New member. Been lurking for years

[maudeflanagan]

Hello all. I have finally made an account, but I have been reading for a long time. The choices I have made regarding housing my chickens have largely been based on the information from this board.

I have a small flock of 9 birds. They range in age from 13wks-20wks. I have some wyandottes, australorps, and a Sussex.

We built our coop ourselves. It is a Woods style open air coop that measures 8’x12’. There is an attached run that I would like to expand. I am nervous to let them free range due to loss. I am confident they would go back to the coop at night, but there are hawks, dogs, raccoons, etc here.

I am very thankful to the contributors to this community. I think I would have made bad choices had I not read first and acted later.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

 

[LaFleche]

Hello @maudeflanagan , and welcome to the BYC community!

Please, let us see your chickens and of course some pictures of your set up too. We loooove pictures!

 

[Ruby Rogue]

Welcome to BYC! Thanks for joining.

 

[JustCallMeMaple]

Welcome from a fellow lurker!! Expansion takes time. We have a set coop and run area that is for when free ranging won't work. We used garden stakes, livestock fencing (base wraped in chicken wire) and the lifestock fencing over top. We connected pvc pipe in archs to support the wire as well as give a rounded top to put a tarp on a portion of it. I also convinced my spouse that we should expand and got another 12x19ft of run space covered. I turn sharp edges out so the inside is safe but the angle a predator could get snagged on it trying to climb and it won't feel pretty since cut metal is sharp. The chicken wire is curved out on the grass which means predators would have to really dig under to get close and grass can still grow through the holes. I've thought about lining with stones or cinder blocks in corners where my ducks want to make puddles and give a new partially dug pond area. We shall see. That's what I did for my predator proofing. If it helps. I'm glad you decided to join.

 

[maudeflanagan]

The coop is finished minus painting the exterior. I am having trouble choosing a color and mustering the motivation to get out and paint it. The pictures I have of the coop are from before the run was added. I don’t have any handy including the run, apologies.

 

[swampfox440]

Welcome to BYC! Have a great day .

 

[swampfox440]

The coop is finished minus painting the exterior. I am having trouble choosing a color and mustering the motivation to get out and paint it. The pictures I have of the coop are from before the run was added. I don’t have any handy including the run, apologies.

Beautiful coop and birds .

 

[N F C]

Hello, nice looking coop and flock, thanks for sharing pictures!

 

[LaFleche]

The coop is finished minus painting the exterior. I am having trouble choosing a color and mustering the motivation to get out and paint it. The pictures I have of the coop are from before the run was added. I don’t have any handy including the run, apologies.

Beautiful coop and gorgeous chickens! Thank your for sharing!