OHio ~ Come on Buckeyes, let me know your out there!

[OHfarmerswife]

thank you much. Any ideas for prevention of attack?

I agree with Laurel. We built our coops in the back of the lean to on the back of our barn. Our runs are covered in hardware cloth which is buried 12" in the ground so nothing can dig in. They are also covered with hardware cloth so the birds can't get in. I. The spring & summer I leave the coop door open for ventilation 24/7. In 4 years nothing has breached our coops. It was well worth the extra money.

We have 7 pens & are currently building 5 new breeding brooding coops.

 

[mamatink7]

Glad I could help! We do a few things that seem to be working (knock on wood!). Coops are all up off the ground so things can't dig in. We have locks (or snaps on latches) on the doors, hardware cloth (very strong 1/4" welded wire) over the windows and ventilation openings. We close 50-something chickens in every night- no open chicken doors at night. We made the chicken doors so they can't be opened by predators.
The pens fences are about 6' tall and they have welded 2x4" welded wire over chicken wire. We do that because fox, raccoons and dogs can chew through chicken wire by itself. And a coon can pull a chicken or parts of them right through the welded wire by itself. We just had something try to chew a hole in our layer flock pen last week but it didn't get in.
Then we have buried welded wire around the outer perimeter of the pens- it lays flat under the sod and goes out about 2 feet from the base of the fence to keep diggers from getting in the run areas.
Tops of the pens are covered in chicken wire to keep Hawks and owls out. I've stood in my run and had a hawk try to fly in at high speed. It bounced right off!
The smaller coops/tractors we use hardware cloth on the runs but it's really expensive so that's why we don't use it on the big pens!
We also have roosters in all of our coops except for the chicks grow out area. They alert all the birds within earshot to danger.

It sounds like a lot to do but we just did things in phases. The most pricey part was the welded wire fence and hardware cloth, but we bought that when we got the 10% off coupons from tsc and tried to repurpose things and use free materials when we could. One of our coops is an old homemade teardrop camper lol.

Anything to protect our chickens I'll show this to husband and see what we can do. Right now, our coop is not going to work much at all (my chicken math got the best of me and plans lol). So he will basically start from scratch as additions will be built. For inside the coop: what is the area they need per layer again? They'll be in the run majority of time but it'll be open coop as well. That and winterizing the coop are my concerns now. With your plan.. what's the winter look like? How do they do? Our chickens are all cold hardy and heat tolerant if that helps (that's his concern and I've explain they need to be in the cold to survive the cole).
Thx so much

 

[mamatink7]

I agree with Laurel. We built our coops in the back of the lean to on the back of our barn. Our runs are covered in hardware cloth which is buried 12" in the ground so nothing can dig in. They are also covered with hardware cloth so the birds can't get in. I. The spring & summer I leave the coop door open for ventilation 24/7. In 4 years nothing has breached our coops. It was well worth the extra money.

We have 7 pens & are currently building 5 new breeding brooding coops.

wow!! That sounds and looks amazing! How do they do during the winter? Do you have to heat coops up some how? Husband wanted to but I told him it's not really a good idea. I was thinking about using a solar panel of some sort. Which also will keep light in there and help keep them laying too

 

[ToniTalley]

The do not need heat in the coop as long as it is windproof and enough ventilation so it is not damp, although you probably would need to have a way to keep the water from freezing, such as a heated waterer. You can use a heat lamp for the few days it's way below zero, but other than that they seem to do fine as their down keeps them warm.

 

[cabinchicky]

I agree with T Jordan. You really do not need ti heat your coop. One way to help keep them warm in winter is by using the deep litter method. You basically let the coop litter compost and it gives off heat. Turn mine 2xs a week and add more bedding. Heat lamps are very risky. You need ti clamp and then make sure they are secure two other ways as well so they can't fall or make walls, boxes, totes hot.

 

[mamatink7]

I agree with T Jordan. You really do not need ti heat your coop. One way to help keep them warm in winter is by using the deep litter method. You basically let the coop litter compost and it gives off heat. Turn mine 2xs a week and add more bedding. Heat lamps are very risky. You need ti clamp and then make sure they are secure two other ways as well so they can't fall or make walls, boxes, totes hot.

thank you. Yes as for heating brooder tote...I'm getting the lamp hanger from the hatchery-doesn't touch the brooder box at all and I just raise and lower according to what temp they're supposed to be at. I was worried about that as well then I found that.

 

[mamatink7]

The do not need heat in the coop as long as it is windproof and enough ventilation so it is not damp, although you probably would need to have a way to keep the water from freezing, such as a heated waterer.  You can use a heat lamp for the few days it's way below zero, but other than that they seem to do fine as their down keeps them warm.

ok. Thank you. Can I surround the run area and coop-leaving ventilation of course-with bales of hay? Not stacked but just one bale in a row? When we get then they'll be just hatched so by time winter happens they'll be 9-10 months or so.

 

[Laurel Meadows]

I agree with Laurel. We built our coops in the back of the lean to on the back of our barn. Our runs are covered in hardware cloth which is buried 12" in the ground so nothing can dig in. They are also covered with hardware cloth so the birds can't get in. I. The spring & summer I leave the coop door open for ventilation 24/7. In 4 years nothing has breached our coops. It was well worth the extra money.

We have 7 pens & are currently building 5 new breeding brooding coops.

Looks great!! Our largest coop is also in the lean-to of our barn

 

[Laurel Meadows]

Any ideas for a cheap roof for a run enclosure? Have a nice coop built and a temporary pvc run, but would like to have something a little more permanent. Build is done just need a cheap roof!

Our runs are just covered with chicken wire but for an inexpensive roof that can handle snow load and won't sag with heavy rain, I would probably go with metal panels and make sure they're installed on a slant. They are about $15 a piece in 3' X 8' sections and you can choose colors too.

Anything to protect our chickens I'll show this to husband and see what we can do. Right now, our coop is not going to work much at all (my chicken math got the best of me and plans lol). So he will basically start from scratch as additions will be built. For inside the coop: what is the area they need per layer again? They'll be in the run majority of time but it'll be open coop as well. That and winterizing the coop are my concerns now. With your plan.. what's the winter look like? How do they do? Our chickens are all cold hardy and heat tolerant if that helps (that's his concern and I've explain they need to be in the cold to survive the cole).
Thx so much

Lol I understand! We started with 6 and now have many many more than that now

The general "rule" for space for standard size chickens is 1 foot of roost space per bird, 4 square feet floor space per bird inside the coop, and 10 sf per bird outside. You can never go wrong with too much room for the birds' well- being. Too little room and crowding can cause problems like aggression which usually results in injury to the more submissive birds in the flock.

For winter and summer comfort, all our coops are insulated. We've used standard R-13 insulation in some coops and then covered it with osb or plywood, and we've also experimented with layering feed bags in the walls and ceilings and sheeting it with plywood or osb. The feed bags work pretty well actually!!
You always want ventilation in your coops even in winter. It sounds weird to have something open when it's cold, but chickens produce a lot of moisture from breathing. When they're on the roost at night, this moisture wants to rise with the warm air but if there is no way to move that moist air away from the birds, it can hover over them causes frostbite on the combs. So the idea is to try to move air with ventilation. We use a variety of things like vent covers used in homes on your heat outlets like on our small coop:

We don't heat any of the coops and for adult birds we use heated dog bowls for winter waterers.
For chicks, we use brooder heat plates- love them! Much safer than heat lamps and the chicks do excellent with them. For little ones waterers, we made cookie tin heaters for about $8 each and set the chick waterers on them. They worked great!

I think summer heat is just as hard on the birds as extreme cold. Shade is important and if you have black or dark colored birds, they will need it for sure.

 

[ToniTalley]

Bales of hay are fine, but we just put plastic up on the open areas, basically the whole coop and run except for a small area over the people door. It kept the wind, snow, and rain out but there was plenty of ventilation. Our coop and run is all in one unit. This is our neighbor's coop and run visited by our dog when we were chicken-sitting, and our is very similar.