Growley Monster
Chirping
Newly built or almost built 8 x 8 coop, T1-11 siding on 16" center studs, one standard residential entry door, two windows, 6 outside access nesting boxes, gable roof, ventilation hatch down low and up under roof overhang, and turbine vent at peak of roof. Pretty chuffed about the project, but still undecided about chicken doors. One side of coop faces 12.5 x 25 foot fenced garden and I was thinking about a wire tunnel from a chicken door into it and an alternate tunnel into another garden plot, so I can rotate them every spring between chicken run use and vegetable production. Birds are Brown Leghorns and I have 7 at 8 weeks old already free ranging and sleeping in our old overgrown duck blind. When I call to them they come, when they feel like it, and they don't, when they don't feel like it. 9 more are still in brood pens and they will move to the coop when I have the roof on, I am currently building the trusses. In total there are 7 hens. Roosters except for one or MAYBE two will be culled or caponized at the first crow. So 64 sq ft for 8 medium size chickens. Location, South of Chauvin, LA, on Bayou Petit Caillou, 28 acres, 4 acres of dry land, half of which is cleared and mowed. I would like to keep the hens mostly in a controlled environment due to owls, eagles, and hawks. Quadruped predators are not very common, just winged ones. And the occasional alligator that wants to travel overland between bayou and marsh. The roosters can take care of themselves along with the odd hen that wants to run around with the boys, but I would prefer the hens roost in the coop and lay in the nest boxes and scratch only in their garden run.
The only possible non-winged predator other than the occasional gator is one housecat, possibly feral, that likes to hunt baby rabbits and stuff. I don't think it will mess with adult leghorns, but you never know.
So the only real detail not yet penciled in, is the chicken door or doors. It seems like everybody wants to use automatic doors. How do they work, and how are predators stopped from just following the birds in through the door? I don't get it. I originally thought I would open doors manually in the mornings and close them in the evenings.
So am I overthinking the whole chicken door thing, in light of the self reliance of the Brown Leghorn breed? We won't be trying to hatch any eggs this year because we might shift to Jersey Giants or some other larger dual purpose breed next year or the following year. I am NOT going to spend $300 each on chicken doors because wife is already ticked off about my cost overruns on the coop build. "Saving money on eggs? Yeah, RIGHT!!!!" LOL.
The only possible non-winged predator other than the occasional gator is one housecat, possibly feral, that likes to hunt baby rabbits and stuff. I don't think it will mess with adult leghorns, but you never know.
So the only real detail not yet penciled in, is the chicken door or doors. It seems like everybody wants to use automatic doors. How do they work, and how are predators stopped from just following the birds in through the door? I don't get it. I originally thought I would open doors manually in the mornings and close them in the evenings.
So am I overthinking the whole chicken door thing, in light of the self reliance of the Brown Leghorn breed? We won't be trying to hatch any eggs this year because we might shift to Jersey Giants or some other larger dual purpose breed next year or the following year. I am NOT going to spend $300 each on chicken doors because wife is already ticked off about my cost overruns on the coop build. "Saving money on eggs? Yeah, RIGHT!!!!" LOL.
