Placement of Coop?

[ChickMomma]

My DH and I are currently in the process of building a coop similar to chickenlips coop! I have two places in the yard where I can place it and I am wondering where you all think is best.

Location 1- Uphill but next to my garden. Pros: I can fence the garden and let the chickens clean between crops. Not as far to move manure. Can throw chickens stuff from the garden that has gone too long. Cons: It will be in the full hot sun all day long. You can see it from the street (I am pushing my luck with chickens as pets the less people that know they are here the better). I cannot see the chickens in the run when I am in the house.

Location 2 - Next to our coon hounds lot. Pros: The dog will help to deter predators. It cannot be seen from the street. We visit the dogs lot at least twice a day so it would be easy to collect eggs / feed + water for the chickens. I can see it from inside the house. Cons: It will be in the shade most of the day in the summer and sun in the winter(i dont know if this is really a bad or a good thing). The dog could become a predator?!?! It is a very long way to haul manure to my garden. I will not be able to grow grapes over the run like I was wanting to b/c of the shade.

Thank you if you have made it this far. I need to figure out where to put it before it gets too heavy to move it!

And how do you get all the cute chicken faces in your posts?

Susie

 

[ChickMomma]

I guess I really want to know if the sun or shade is better for the chickens in the summer! The shady location gets filtered sun from the tall trees but no direct sun. Is this ok? or do they need sun?

 

[MTchick]

I would think that you would want the shade in summer, sun in winter. That will make your chickens nice and cool during the hottest times of year. Chicken's don't like to be super hot- they are so thickly feathery that they can overheat. Even now, in April, in the afternoons my chickens all cluster into the shady spots of my run to avoid the direct, hot sunlight. And it is only in the 60's here! Once it is 100 degrees at 8pm I'll probably have to put ice cubes in their water...

I'd put your coop by the dogs. Just make sure the dogs cannot get into or dig under the fencing.

-MTchick

 

[Saltiena]

i would accually do the 1st choise, just because it saves you some, work and they can rome the garden at times, this keeps them from the dogs (i don't trust them

)

 

[daubernut]

If you let them in your garden they will rip everything up when they scratch

 

[mlheran]

I think I'd go with #2. It sounds like it would get better attention and have a more mild climate for the chickens. Plus it's not like you'll be lugging buckets of manure every week; hard work once or twice a year seems a good trade-off for the convenience of having them where you can see them (and the neighbors can't) and conveniently gather eggs.

Just my thoughts -be sure to post some pics when you finally decide!