Semi-automatic coop and flock - can it exist?

[Loving my girls]

Which is great.....unless you're an hour or more away and it's a predator issue. Then it's an added stress while driving to deal with what's left.

Ah yes, good point

 

[Shadrach]

Don't do this.
I look after some chickens on the other side of the city I live in It takes me an hour to travel there and anhour to travel back. They are not my chickens and the circumstances leading to my involvement with these creatures can be found on this thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/shadrachs-ex-battery-and-rescued-chickens-thread.1502267/

I'm retired and once at the chickens, I can spend a few hours there, three hours a day on average. These chickens are contained in a 6m x 6m run and now have a decent coop with an automatic pop door which at least lets them out of the coop in the mornings. I let them out to free range daily, supervised and the only high risk predator we have is the fox.

At the bare minimum one should check on any chickens one keeps in the morning and roost time every day. With free rangers three times a day to make sure all get adequately fed, have clean water and a clean coop.

It would take pages to detail the problems I've had that would be simply solved if I lived at the chickens location. What I can write is despite being there for a few hours a day the chickens get less than adequate care despite what has been a major improvement in their keeping conditions since my involvement.
Rehome what you have and if and when you are in a position to care properly for any livestock, then consider getting another flock.

 

[Ridgerunner]

So you are near Sacramento. It sounds like you have electricity in your coop with that auto door. Your winter climate isn't that harsh, they can probably be outside practically all day every day. I don't know how often your water freezes if it does, that could be a concern but some people use heaters. You can manage automatic feeders and waterers, just have backups. As the days get longer or shorter you'd need to adjust your auto timer so the door closes after it is dark enough that all that are going to bed in the coop are in bed. All of these basic things are doable.

If the bloom is intact eggs can last weeks without letting bacteria inside. Bloom is a liquid coating a hen puts on the egg as it is being laid that quickly dries. The way I understand this you do not have a rooster so an egg won't go bad or start to develop because a hen goes broody and sets in it. If that is a concern, build rollaway nests.

One potential problem is when things unexpectedly go wrong. Your auto door jams. You lose electricity. Stuff like that. Just because your pop door is open all night does not mean that a predator will take advantage. Often they don't. But they can. One night I found a possum in my coop at dusk as I went down to lock the coop. Another time I had an owl go into my grow-out coop and take out a cockerel when I did not lock them up until 11:00 pm as I left to see a play before it was dark enough to lock them up.

Many people think that predators are only out at night. Not true. I've seen foxes, raccoons, possum, dogs, bobcats, and skunks out during daylight hours. People's presence during the day tends to keep them away, but people are not moving around at night so nighttime is more dangerous but daytime attacks are not that unusual. There are stories on here where a hawk or fox took a chicken during the middle of the day less than 15 feet from where a human was standing. My two worse predator attacks were separate dog attacks in the middle or the day.

You can try it. Some flocks can go a long time before a predator attack. Or they may be wiped out in the next few days even if people are sleeping there at night. But be prepared to lose a lot if not all at any time.

What is your reward for risking this? What do you gain? You say they are hens so no rooster and you are not hatching their eggs for replacements. Half the hens are old. I don't know how long this will go on. I understand it is your desires and goals that count, not mine, but in with what I know from your posts I'd give them away and start a new flock when your situation changes.

 

[saysfaa]

I very much wanted to do something similar (run cattle on pasture a half hour away with family and neighbors I knew close to it). After looking into it, I decided it was a bad idea -tempting as it was. I think all the reasons would also apply to keeping chickens so far away.

I could accept some degree of risk that the animals would be lost -stolen, predators, sickness not caught as early, and such - a much higher degree of risk than if I was around.

I couldn't accept the risk that one might get trapped or injured (tangled in the fence, for example) and have no water for two or three days before I found out.

The other thing, is a realistic look at how often I would get over there. When I was considering it, I was going several times a week and thought, at a minimum, I would go once a week. Reality is, things come up here or I go elsewhere and don't get to the farm for a few weeks or a few months. If the animals were there, I would have gone only to check on them - that makes it much, much more expensive in time and money.

And a hard look at how well they would be taken care of if they got little attention for long periods of time - either (or both) not observing them very often or not observing them for very long at a time. Many problems in individuals, or the group as a whole, or the surroundings simply take time to notice even with an observant person who cares.

 

[saysfaa]

I agree with others above that the predators you listed are often active during the day. I've seen foxes, coyotes, bobcats, weasels, and bears hunting during the midday myself and have good friends that have had a LOT of trouble with foxes and hawks in the daytime, in particular.

 

[saysfaa]

... have a friend who didn't live by his chickens. He was "reported" for doing so. He decided to get rid of the chickens before an investigation was made. Didn't want his name connected with a report even if the authorities were ok with it.

This. It is much more likely these days than it was years ago.

 

[Morrigan]

A lot of this is about your risk tolerance. I have a large, electrified fenced yard, with hawk proof netting. Multiple feeders and water stations and a auto-door with a daylight sensor. I feel OK leaving them for a night. Longer than that, I have someone stop by once a day.

There are no guarantees for anything. I once lost over half my flock one morning when I was at home, peacefully sleeping in. A bobcat found a weak spot in my set up and wrecked havoc at dawn. Were I to be away, it would have most likely come back and killed every last chicken. You have to be prepared for the possibility of coming in one day and finding your whole flock dead. It may never happen, but it is a roll of the dice.

Even if your security is rock solid, I would be a bit concerned about human predators. Someone might see "abandoned chickens" and help themselves.

It's a tough situation. I wish you the best.

 

[Lin77]

Let me start by saying that I'm a relatively experienced chicken owner. I've had a mixed flock of typically 10-20 hens for the past seven years. I'm the primary caregiver, and I've been fortunate to have my mother-in-law on site who takes care of them whenever I'm away.

Unfortunately, our circumstances are changing, and we won't be able to keep them here where I live going forward. Option one is to give the flock away. However, I'm really hoping that option two is possible, and I'd love some feedback from others who might have a similar set-up.

We have a five-acre property an hour from here. Presently it's being run as a vacation rental while we fix it up as our future retirement home. Between the improvement projects, the general upkeep, and the vacation rental management, I'm driving there every 3-4 days on average.

Naturally, the question is, would it be possible to keep chickens and only tend to them, say, twice per week?

I know there are food and water systems that don't have to be filled daily. I can add pellet chutes and multiple waterers that can easily provide a week's worth. I know there are also automatic doors. Even though our current coop is large, I'd like to let them free range during the day. The potential predators are coyotes, foxes, raccoons, owls, hawks... primarily nocturnal and I can make sure the coop is fortified for their safety. There isn't a fence around this property, so neighborhood dogs could be a concern, but I do plan to fence the part of the lot that they'd be in. It would be away from the house, so there should be no impact from the vacationers. The one item I don't have a solution for is collecting eggs, which we do daily now.

So the questions are, could this work? Can eggs last a few days in an enclosed nesting box? (Our winter lows are around 30 and summer highs above 100) Is this in any way unethical, even though they would have sufficient food, water, and shelter? Are there other potential issues or concerns that I'm missing? Any tips for how to make this more automated? Would love to hear what others think.

We go off in our RV for 4-7 days at a time several times a year.

We live in North Florida on 1.08 acres that is fenced and cross fenced to protect my garden (ha-ha, they jump the fence - so barely a garden)!

We let our chickens free range daily since we got them 2+ years now, the battery operated automatic door opens at 7:30am and closes about 7:30pm (we change the timer to keep it around 1/2 hour before dark).

When we go, we put out a 55 gallon continuous feed drum and a water drum, we used to use them full time BUT they WASTE so much feed.

We have a MEAN rooster that I hate but I have watched him fight a hawk for his girls TWICE…. The ONLY reason he is still around!

They go in on time 99.5% of the time, we have had 3 total not make it back over the fence and into the coops before they closed in 2+ years!

We offer 1 neighbor eggs if she wants to go in and fend off the rooster to get them…. Sometimes she goes and gathers eggs after a couple of days and sometimes she don’t and we come home 5-7 days later to lots of eggs!
Once we had a broody hen sitting on some of them but usually we just gather and eat them! So kinda wondering about other people’s experiences!

 

[RPw1690]

I tend a farm in Union Grove, NC, 20 guinea fowl 4 ducks and 10 chickens including young of each. They free range on 70 acres. We have 3 coops, guineas, chickens & ducks, with some mixing in between. There is a covered 12 ft x 6ft pen between 2 of the coops. We use ChickenGuard auto doors, battery, open at 10:45A, close at dusk. The chickens ALWAYS go in, the guineas mostly do. The ducks go in at dark. I use millet periodically for all birds, a treat before dark, fed in the pen or house to encourage and reinforce them to go in, now & then. We have solar with plenty of backup, so run Harris Farms poultry heaters under a couple of 5 gal metal waterers. This is our 3rd year, we’ve lost a few chickens to foxes or hawks, but there are now plenty of spots to take cover. We lose the most guineas when they insist on nesting in the field, and a raccoon goes for the eggs and maybe the bird. Rarely lose a chicken to predator. The guineas have stood off a fox in daylight twice. All birds can fly, the only loss to local dogs has been when I left items on the land that could trap a panicked running bird. I go twice a week, collect eggs which are always fine, refill 2 20lb low loss feeders, and the waterers. I monitor lockouts by getting there before doors open, and take head count that evening. One guinea always sleeps on the roof of the pen if I don’t put him in. The rest, some sleep out on the pen roof between the two coops, no owls seem to come around, and no coyotes at night, raccoon or possum show up rarely on the trail cam. The trail cam did show a pair of dogs trying to break into the coops, the photos were enough to convince the dog owner to take action.

 

[chooki]

I keep roosters on our farm because they are not allowed by the council at the suburban area where I live.

The farm is unmanned 2-3 days at a time, sometimes even for 5 days. The birds get to free range whenever someone is on the farm, which is like 30% - 40% of the days, otherwise they are locked up in their coop. Their coop is double layered with 0.5 metre metal mesh skirts to stop digging. Inside coop, there are at least 3 water stations and 3 feeders. I always leave plenty of food and fresh water when I depart the farm. Not a single a bird is lost inside the coop so far.

One thing you need to realise is that predators generally do not come close to your free range chickens if there are people around. They will come for your free ranging chickens if the property is unattended. They know when you are not around. I have made the mistake of letting my previous small flock of chooks to free range when no one was on the farm. I have lost them ALL! I let them free range because I did not see any potential predators other than the very occasional eagles. Only then did I realise that I did not see those predators because they did not want me to see!