Starting over - no more ranging

[DoeAndGander]

Thanks for the condolences! It has worked out wonderfully! Here are some photos from this morning. All chickens are fully integrated and living it up! I kept them fully enclosed for four to six weeks and now I let them out for a few hours most days while I am around. They are all totally comfortable and go right back in to the coop whenever I want them too. there’s plenty of space for them to get away from one another if they need to.

Mostly a deep “bedding” method as their isn’t any moisture that gets into the floor. We will see how that changes as the humidity picks up this spring....

As you can see I’ve got a bunch or pullets that should start laying ANY day.


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I use that livestock tub to toss dirt clouds and weeds in daily for them to scratch and dust bathe in.

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That looks great and spacious! Such a happy flock. Love the tub with clippings. I have aerial and land predators stalking my land as well. I will be keeping a close eye on my ladies with only supervised outings. Kicking around the idea of a concrete pad in the run. There’s a pretty active coyote pack in the woods near along with fox which I’ve seen cross the road recently. Yikes!

 

[cmom]

I have a lot of predators around here too. I have electric wire around my pens and coops, concrete under the gates and heavy duty netting covering all of the pens. Each of my pens are around 20ft x 60ft. I did have a breach recently. Somehow I believe a coyote got a gate opened and it killed a couple of birds. Now I have the gate wired shut but easy to undo to open it. The coyote has been back and attempted to get the gate open but failed. I have a little piece of wire on the inside the gate and the other day it looked like something had tried to open the gate because the little piece of wire was now on the outside of the gate. It did attempt to dig on the far side of the pen but got zapped by the electric wire and abandoned the attempt.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Yup, another one over here on the electric chain after a bear attack. Have a layer around our whole yard/driveway, a layer across the garage door, and eventually the greenhouse will also have another separate layer. If you lose your whole flock once it becomes worth it real quick.

 

[RoosterML]

1. @jolenesdad you could have some real fun creating some layered tiers with those high walls. Sorry for your loss. I also have chips over a concrete slab, the best part is the poop clumps up and is easy to remove with a small rake. You'll notice that the chips will pack down. Just keep it fluffed up with your hay rake every once in awhile and it should only need a full cleaning or change out every few months.