR), LadyHawke (Breed??), and Brewster (RIR Roo). Stella (RIR) died of a birth defect (we had a necropsy done), and my dogs killed Phyllis (Ameracauna), Trouble, and Enytee (Red Stars).

We have three new girls that are layers we got from my wife's friend. I don't know them well enough to name them yet, perhaps this weekend.

 

[earthnut]

A tractor is a small enough coop/run that is moveable. It's completely enclosed, and doesn't require every day locking. Mine are in a tractor, but I only have 2 hens. Also, I only have to worry about dogs and raccoons, no bears here. they are enclosed in hardware cloth and the tractor is pegged into the ground to prevent tipping.

On another note, why do you think chickens require less attention than a dog? I've had both, and they seem to require similar care to me. They both require shelter, food, water and sanitation. Chickens need predator protection and separate housing, which dogs don't. Just curious.

 

[peepkeeper]

IMO, chickens don't need that much care. Not like a dog, who needs lots of attention, walks, feeding, etc. Chickens are more like cats, level of care wise. You can go away for the weekend and leave them with food and water and they'll be fine. So I don't think that she was saying that chickens can be ignored, just that they take less care than a dog.

 

[emen8]

Peepkeeper expressed exactly what I was thinking. If there's going to be two feet of snow on the ground, I can dump a bunch of feed in the coop and make sure the water is not going to freeze and consider the chickens cared for until I dig out a path.

And unfortunately, as I wrote in another thread (Locking them up didn't help), a bear got my hens over the weekend. It lifted the top of the coop, tearing out the eyebolts I'd used to latch it. I'm trying to decide if I should keep chickens here or not. I don't really want to have bears thinking my yard's a good place to hang out--I have two young kids.

 

[schmism]

need less to say mine arnt real bright bulbs (but then again chickens arnt soooo)

the other day i moved there tractor about 20'..... they could easly see it were they like to hang out durring the day.....

but come that night... they went nuts cause there house wasnt in the same spot it had been for the past few nights.....

they ended up roosting in the tall brush about 7' off the ground...... so i crept up on them, caught em, and put them in there home for the night....

they wernt happy about it.... but the figured it out the next day.

My point.... they figured out were to roost at night that would be safe and if i hadnt seen them do it, i would have never known they were there.

as it is, they do like to go back to there house at night if they had a choice.