Question for land owners

[Arkantex]

So, I talked my wife into reading this thread. She pointed out that I had overlooked the fact that a few of you had asked what preditors we have out here. We have seen coyotes, rattle snakes and hawks in our area on a few occations. We have also been told that there are foxes.

 

[slurrywidow]

I have 7 acres and 3 coops. 2 of them are very small, 4x4-ish with attached runs, and they are in my backyard. One has my broody hen and the other has my DD's 3 favorite hens. I put them there because they are very close to electricity and water, and we LOVE sitting in the house and watching chicken tv. The other large coop is about 200 ft away from the house. It sits behind my large chain-link fenced garden area. I chose that area for a few reasons: Access to water, can add electricity later, far enough away from the house for the smells not to be an issue, close enough to the house for chores not to be an issue, ease of chucking vege's over the fence, and I "cheated" a bit on my run fencing by using one side of my chain-link garden fence as a shared side with the run.

As for putting anything over your leach field, even part of the run, I wouldn't do it. As someone else mentioned there are strict rules about septics and leach fields. We have to have ours inspected every couple of years and there's no way we'd pass inspection if anything was that close or over it. Your area may not be as strict but it's worth checking into.

 

[7L Farm]

I have 5 coops & there all within 50 yards of my house I have 100 acres. I positioned the coops to block the cold wind but allow the prevailing wind to try & keep the birds cool thru our long hot summers. Its been brutal this year with triple digit heat for three months straight & its still hot here. The birds have done well thru the heat & have laid eggs all summer long.
Hoping for some much needed rain & cooler temps. I suggest building your coop close to the house & take advantage of your positioning of your coop.

 

[Arkantex]

Well, I think we have decided to put the coop/run on the north side of our house rather than attach it to the shed on the sw side of the house. This will help with many things. THe wind normally comes out of the sw so any smell will be carried away and the house will help block the chickens from the harsh west texas winds. It will be on the master bedroom side of the house so if there is a comotion in the middle of the night I will be more likely to hear it. Our septic system's leach field will be inside our run, but our run is going to be a chain link run with hardware cloth around the bottom and no top. SO, it is just a fenced in yard. Building regs have no issue around here with having a leach field inside of a fenced yard. I am going to have to plumb up a water spiggot on that side of the house and I will definitely be piping it up to the hot water in our bathroom. We really liked the idea of having hot or cold water available outside for the chickens.

Thanks for all the suggestions/ideas guys. If you guys think of anything else post up! Hopefully we will be able to get started on it pretty soon.