jengacat
Chirping
So I have a new coop with secure run, but my 5 girls need more room! I'm currently in a rental situation while I build my new house, but I need some way for the girls to get more "walkabout" time without me being right there to supervise. We have a pair of Cooper's Hawks living 2 houses down! No attempts on my girls yet but he's come down into the yard after wild birds.
My plan is to fence off (with T-posts and welded wire fence, 5 ft tall) a portion of the yard and cover it with aviary netting. I have 50 ft x 100 ft of knotted nylon netting. I'm considering 2 options and can't decide. I'm torn between keeping them safe or keeping them happy. I'd love input from those who have done similar things in their small yards.
Option #1 (safest): Keep it simple and do a square enclosure about 35x50ft around the coop. There would be no bushes or vegetation, just the coop itself and (right now) grass. I could plant stuff for them but they'll probably destroy it unless I do the frames with hardware cloth tops.
Option # 2 (happiest): Use existing structures (privacy fence on back, back wall of garage) with welded wire fence on 2 sides to enclose a much larger area that includes a lot of bushes and vegetation where they love to forage, dust bathe, and hang out. This is less safe because of all the trees and having to improvise with the netting around obstacles. I could use the cheap plastic deer netting so I could cut it and wrap around trees.
Here is a pic to illustrate:
I will only let them out in this area if I am in the yard (to start) or nearby in the house, once I've seen that the hawks aren't trying to get in. Would a hawk try to grab a chicken thru the netting? This netting is very "drapey" and I'll need to use posts or rope threaded thru at regular intervals so it will be tall enough for me to walk around under it. I'm planning to tie brightly colored flag tape on it to deter hawks too. I'm hoping that a hawk would not "dive" into the netting to get to a chicken.
The 2nd modification I'm considering involves adding coop ventilation. We've already had a couple of over 80 degree days and the coop is still hot at bedtime, even with fans in the windows. I am planning to build hardware cloth "windows" into the clean out doors OR a 2x4 hardware cloth frame for the entire wall that I'd have to remove daily for cleaning. I just paid someone a lot of money to build this coop so I'm hesitant to cut hole in the doors! What do you think about a frame that I would lift out daily? It would give a ton of ventilation. Here's a couple pics showing the side I am talking about:
Any advice on these options (or better ones I haven't thought of) is greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance
My plan is to fence off (with T-posts and welded wire fence, 5 ft tall) a portion of the yard and cover it with aviary netting. I have 50 ft x 100 ft of knotted nylon netting. I'm considering 2 options and can't decide. I'm torn between keeping them safe or keeping them happy. I'd love input from those who have done similar things in their small yards.
Option #1 (safest): Keep it simple and do a square enclosure about 35x50ft around the coop. There would be no bushes or vegetation, just the coop itself and (right now) grass. I could plant stuff for them but they'll probably destroy it unless I do the frames with hardware cloth tops.
Option # 2 (happiest): Use existing structures (privacy fence on back, back wall of garage) with welded wire fence on 2 sides to enclose a much larger area that includes a lot of bushes and vegetation where they love to forage, dust bathe, and hang out. This is less safe because of all the trees and having to improvise with the netting around obstacles. I could use the cheap plastic deer netting so I could cut it and wrap around trees.
Here is a pic to illustrate:
I will only let them out in this area if I am in the yard (to start) or nearby in the house, once I've seen that the hawks aren't trying to get in. Would a hawk try to grab a chicken thru the netting? This netting is very "drapey" and I'll need to use posts or rope threaded thru at regular intervals so it will be tall enough for me to walk around under it. I'm planning to tie brightly colored flag tape on it to deter hawks too. I'm hoping that a hawk would not "dive" into the netting to get to a chicken.
The 2nd modification I'm considering involves adding coop ventilation. We've already had a couple of over 80 degree days and the coop is still hot at bedtime, even with fans in the windows. I am planning to build hardware cloth "windows" into the clean out doors OR a 2x4 hardware cloth frame for the entire wall that I'd have to remove daily for cleaning. I just paid someone a lot of money to build this coop so I'm hesitant to cut hole in the doors! What do you think about a frame that I would lift out daily? It would give a ton of ventilation. Here's a couple pics showing the side I am talking about:
Any advice on these options (or better ones I haven't thought of) is greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance
