Texas

[henless]

Besides have you EVER called for snake assistance? I bet it would not be a quicker response time than say a viscous Dog. But when I called for assistance on that it took 2 hours with me locked in my car. Nope!

That made me think of the movie Cujo.

 

[tjo804]

Quote:
mee too! only I looked more like this

and

 

[tjo804]

We are looking at doing a whole new set up for our ladies so they are together for me to care for but separate for various reasons. In Texas for the coop should I have 4 walls and a floor or will 3 walls away from north wind be enough? DH wants 3 walls and the whole coop with roosts and laying boxes will be all one part with the run being completely covered for shade in summer I am a bit over protective and wonder if a closed coop is necessary

any suggestions?

 

[JRNash]

We do HAVE way more Heat than cold.

 

[Eliza1313]

I would say plan more fore dealing with heat, unless you are in the Panhandle. We built my hens coop during the winter, the roosting area could use more space for breezes to be allowed through. At least we planned it so that they have a combined run with full time access to. That will be becoming a breeder pen once we get the permanent housing built. My 10 and 11 week old chicks and keets are in an open air coop. We use tarps to provide shade and block some rain. They are doing great. Both are open bottom with wire skirtings along the ground to prevent predators from digging under. The hen coop has hardware cloth on the bottom 2' the rest is chicken wire. The chick coop we used lath instead of the hardware cloth at the bottom. It has caused no problems with the birds, but I will feel a smidge sorry for anything that tries to claw or bite its way through it.

 

[k5crew]

Eliza1313 - pictures!!! Please!!!

 

[tjo804]

Eliza1313 - pictures!!! Please!!!

x2

 

[needlessjunk]

Both of my coops are 3 sided. Last winter I added a board over half the open side of my duck house and will do the same for the chickens this year. My poor girls (ducks) are all panting already and have been parked out on the patio after I hose it down. I've started with ice cubes in chicks water since they are getting hot too.

 

[Briza]

After reading all the recent posts on coops I've realized that the coop I'm building is more suited to cold weather. Good thing I'm still working on it and can incorporate features that'll keep them cool. I'm sure glad I'm following this thread. I might have accidentally cooked my chickens.

 

[tjo804]

we have such a short period of really cold weather
(according to research, cuz below 65 is really cold to me

)

This past winter I had to force most of my ladies in the coop when we had freeze advisories otherwise they were most happy on the roosts in the run away from wind.

so DH may be right after all (again

)

He does tend to look more like the ladies outside right now than I do, Arms up to get air to pits and open mouth panting he even switched from mt dew to lemonade for being outside.

I just dont want them to get cold! I hate to be cold!