Texas

[jockeyeba]

Chickens will 'jump' a six foot fence?  Surely they fly, flutter or use their wings in some manner and can't really jump that high.  

How will I ever keep them in my yard if I only have a 4 foot tall fence?  I don't plan on leaving them out all day unattended.  But if they are going to be heading over the fence every time I let them out I may need to rethink this chicken thing. 

I don't think you will have a problem with the "heavy" breeds- Wyandottes, BO's,etc......but American Games & Bantams can fly over a 6' fence with ease, they can fly from one end of my backyard to the other easily. I had to put a top on the Bantam pen to keep them in

 

[jockeyeba]

 

Cool looking birds. So many varieties. It is a good thing I am limited on space and the fact that my HOA doesn't allow poultry. Ha. I have therapy chickens and that is a fact.

I made sure when I bought this last house that there was no such thing as an HOA! Community Nazi's is all they are.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

You wouldn't even have to remove the entire boards. You could cut holes in the boards and staple the wire over the holes. With something small like those prefab houses, you have to be careful about weakening the integrity of the structure if you start cutting holes/removing boards because they are not made out of the thickest pieces of wood and are usually stapled together rather than being held together by long screws. But you could do it, just plan it out carefully and look to see how any holes will affect it.

We have no shade and use shade cloth - it's the best. Use the lightest color possible as they help keep the temp underneath cooler than a darker shade cloth. You may also need to double up on the shade cloth since a lot of what is available locally is pretty thin. Greenhousemegastore.com sells shade cloth in varying ratios of how much light they admit and their white colored cloth is the best for lowering temps underneath the cloth. The turn around time for shadecloth from them can be a few weeks when it is in high demand during summer so you want to get it early from them but I have been pleased with my dealings with them.

Would the medium size of this dog house work? I'd just need to add a secure door.

 

[hensfortherapy]

MEN and their play toys!

Lisa
[/quote]

Thanks Lisa.
I did not mean to shed a bad light on my DH. He has worked hard and deserves his toys. He is a wonderfully supportive husband.
I may find someone to help me write a book, cause I never in a million years would have believed that what has transpired in these last 4 years of my life could have ever happened. Too much to ever share in posts and replies on social media site. Life is a ride. Glad I have God.
(and chickens)
Saw this somewhere.
Chickens long for the day when they will no longer be plagued by the age old question of why they crossed the road. They just did!

 

[hensfortherapy]

Would the medium size of this dog house work? I'd just need to add a secure door.

Jellybean that is so adorable.
My 2cents say, go for the large. I can not see how you would regret it. It would give you room for a nesting box until you cut out and attach one if you want.
So cute. I wish it showed the specs.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Jellybean that is so adorable.
My 2cents say, go for the large. I can not see how you would regret it. It would give you room for a nesting box until you cut out and attach one if you want.
So cute. I wish it showed the specs.

It does, sort of. Scroll down to the product details and it tells the dimensions of each size.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Meal worm give away.

Interesting read on molting. As in a good read.

 

[bnjrob]

Would the medium size of this dog house work? I'd just need to add a secure door.

When you are looking at housing, a good rule is 4 square feet floor space inside for each bird, and 10 square feet ground space for each bird outside. This gives them enough room to avoid some of the problems of crowding - fighting/pecking, being kept away from feed/water, illness/other injury.

You want to plan that they have enough room inside the coop to be stuck in there for days at a time in bad weather, or if something happens and you were unable to let them out for some reason, like you were in the hospital and no one remembered to take care of your chickens. That is why it is recommended to give them so much space. You can cram any number of chickens into a small space but you're gonna wind up with problems at some point when something happens in life you didn't plan for.

I also recommend having food and water available both inside and outside of the coop - this keeps more subordinate birds from being scared away from food/water and also ensures that if it is pouring rain or the birds are forced to stay inside, they still have access to food and water. Sometimes you may not get home in time to let them out or into their coop. So I recommend that you plan to have enough room for the birds inside as well as food/water.

The recommended amt of floor space is not floor/roost space combined either. If you have roost space, that will make them happier, but you want them to have enough space on the floor/ground to be able to mill around without invading each other's space.

That medium dog house is roughly 3 ft x 2 ft or not quite 6 sq ft of floor space That will cover 1 large fowl (not bantam) bird. If the birds you have are on the smaller side and get along well, you might be able to safely squeeze 2 in there, but that does not leave room for an in-house nest box and you would definitely have to alter that house to provide a nest box that hangs out of the house.

Many people are fine with providing a very small space for their birds, but I don't recommend it - particularly not for someone who is not able to let their chickens free range a large area all day. It is one thing to house them "snugly" when they can range far and wide during the day to alleviate their boredom, but for birds that can't have a large free range area, trying to cram too many birds into a coop can get dicey. It sucks to not plan ahead and then wind up with birds that do not enjoy being so close together and then you have to scramble because you have bloody heads/faces from pecking, low-weight birds because of constant stress, etc.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

If you look back a few posts you will see that this is for silkies and until I can a bigger coop built so I can get chickens sooner than next year.

I totally agree build the biggest you can. Bigger is better. I guess to a point. You don't want a mammoth sized coop for 4 hens.

 

[bnjrob]

If you look back a few posts you will see that this is for silkies and until I can a bigger coop built so I can get chickens sooner than next year.

I totally agree build the biggest you can. Bigger is better. I guess to a point. You don't want a mammoth sized coop for 4 hens.

Silkies aren't huge but you'll still want them to have plenty of space since they'll be needing to be kept inside more often during wet weather than a less fuzzy breed.

Bigger is usually better but size is also relative. I can tell you that I prefer either something pretty small or something big enough for me to climb inside of. Because having to bend over, under, and around to try to catch chickens or clean just really sucks after a while. Which is why we have numerous styles of chicken housing as we explored and learned what we liked and didn't like and encountered more situations where the light bulb went on and we wanted to change something.