Old and New to chickens

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kkleister

In the Brooder
Aug 21, 2019
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I grew up on a farm in Illinois. We never worried about some varmint getting our chickens. The chicken coop was soon unused and the chickens were laying in hay in the barn or in the tractor seats. Now I live in Tucson Arizona and I"d like to have 3 laying hens (actually I'd like roosters but can't do that in city limits:)) I have a nice big backyard but the fence is easily scaled by chickens. They could probably get on my roof--single story. We didn't have "pet" chickens. Can I train them to not fly out of yard or leave if I let them out of coop???? I cannot leave animals caged day and night! I could definitely cage them at night in a nice 10X10 coop--I figure that's enough for 3 chickens??

I do worry about 2 large independent cats who have 2 cat doors to the house. So they would have access to the chickens. I don't really think they would attack something as large as a chicken but my orange has been known to eat 3 wild birds a week (sorry, sorry :().

We do have hawks in Arizona and bobcats though I"ve never seen one in this neighborhood---and coyotes but again I've not seen them in this neighborhood. Part of my yard has "cat fencing" for when I first moved here and didn't want the cats to get out side the yard. But it has since been reduced to partial net fencing. The whole yard is enclosed by 4 foot concrete block fencing.

Can I make this work without feeding neighborhood wildlife or my cats??

Thanks for advice. (No dogs at least)
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
A 10x10 coop is HUGE for three chickens! You could build a large fully secure covered run and they would be fine in that. I think that they will fly over the wall. You don't know how your cats will behave.
@igorsMistress is in Arizona and built a great open air coop.
 
Welcome! You can make it work. If you're going to keep a small flock then you might consider a smaller coop with a run instead. That would keep them safe.

We have had a hawk in the yard when we had young pullets but no issues with neighborhood cats so far.

I live in the suburbs of Phoenix and we have coyotes here. The walls are 6 feet and my flock runs the backyard all day everyday.

Cover such as bushes or manmade items is helpful.

Here's a link to our state thread, hope to see you over there!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/arizona-chickens.31227/page-7054#post-21671001
 
igorsMistress said:
Welcome! You can make it work. If you're going to keep a small flock then you might consider a smaller coop with a run instead. That would keep them safe.

We have had a hawk in the yard when we had young pullets but no issues with neighborhood cats so far.

I live in the suburbs of Phoenix and we have coyotes here. The walls are 6 feet and my flock runs the backyard all day everyday.

Cover such as bushes or manmade items is helpful.

Here's a link to our state thread, hope to see you over there!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/arizona-chickens.31227/page-7054#post-21671001
Click to expand...
Excellent-Reply-farmer-conn.gif
 
kkleister said:
I grew up on a farm in Illinois. We never worried about some varmint getting our chickens. The chicken coop was soon unused and the chickens were laying in hay in the barn or in the tractor seats. Now I live in Tucson Arizona and I"d like to have 3 laying hens (actually I'd like roosters but can't do that in city limits:)) I have a nice big backyard but the fence is easily scaled by chickens. They could probably get on my roof--single story. We didn't have "pet" chickens. Can I train them to not fly out of yard or leave if I let them out of coop???? I cannot leave animals caged day and night! I could definitely cage them at night in a nice 10X10 coop--I figure that's enough for 3 chickens??

I do worry about 2 large independent cats who have 2 cat doors to the house. So they would have access to the chickens. I don't really think they would attack something as large as a chicken but my orange has been known to eat 3 wild birds a week (sorry, sorry :().

We do have hawks in Arizona and bobcats though I"ve never seen one in this neighborhood---and coyotes but again I've not seen them in this neighborhood. Part of my yard has "cat fencing" for when I first moved here and didn't want the cats to get out side the yard. But it has since been reduced to partial net fencing. The whole yard is enclosed by 4 foot concrete block fencing.

Can I make this work without feeding neighborhood wildlife or my cats??

Thanks for advice. (No dogs at least)
Click to expand...
I would do a covered run, one thing to think about when covering it is it needs to be strong enough to keep out something bigger like a coyote too, and keep them in coop /run at all times, also don't you have scorpions down there you need to think of keeping out? Mesh hardware on flooring to keep diggers out

Welcome to BYC
 
If you are planning to start out with day-old chicks, I think you would have problems with the cats. But if you get point-of-lay girls, they are pretty good sized and a couple wing flaps should set the cats straight. I see we have a stray cat hanging around the foundation shrubbery at my house. This evening it streaked across the yard and all eight pullets took out chasing it. Poor cat!
I don't think you can teach chickens to stay within certain boundaries. You just have to figure out how to foil their actions. Clipping their wing feathers might help to keep them within certain boundaries. But some lightweight chickens can get pretty good lift even with their wings clipped.
I hope you decide to go with a few more than 3. Much easier to add them all at once than to try to add one at a time later on.
And Welcome!
 

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