post your chicken coop pictures here!

[gilcamp4]

it looks like you could roll it closer to the house or any place you like, we have a screen room and put pvc pipes under it long ways it sleds real easy, we have moved things like this all the time, we use dh's truck now we had a tractor but sold it, now just use the truck, works great

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
the only way to keep rats from tunneling is instead of an apron dig the hardware cloth down a couple of feet... Cant do it here... you need a quarter stick of dynamite just to put in post holes....

kind of kidding but not really

I had some pavers in the coop because I had to walk through one coop to get into the next... Rats dug them under and I just about fell on my keester when they collapsed. I need to rope about six together and use them as post hole diggers....

deb

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Quote:
the only way to keep rats from tunneling is instead of an apron dig the hardware cloth down a couple of feet... Cant do it here... you need a quarter stick of dynamite just to put in post holes....

kind of kidding but not really

I had some pavers in the coop because I had to walk through one coop to get into the next... Rats dug them under and I just about fell on my keester when they collapsed. I need to rope about six together and use them as post hole diggers....

deb

I'm just gonna keep a well baited rat zapper next to the coop at night. Free meal, boys. Come and get it!

 

[Tiller]

There isn't much you CAN do in most places. And even if you can, something else just fills the void.

Actually there is a lot you can do, and legally do. Any farmer, livestock keeper will talk about varmit and predator control as a part of raising their livestock, be it cattle, smaller heard animals or chickens. I live down the raid from some massive poultry farms that are totally enclosed and they still actively practice predator control. Coops, and runs are to keep chickens in. Its the owner/farmers responsibility to keep predators out. Yes a lot of that can be building a secure coop and run. But a dead racoon, or other predator won't come back to try to get in nor will it's offspring.

 

[Chickenshoe]

finished run today. Few girls checking it out

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Quote:
Maybe if you live in the country, that's true. Where I live, it's not. I'm not allowed to do anything to the local wildlife (my chickens are an 'attractive nuisance" legally). And honestly, I could trap and relocate raccoons ad infinitum without making a dent in the local population.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Maybe if you live in the country, that's true. Where I live, it's not. I'm not allowed to do anything to the local wildlife (my chickens are an 'attractive nuisance" legally). And honestly, I could trap and relocate raccoons ad infinitum without making a dent in the local population.

Yep down here you cant even relocate a Raccoon... Our city is built on plateaus either natural or man made along ridges. The canyons are left alone for drainage and wild space. Therefore we get mountain lions that travel as far as the coast right through the city.... As well as all other things critter.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

finished run today. Few girls checking it out

very nice...

deb

 

[Sylvester017]

Sylvester, I have absolutely paved in front of the door! I was short of pavers at the point I took the picture, but I can't find a current picture that shows them.... Between the dropped tree litter (I live in the redwoods) and the litter the chickens have kicked up - you mostly can't see the pavers anymore, but they are there all around the run - there isn't an inch without a paver, and there are planters in some spots as well.

On the other hand, I think the girls may dig out from the inside!

Girls do like to dig in dirt for dust baths and mine were digging dangerously close to the foundation of their little coop so I lined pavers inside the pen foundation also. With our new coop we'll completely paver the floor because we're tired of constantly importing dirt into their pen to replace the stuff they dig out. Ours free-range so they don't really need dirt inside their pen. If it rains they have a canopy in the backyard over a 4x4 raised bed that has dry dirt for them. Of course when it's not raining they dig holes all around the yard. That's why we fenced off an area for MY garden and patio while their half they can dig up all they want! That way at least half my backyard still looks decent. We only have 4 birds right now. I can't imagine what a property looks like after a big flock of birds rambles through it.

 

[Sylvester017]

finished run today. Few girls checking it out

That is such a pretty photo. Pretty enough to hang up in that wood frame around it!

With all the woodsy predator area around the coop -- is there buried wire in the ground or do you plan boulders or paver stones around the pen foundation?