New Chicken mom

[laura3]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

I think a lot of us (including me) have been surprised at how easy it is to enjoy them. Watching chicken tv is the best show around! What breed are your Daisy, Dinky and Dixie (cute names)?

You might enjoy checking out the thread about house chickens (even though yours will be moving out to a coop, it's still a fun one to peek at). This will get you there:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/299187/people-with-house-chickens

Have fun with your flock and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[laura3]

My chickens are called red sex links. Did you ever hear of that breed. My husband and I started assembling our coop but unfortunately it was missing a lot of parts. I do not recommend Boomer and George Tree Top chicken coop. Fortunately the company I purchases it from has awesome customer service. They are sending out another one so we can take the parts we need and send back what we don't. Can someone tell me how far to dig down in the ground to predator proof the coop. Also how do I attach the cage and run to the stuff I put in the ground. I have never had any animal live outside. I want them to be safe and happy. Thanks for the welcome.

 

[canadianmedic]

My chickens are called red sex links. Did you ever hear of that breed. My husband and I started assembling our coop but unfortunately it was missing a lot of parts. I do not recommend Boomer and George Tree Top chicken coop. Fortunately the company I purchases it from has awesome customer service. They are sending out another one so we can take the parts we need and send back what we don't. Can someone tell me how far to dig down in the ground to predator proof the coop. Also how do I attach the cage and run to the stuff I put in the ground. I have never had any animal live outside. I want them to be safe and happy. Thanks for the welcome.

Red Sex Link is a wonderful laying breed! They are egg making machines and will often lay 1 nice large brown egg a day!! We have 14 RSL and absolutely love them!!
As for digging down, we went about 8 inches down and placed a piece of 2x6 across and just below the lower support beam for our coop. Some people will tell you to dig down that far and place wire mesh, and that works great too!!
It really depends what predators you have there.
We are in southern Ontario and have every predator known to man here!! Raccoons, weasels, fox, and bear!!
Have fun with your new brood!!

 

[Michael OShay]

My chickens are called red sex links. Did you ever hear of that breed. My husband and I started assembling our coop but unfortunately it was missing a lot of parts. I do not recommend Boomer and George Tree Top chicken coop. Fortunately the company I purchases it from has awesome customer service. They are sending out another one so we can take the parts we need and send back what we don't. Can someone tell me how far to dig down in the ground to predator proof the coop. Also how do I attach the cage and run to the stuff I put in the ground. I have never had any animal live outside. I want them to be safe and happy. Thanks for the welcome.

X2 on canadianmedic. Red Sex Links are not actually a breed, but hybrids produced by crossing red gene roosters with silver gene hens. Not only can they be sexed by color from hatching (males are whitish, females are reddish), but they are egg laying machines outlaying either parents breed. It's one of the interesting quirks of hybridization. I'm about the missing parts to your chicken coop. Even if the company makes it right, it's always such a pain to have to swap them out. You don't actually have to dig down into the ground to prevent predators from digging into your coop. You can also attach a three foot wide hardware cloth skirt to the base of the outer perimeter of your coop/run with the skirt laying flat on the ground and then cover it with some dirt and/or rocks if this is easier for you to do than digging down and burying some fencing in the ground. As long as the hardware cloth skirt is covered by dirt and/or rock, predators will try digging at the base of the run. They are not smart enough to figure out that they have to begin their digging more than three feet out from the run. Just be sure and use hardware cloth for all parts of your coop/run instead of chicken wire as there are too many predators that can tear through chicken wire, or squeeze through the openings in the mesh. There is a good article at http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/07/11-tips-for-predator-proofing-chickens.html on predator proofing your chickens.