post your chicken coop pictures here!

[bruceha2000]

Pardon all the snow. We got a ton last night. I am in Heaven. Love love snow! My chickens not so much they either refuse to come out or hide under the coop.

It is a great run! Have you considered putting translucent fiberglass panels (the wavy stuff) over at least part of the run, like where the chickens come out of the coop? It would be nice to have a dry and not snow covered part of the run even though the coop is clearly very large. In bad weather my girls will hang in the barn alley (their run), never going in the coop during daylight hours except to eat, drink, lay an egg.

I lock up the birds every night. The coop is like a fort to get into so we didin't spend a lot on making the run animal proof. Just enough to keep the chickens in. Even if a predator gets in the run it isnt getting in the coop. Seemsd the biggest mistake people made was not secure their coop well enough. So we went a tad overboard on the actual coop but under dod the run. Lol We also have a dog who goes nuts if anything is in the yard. One night he was going nuts at the back door at 3 am open the door ad he went straight towards the coop.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but an awful lot of people who lose chickens, lose them to their own dogs during the day. Even if you aren't concerned about a daytime coon attack on a bird sleeping against the chicken wire, anyone's loose dog, or a wild canine that spies the buffet will be through that chicken wire in seconds. Minimally I would cover it with welded wire field fence up to the horizontal piece.

Had mine for anywar and never had an issue except a week ago when I chased off a hawk. ThAts when we covered the run. I had 4 that could get out and my rooster (who is a giant and over 10 lbs) couldnt get out to protect her. Luckily I scared off the hawk and the hen was too heavy tl carry off. I havw zero evidents of a preditor even attempting to get in my run. We have coyotes but very very rarely hear or see them. Could be bc we are only 100 yards from the road and te only things around my house is corn and soybean fields. Then on the other side of the river is woods that is protected so plenty of hunting for them. I am working on a meat bird coop. I may be more aggressive ln fencing for them since I am dojng a hoop coop.

I saw a coyote at dusk <100' from the road coming home from my in-laws' at Christmas.

 

[lynnehd]

I'm afraid of how this story ends...

I'm going to put hardware cloth around the whole bottom of the run and up 3'.... The top will be covered as well. I never want to lose another bird to a nighttime raid.

Locking them up at night takes care of a lot of predators. Aerial predators shouldn't get them during the day with your current set up.
You can't go wrong adding the hardware cloth as you plan, just in case there is a stray daytime raccoon, neighbor dog, etc.

Anyone have any experience or knowledge of chickens around a tortoise ? My only concern is if the chickens get curious and peck at the tortoises eyes ??

I have tortoises, although they are currently hibernating.
When they were awake (they will be soone), the chickens would sometimes run in the same area as the tortoises (not often, because the chickens trash the tortoises's weeds), and they would 'discuss' the tortoises as they walk around, but don't peck at them at all. They both ignore each other.
However, they are supervised, so I'm not sure what would happen if they were together day after day.

What kind of tortoise do you have?

 

[Sylvester017]

.....Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but an awful lot of people who lose chickens, lose them to their own dogs during the day. Even if you aren't concerned about a daytime coon attack on a bird sleeping against the chicken wire, anyone's loose dog, or a wild canine that spies the buffet will be through that chicken wire in seconds. Minimally I would cover it with welded wire field fence up to the horizontal piece.

As someone who almost lost my first flock to dogs who broke into my yard I would like to add that they mangled the cheap chicken wire so badly it was beyond repair. TG our good neighbor chased off the mutts when they heard the panicked chickens. Any thick wire is better than cheap unravelley chicken wire.

I saw a coyote at dusk <100' from the road coming home from my in-laws' at Christmas.

Coyotes might howl to each other in the night, but by day they are incredibly quiet/stealthy/cunning. I was walking along my daughter's fenceline and suddenly a male Coyote appeared at the fence and just quietly stared at me with piercing eyes - unafraid, poised, and actually quite large for a Coyote. He was not emaciated looking so he was finding plenty to eat around the area! These guys are creepy.

 

[the poppster]

Pardon all the snow. We got a ton last night. I am in Heaven. Love love snow! My chickens not so much they either refuse to come out or hide under the coop.

find a good heavy duty tarp to secure as a roof and your birds will come out and enjoy the snow free run.

 

[kylen2007]

It is a great run! Have you considered putting translucent fiberglass panels (the wavy stuff) over at least part of the run, like where the chickens come out of the coop? It would be nice to have a dry and not snow covered part of the run even though the coop is clearly very large. In bad weather my girls will hang in the barn alley (their run), never going in the coop during daylight hours except to eat, drink, lay an egg.


Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but an awful lot of people who lose chickens, lose them to their own dogs during the day. Even if you aren't concerned about a daytime coon attack on a bird sleeping against the chicken wire, anyone's loose dog, or a wild canine that spies the buffet will be through that chicken wire in seconds. Minimally I would cover it with welded wire field fence up to the horizontal piece.

I saw a coyote at dusk <100' from the road coming home from my in-laws' at Christmas.

The only bird we have lost was to a puppy we adopted. He was trying to olay with one of the chickens chasing her and accidently broke her next. We no longer have him (for other reasons. He was going after our son when ever he hugged me or came near me). Our other dog could care less about the chickens. Our rabbit hops around the house and he just ignores her too. We havw caught our neigbors dog from the other side of the creek come into the yard. We shot him with or sons bb gun. Luckily I am a stay at home mom and am able to keep a pretty close eye on them for te most part. Like when the hawk came looking for an easy meal. If I wasn't home she would have been dead. We have lived here for 20 years and know all the neighbors. We are pretty spaced out and only 1 of them allow their dog to stray. I know the risks I am taking and we feel pretty good based on our area. Now if we lived elsewhere we would take different precautions.

 

[Sylvester017]

Anyone have any experience or knowledge of chickens around a tortoise ? My only concern is if the chickens get curious and peck at the tortoises eyes ??

We were given a NHR hen by a neighbor. She had full range of the backyard and vegetable garden and so did our tortoise who wandered into our backyard one day. Never got a photo of the NHR but here's the tortoise which we found at the bottom of our pool several times. We used to joke that she was a water turtle in her other life before becoming a tortoise! The darned thing never drowned and we never knew how long she was under water before rescuing her. The pool was more dangerous to her than the chicken - the chicken was too busy running up and down the tomato rows eating horned worms and other delectable bugs.

The Persian cat never bothered the tortoise either.



This is the pool the tortoise would go diving into. It's almost like she was driven to dive into it. She had her own water source but sinking in the pool was her thing. The kids were always finding her in the pool or her trying to dive into it. We moved away 3 yrs later and she was still alive so we gave her to a neighbor who had a male tortoise and wanted to try breeding them.


Everyone's family pets are different so you'll have to determine how they interact with each other before leaving them alone. Tortoises, at least ours, was a Houdini digging herself into/under things in the yard. Ours tried to climb the wood gate. Silly but amusing creatures. Tortoises have a wonderful defense mechanism to hide their head and limbs inside their shell so if our NHR ever had any interest in the tortoise there was no evidence of injury to her.

 

[kylen2007]

For what its worth I had em twenty years on and off.  IN CHAIN link...  Once predators found em it was like we were under siege.

The difference being Before....  I had dogs.  After My girl had passed away so there was no one checking the perimeter.

Locking them in a building at night wasn't an option.  They got locked in but inside a dog kennel.  I lost thirty Guinea bacon head keets in two weeks.  (fully fledged not sexually mature about two thirds adult size ) Some were pulled right through the chain-link.  others only partially.....  I am a pretty pragmatic person but this carnage got me pretty hard.

I blame myself.... becoming complacent...   And not taking in account that I didn't have a canine presence any more. 

If your birds are going to be in contact with the chicken wire at any point.... hardware cloth is a good idea.  Mine got nailed at the ends of the perches.  and OVER HEAD.   I finally was able to secrure my poultry containment by making sure the perches were defended at the ends by hardwar cloth...  On the inside of the chainlink.  Then I put up a tarp over head and lowered the Guinea perches....   I was still getting losses that was when I found that the chainlink panels on the roof werent attached on one corner.  What ever it was was strong enough to lift a forty pound chainlink panel enough to worm their way in.

My next coop is a couple of years down the road.  I have drawn my structure and have almost all of the materials.  I just have to get back home to live... and build it.

Oh and for what its worth.  I am in a portion of the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican border.  I have Mountain Lion, Bob Cat, Raccoon, Weasel, Rats and Ground squirrels.  The flying predators are Owls, Hawks, Falcons, and the occasional Turkey Buzzard. 

The Ravens happily dine on Eggs if they can get to them but I dont begrudge them.  I suspect if I had chicks out there I would have to take precautions for them. Ground squirrels are egg stealers too as are rats.  But they mostly get into the feed.
deb

Sorry to hear that! We covered our run bc of hawks. all we have is coyotes, hawks, and coons but the dog does a great job of chasing stuff off. None of my girls ha g out near the edge of fencing for te most oart. Any perches in the run are away from the edges. Id suring the day skmething came about 1 my rooster would go nuts and 2 the dog would be at the back door letting me know. The way I see it comes with the teritory. We do the best we can and the rest is up
To nature.

 

[kylen2007]

find a good heavy duty tarp to secure as a roof and your birds will come out and enjoy the snow free run.

The coop is on a slope so they can go under the whole coop without snow. Its their first winter next year should be better

 

[Latestarter]

Pardon all the snow. We got a ton last night. I am in Heaven. Love love snow! My chickens not so much they either refuse to come out or hide under the coop.

Welcome to BYC @kylen2007 ! Love the coop, love the run set up. Nice peaceful pictures too

. Not sure what the roof of the run is right now (snow covered), can't tell if it's more chicken wire or what. Like others have said, you could always cover with a tarp (would make it dark underneath) or maybe a couple of those translucent fiberglass panels to let light through, yet keep snow/water away. Just keep in mind, snow will pile up on it which equals weight, so might need to beef up a support structure to hold that weight.

Rant/soap box time, really just some observations:

Coyotes and foxes are NOT purely nocturnal. They do hunt at ALL times of the day and night. When hungry, they hunt, and they are both normally hungry... AND smart... VERY smart! IMO/E the biggest killer of chickens is actually dogs... yours, the neighbors, or strays. How many times have you seen dead foxes/coyotes/dogs on the side of the road? Closeness to a road will NOT deter any hungry animal from a fresh chicken breakfast/lunch/dinner. In fact, the way you have your setup situated, you have provided an ideal "back side" approach for them or any other predator. You have the run backed up/right next to a woods/dense underbrush! What more could a predator ask for? They don't even have to come out in the open and expose themselves. A fox could combination dig under that back corner/shred some chicken wire in a matter of minutes, and be inside that run, have a chicken caught, and be gone. Talking less than 5 minutes. In a foxes case, they have been known to keep coming back and taking more, to bury and save for later, so you could lose many birds over a very short span of time - like a few hours.

Virtually EVERY chicken owner has NEVER lost a bird when they make it a habit of locking them up every night.... until the first time they do

Justsayin. I hope what you have works for a very long time! Hope you never lose a bird to a predator. Sorry to say, it's not a realistic hope or expectation... It happens to the best of us, even those of us who try to make their coop/run fort knox. I'd personally be considering/suggest 1/2" HW cloth from ground up 3' or to that horizontal board surround, and 2x4 welded wire fencing aproned out a min 2' from the base, connected to the HW cloth with hog rings. I'd also be strengthening that entrance gate. After what you've already spent for the shed/coop and birds, the cost would really be minimal.



As you can see, I also used pavers on top of the apron.

Wishing you all the best and success with your chickens! Once again, welcome!

 

[lynnehd]

find a good heavy duty tarp to secure as a roof and your birds will come out and enjoy the snow free run.

That's a good idea, too.
Here is one online source for tarps with grommets, in different sizes.

http://www.canopiesandtarps.com/clear-string-tarps.html