So this is my first post. After "lurking" for more than a year, I recently joined BYC. One great thing about lurking for so long was that I pretty much scoured all of the coop pics/forum and discussion topics and got some REALLY GREAT ideas from your collective experience before embarking on my own coop build. DH has designed and started building the coop and I'm thinking it's gonna work really well. However, I'm not as confident in our "Run" plans.
Mostly I think my questions are directly tied to my location in Alaska and I would love to hear from anyone with insight......
1) Is there anyplace local to buy large quantities of chicken wire or hardware cloth or fencing or ????? on the cheap? My coop is already costing WAY more than planned since we are purpose building from scratch and we were not successful at scavenging anything. We ended up buying all the construction materials at Home Depot / Lowes / or Spendard Builders and none of it was cheap. But I am choking on the cost of chicken wire, etc. and no one seems to stock anything bigger than 3 feet x 25 feet rolls. Is there any good reccommend for this? Internet is no help....shipping charges exceed materials cost.
2) I'm currently planning an 8x10 fully fenced outdoor run...probably 2x4 wood frame, 6 feet tall'ish. We will have a 3 foot overhang on the coop roof and I originally thought that the rest of the run would just be covered with chicken wire only.....but now I'm thinking it should probably be covered with something -- or at least 1/2 of it should be covered with something. I read one thread that said they were shoveling snow out of their run. I just shoveled 11 inches of snow off of my deck this morning. The snow out in my yard is easily 3 1/2 feet deep. I have no interest in shoveling snow in the chicken run
......so what do people in extreme cold/deep snow reccommend? Should I actually roof it with something? Just throw a tarp on it? Or, should I just keep the birds in the coop most of the winter?
3) The run ground cover - I'm thinking summer now. I read about sand, pine shavings, bark chips, just mud/dirt. I think this first year I will leave it au naturale and let them scratch it up and etc. I also ready about composting directly inside the run, and I'm wondering if anyone in Alaska (or other short-summer/cool temp locations) has had any luck with this or not? Will it actually compost? Or will it just make a mess if its not hot enough to actually compost? I think I'd like to throw my grass clippings in the run and whatever other compost materials I have....but I don't want to just make a big mess.
4) Best (low cost?) location for chicken feed and other supplies? I'm near Anchorage but could drive to the mat-valley just as easily.
5) Any other local wisdom for a complete newbie?
Appreciate any suggestions!
Mostly I think my questions are directly tied to my location in Alaska and I would love to hear from anyone with insight......
1) Is there anyplace local to buy large quantities of chicken wire or hardware cloth or fencing or ????? on the cheap? My coop is already costing WAY more than planned since we are purpose building from scratch and we were not successful at scavenging anything. We ended up buying all the construction materials at Home Depot / Lowes / or Spendard Builders and none of it was cheap. But I am choking on the cost of chicken wire, etc. and no one seems to stock anything bigger than 3 feet x 25 feet rolls. Is there any good reccommend for this? Internet is no help....shipping charges exceed materials cost.
2) I'm currently planning an 8x10 fully fenced outdoor run...probably 2x4 wood frame, 6 feet tall'ish. We will have a 3 foot overhang on the coop roof and I originally thought that the rest of the run would just be covered with chicken wire only.....but now I'm thinking it should probably be covered with something -- or at least 1/2 of it should be covered with something. I read one thread that said they were shoveling snow out of their run. I just shoveled 11 inches of snow off of my deck this morning. The snow out in my yard is easily 3 1/2 feet deep. I have no interest in shoveling snow in the chicken run
3) The run ground cover - I'm thinking summer now. I read about sand, pine shavings, bark chips, just mud/dirt. I think this first year I will leave it au naturale and let them scratch it up and etc. I also ready about composting directly inside the run, and I'm wondering if anyone in Alaska (or other short-summer/cool temp locations) has had any luck with this or not? Will it actually compost? Or will it just make a mess if its not hot enough to actually compost? I think I'd like to throw my grass clippings in the run and whatever other compost materials I have....but I don't want to just make a big mess.
4) Best (low cost?) location for chicken feed and other supplies? I'm near Anchorage but could drive to the mat-valley just as easily.
5) Any other local wisdom for a complete newbie?
Appreciate any suggestions!
