post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Chicken Egg 17]

What's wrong with the wild birds u can pay for the wire for my dog kennel run here are the deminsions for who ever wants to pay

36x11and it's like 6 feet tall

 

[FarmerPhronc]

I have large rolls of the bird netting I use to keep wild birds out of my garden seedlings but I don't use the flimsy netting around our chickens. Friend of mine lost a chicken who got strangled in the netting so I chose not to use it. I use sturdier wire fencing for dividing the garden from the chicken yard. As for the wild birds -- they're just something we learned to live with except for them mooching the water and feed which we took care of. Sometimes the chickens get annoyed with the little birds too and chase them off !

I understand the keep them from mooching water, but how did you keep them from mooching food?

 

[Sylvester017]

I understand the keep them from mooching water, but how did you keep them from mooching food?

We invested in a couple galvanized chicken treadle feeders -- not the kind that lift up to open but the kind that push inward into the feeder when they open -- I worry the lift-up lid models can come down on a chicken's neck but the inward opening model just pushes the chicken's head back out without falling on top of the head. Treadle feeders work by a chicken stepping on the bottom foot treadle and the feed door opens into the feed bin. A lightweight predator like pigeons, wild birds, rats, lizards, mice, are not heavy enough to activate the foot treadle. Treadle feeders from any manufacturer are not cheap but we had to choose what chicken expense was important to us. Some people make their own but what a pain to assemble - even the DIY models so we bought ours already assembled from ChickenCondos.com!

 

[NanaNeen]

Lucky kids!  They will fondly look back on these fun days in their old age!

we named them based on the color of their leg bands to help the Babes out with their colors also

 

[Sylvester017]

we named them based on the color of their leg bands to help the Babes out with their colors also

Most excellent!

 

[FarmerPhronc]

We've attached wire over wire before and it's a pain and gaps form and although galvanized is not supposed to rust it still does. The wild birds are a nuisance but not the danger that coons and possums pose - so the heavy dog kennel wire we have on the Barn Coop will most certainly keep those night critters out for sure!

I agree! I live in rural Colorado lots of predators here. That's why I choose dog kennel panels and attached 1/2 inch hardware cloth running 2 ft up and 2 ft out. I also have 2 dogs that patrol the backyard from sun up till 10 or 11 PM. Though the wife and I have spotted predators close by none have yet dared to enter our fenced in backyard where the chicken coop is. I'm not sure if they sense the dogs or "Hey this guy has a rifle, he'll shoot us if we mess with his hens."

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

We have bob cats, coyotes, fox, possum, raccoons, u name it we got it weasels my uncle had ducks a weasel came out in the middle of the day and grabbed one of there ducks by the neck and killed it so I am thinking of getting an solar fencer

 

[NanaNeen]

If my dog kennel panels were that small I would gladly cover them with 1/2 in hardware cloth to keep the moochers away. My panels are 6 ft tall and 6 to 12 ft long.

we covered our first run years ago with a plastic, 1 inch square, poultry netting. It worked quite well. Just zip tie panels together to make it wide enough then to the fencing around the run. It's too flexible for the sides to keep chickens in, but worked great to keep wildlife out.

 

[Sylvester017]

Mine drink from them but seem to much prefer open waterers?

Mark at chickenwaterers.com said chickens will prefer open water to nipple valves. So he helped me transition our chickens from open water to nipple valves. It took a few days but the key is to remove all open water source while training them to use only the valves. It just takes your smartest chicken to catch on how to use the valves and the others follow eventually. One Silkie chicken learned in an hour as we tapped the valves for her. The last chicken to catch on, a suspicious Ameraucana, took 8 days to finally trust the "new" gadget. I resisted putting out open water and used watermelon and cantaloupe and cucumber to be sure they were getting hydrated while learning the new gadget. Even now if I have a dripping ice cube in my fingers the birds think the drips are a nipple valve and slurp up the drips from my fingertips like they're using a valve.

 

[cabinchicky]

wowwwww that is awesome I really want that lol my coop is really really small compared to that lol

Imagine that coop with a full upstairs to hide and relax in. oh my and have observation points to see your birds in action.