- May 30, 2014
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Hi. I'm new here.
My family and I live outside the twin cities in Minnesota and just acquired six chicks in late April and have brooded them in the house.
They are all pullets (buff Orpington, Rhode Island red, black laced Wyandotte, australorp, barred rock and auracuana. ). They are well feathered now and look ready to go to the coop. My husband has constructed a coopwith a 4' x 8' footprint that is 5 feet high. We live in a close to the metro area but a double suburban lot .
The site we have chosen is between our neighbors 6 foot cedar fence and the wall of our garage -- it is part of the shade garden that is adjacent to a courtyard that we use as our downstairs bottom entrance. Initially I thought we might secure our east side fencing and create a fence along the west side between the garage and our neighbors fence creating a natural enclosure. The more we thought about it in terms of our predation here… Tons of Redtailed Hawks a Fox den very close by… Probably the best case scenario is that they will only be free ranging for a few hours at night under supervision. My garden is mostly ferns and hosta. I have been trying to add some structure with a small understory tree and a few bushes in order to make it more chicken friendly. I also planted some kiwi vines along the garage wall.
My question is in regards to the run itself which now we're thinking is going to run from the end of the coop to the end of the garage. Our understanding is that we should use hardware cloth and secure the bottom of the run the same way we did with the coop? Do people just let vegetation grow inside the run or am I putting litter in it and then changing out weekly? Is this the place to do deep litter compost? (unfortunately my husband is pretty much against us having our own compost pile).
This entire area around the coop/run has dirt and so I need some kind of hardscape to put down. I have been thinking wood mulch because gravel is hard on the feet and my four-year-old daughter is going to be using this path a lot. But even if the chickens are loose for a few hours do you clean up after them each time they're out? Does this just break down naturally with mulch?
I've enclosed pictures of the site.
A secondary question that occurred too late maybe is that we do have aggressive dogs next-door. I have been thinking that we will put boulders along the base of the cedar plank fence to discourage the chickens from creating wallows and getting under -- but my bigger concern is them going over and landing on top of two Rottweilers. Do we have any option other than clipping their wings?
There is so much to think about and I appreciate any advice anyone might have in terms of what you normally do with the run -- we've been using Aspen litter for the coop currently I imagine that's going to get pretty pricey after a while if I'm changing it out wholesale all the time.
Thanks a lot in advance.
Pam
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My family and I live outside the twin cities in Minnesota and just acquired six chicks in late April and have brooded them in the house.
They are all pullets (buff Orpington, Rhode Island red, black laced Wyandotte, australorp, barred rock and auracuana. ). They are well feathered now and look ready to go to the coop. My husband has constructed a coopwith a 4' x 8' footprint that is 5 feet high. We live in a close to the metro area but a double suburban lot .
The site we have chosen is between our neighbors 6 foot cedar fence and the wall of our garage -- it is part of the shade garden that is adjacent to a courtyard that we use as our downstairs bottom entrance. Initially I thought we might secure our east side fencing and create a fence along the west side between the garage and our neighbors fence creating a natural enclosure. The more we thought about it in terms of our predation here… Tons of Redtailed Hawks a Fox den very close by… Probably the best case scenario is that they will only be free ranging for a few hours at night under supervision. My garden is mostly ferns and hosta. I have been trying to add some structure with a small understory tree and a few bushes in order to make it more chicken friendly. I also planted some kiwi vines along the garage wall.
My question is in regards to the run itself which now we're thinking is going to run from the end of the coop to the end of the garage. Our understanding is that we should use hardware cloth and secure the bottom of the run the same way we did with the coop? Do people just let vegetation grow inside the run or am I putting litter in it and then changing out weekly? Is this the place to do deep litter compost? (unfortunately my husband is pretty much against us having our own compost pile).
This entire area around the coop/run has dirt and so I need some kind of hardscape to put down. I have been thinking wood mulch because gravel is hard on the feet and my four-year-old daughter is going to be using this path a lot. But even if the chickens are loose for a few hours do you clean up after them each time they're out? Does this just break down naturally with mulch?
I've enclosed pictures of the site.
A secondary question that occurred too late maybe is that we do have aggressive dogs next-door. I have been thinking that we will put boulders along the base of the cedar plank fence to discourage the chickens from creating wallows and getting under -- but my bigger concern is them going over and landing on top of two Rottweilers. Do we have any option other than clipping their wings?
There is so much to think about and I appreciate any advice anyone might have in terms of what you normally do with the run -- we've been using Aspen litter for the coop currently I imagine that's going to get pretty pricey after a while if I'm changing it out wholesale all the time.
Thanks a lot in advance.
Pam
