Our new coop / run adventure

[draftingcone]

We live on a couple acres in northeastern Wyoming on what was my wife's grandpa's farm. I had been wanting to start "raising" something besides dogs, cats, and fish because my daughters 3 and 4 were starting to get interested in 4H topics already. So I ordered our 18 ladies from http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/ as I always say go big or go home. I found an old grain bin that had been converted to a tack shed 20 years ago. Here are some pictures of what we have so far the girls seem to like what I have done but thought I might show some others out there and see what they think. I tried to do tons of research before jumping into this so I am hoping everything will work. I did have to run another netting around the outside because the wire that I salvaged had too big of holes in it so I just wrapped the whole outside in bird netting that my wife found. I tried to make everything accessible from the outside so the feeder, calcium supplement, grit, and the main waterer are all accessible from the outside.

Let me know what you think.

 

[chfite]

It must get cold in Wyoming. I noticed all the exposed plastic piping. Do you have a plan for keeping that from freezing?

Chris

 

[draftingcone]

Not going to worry about it just going to put one inside the coop with a heater. Much of the winter is above freezing usually so they should be able to use either.

 

[thomasboyle]

Looks really nice. What do you have for predators? It looks like 2"x4" fencing around the run, and this is not small enough to stop snakes, weasels, possums etc. Plus other larger animals can reach through and grab a bird and yank it through the fence. Most people add 1/2" hardware wire fence to keep the smaller predators out.