The Middle Tennessee Thread

So you don't recommend building a coop with nesting boxes and roost perch? I figured that they would need as much ventilation as possible but wasn't sure how to do that and keep them relatively safe and happy. I don't plan on letting them out even though we have lots of acreage. I would just worry constantly about them and I have seen a few that have been hit by cars. There are too many predators. Is your set up safe from most predators? I have seen one dead and one live chicken snake in the year we have lived here and we have hawks flying over all the time. We don't even let our tiny toy fox terrier stay outside without us because of the hawks. We haven't seen any coyotes but we hear them every night when we let our dogs out. Oddly enough I have not seen one raccoon since we have lived here. Just want to keep them as safe as we can. Thanks for your help!!

I'll throw my 2 cents in. On one end I would box it in.Say 4'-6' feet deep. Put nest boxes on the back side for easy egg collection. Put a door for humans as well as chickens. Don't put a threshold. It makes it easy to sweep/shovel stuff out if there isn't a board across the bottom of the door opening. In this new boxed area rounded 2x4's bleacher style for perches. The wide 4" board lets them stretch and covers their feet from frostbite. I would put a window in each end for a good cross breeze for summer and solar warmth in winter. If using windows take out screens and screw hardware cloth to the inside wall across the window using flat head screws and washers. It wont keep bugs out! But the screens clog up very fast and the air goes bad, making for sick birds. The wire keeps everything else out so you can open your windows

. I found that the simple things like being able to take the perches out make for faster cleaning. For us we are still working on ours. We just need more concrete board and a closet door. Money funnels to the chickens last LOL. We have hang out the back nest boxes. It added perch space inside our box. We also put a rounded 2x4 channeled across the front of the nest. So on cleaning day I open the coop pull out the perches and the boards in front of the nest boxes and power spray them. Dry in the sun. I have a small flat shovel that fits perfect in the nest box. I open from the front and shovel everything to the main coop. Rake everything out into a large bin, sweep and either mop it or power spray it. Winter gets a quick mop summer gets a soak down. Mites like to hide in the corners and cracks of everything. After all is dry I will seven dust cracks and corners and put hay back down.

You are lucky and already have a concrete floor. The hard part will be drilling into the it to erect the frame. As for the rest of the area chicken wire and make a door for you and chickens if you want them to free range. Chicken wire will not keep out a hungry raccoon, coyote, or other determined critter. That's why it is good to have a safe house inside the run. A strong chicken door.

One day last fall I had my chickens in the run. I didn't free range them that day too much ice/snow. But I didn't close up the coop door. I lost half my flock that night. Something climbed over the top and chewed the wire, and walked right in to the coop. My fault for not closing the hatch and thinking the chicken wire was enough. I replaced that wire with hardware cloth and haven't forgotten to close the hatch again. I need a hatch on a timer LOL.

I have a 10'x20' kennel with broody hutch for a grow out pen.


I have bird netting across the top. I had a hawk get trapped in it last year.
But not before he killed a teen.

The back side of my coop/run. The glass in the window comes all the way off. Leaving just the wire on the inside. One the real cold days we had this winter,
I stuffed an old comforter between the window and wire, to help insulate the window.
My coop has insulation between the walls and expand-a-foam sprayed around the boxes.
I put a 100 watt heat bulb out there and while it was 0 the coop was at 28. Not great but no one froze.
The nest box has 6 nest in in with dividers. 3 on top 3 on bottom. I made the bottom set 2 inches shorter than the top.
Some of the girls like more room than others. But most fight over the bottom left one. Not sure why they are the same size on the bottom.
Hope this gives you ideas. If you want more details i can take closeups ect..
 
Thank you all for the comments and advice given today. It's all useful information and will end up doing a combination of different things. But it's nice to know things people have done that have worked and also what hasn't so we hopefully don't make the same mistakes. Our chicks are two and half weeks old now and from that short time the pine shavings are already a pain to keep clean so I am really tempted to use sand. We don't garden and don't have a need for so much compost. I am very interested in any tips and info you all want to pass along. We have had goats before but they are a lot more hardy I think and ours weren't very personable. But I can already see the different personalities with the chicks. We are very excited about the new additions to our family!
 
Just put 44 eggs on lockdown for the Easter Hatch ALong. None of my BCM's or green eggs were fertile. Looking for lots of fuzzy butts Saturday! We will be out of town Friday night and Saturday so I will leave them alone to do their own thing. Easter Sunday should be chirpy at my house.
 
Hi we are new to Middle TN and to chickens. I was wondering if some of you could post pictures of your coop and run. We have a covered 11x20 shelter with a concrete pad that we are thinking of building our coop and run on. With the heat and humidity here what are the best coop designs? And what would you recommend to put down for the run since it concrete. I have read a lot on byc about sand and am leaning in that direction.
Here is a couple pics of the shelter we will probably build under. Thanks for any and all input!
400
400
my coop bottom is concrete. Makes it a breeze to deep clean. Just hose it off. I use straw at the moment but going to switch to a deep litter method with sand
 
Hatch update!!!
We have 3 chicks so far.
400

The first to hatch my dh witnessed alone. He has now claimed it as his pet chicken and named her Beauty.
She has one eye that I think is grown shut. I don't see any gunk, build up or swelling and she doesn't even attempt to open it.
400

That is her stuck eye... what do you guys think?

I have 2 that passed during zipping.
1 definite bad egg and 2more going to be candled for movement in a bit.
 
I have 9 chicks I need gone ASAP! 2 Blue Jersey Gaints, 2 New Hampshires, 1 Blue Jersey Giant Golden cuckoo maran cross, and the 4 others are crossed with Blue Jersey Giant and my hens. I am in Memphis. NEED GONE ASAP. I also have 7 Buff Orp roos.
 
I have "some" shelter and windbreak using some plywood and I do have nesting boxes but they are not visible in these pics, but in general I don't worry about it.
There are roosts also. I simply would not spend much time or expense enclosing it solid given where we live.
This is TN after all... and even with the cold winter we had everyone did very well - they are hardier than you think.

As far as predators... I have no worries there. I have a lot of acreage and various livestock and 4 very dependable Italian Maremma.
I haven't lost a chick or lamb to predation in years - the maremma keep everything safe.
So... if you are concerned about predation then when you enclose, the areas that are enclosed with wire I would suggest you bury the wire pretty deep around the perimeter to prevent digging under, or... set wood framing into the concrete and staple hardware cloth (as opposed to chicken wire) to the wood every few inches.

where did you get your dogs and how did you train them to guard your chickens?
 
Thank you. I didnt know that they hatch certain time of year. Well, I learned another new thing.

Thanks
Check out the Tennessee Breeders page listed under DMRippy at the bottom…..she has very kindly gotten lists together of all the chickens available by people on this blog….you can find the breed you want and then PM the person who has them. Don't know the ages or if they just sell the eggs but it's worth a look and I'm sure you'll find something.
 
Last edited:
[/quote]


where did you get your dogs and how did you train them to guard your chickens? 
[/quote]

Their grandparents were imported from Italy. You do not "train" lgds. Trust me on this, because i really wanted to (having trained several nationally ranked competition dogs). The first 12-18 months requires some timing when they hit the puppy play/chase stage. Other than that it is all instinct IF they are from working patents who have that instinct and IF the breeder started them correctly - meaning they were born and kept with the livestock.
The first thing my pups see when they open their eyes is sheep and chickens. They are with both until they are about 4-6 months old. Then they go with my rams until they are a year old. During those teenage months they learn the do's, and a few don'ts, and about the time they are a year old I can put them back with poultry dependably.
The trick with lgd raising is bonding. People do crazy thing like bring them in the house when it's cold out. My Maremma don't even know where my house is. They stay with the livestock 24/7 from the time they are born so they are tightly bonded to them. That bond is formed in the first 10-12 weeks and is critical.
My current youngster is in a 3 acre pasture with 4 rams. He's been a little frustrated with them over the last week because his winter coat hasn't blown yet so he'd like to stay in the woods in the shade, but the rams are more intent on eating the grass that is finally coming up. So. .. He spends his time moving from shadow to shadow to stay cool because he won't leave them even 50' to go lay on the shade. That's a tightly bonded pup! ;-)
 
So you don't recommend building a coop with nesting boxes and roost perch? I figured that they would need as much ventilation as possible but wasn't sure how to do that and keep them relatively safe and happy. I don't plan on letting them out even though we have lots of acreage. I would just worry constantly about them and I have seen a few that have been hit by cars. There are too many predators. Is your set up safe from most predators? I have seen one dead and one live chicken snake in the year we have lived here and we have hawks flying over all the time. We don't even let our tiny toy fox terrier stay outside without us because of the hawks. We haven't seen any coyotes but we hear them every night when we let our dogs out. Oddly enough I have not seen one raccoon since we have lived here. Just want to keep them as safe as we can. Thanks for your help!!


I would have them a place that's fenced in but it does NOT have to have roof! So they still have grass and have all those good greens and bugs! I have an acre pen for mine and they have goats and a pig with them! I just got sand and it works great love it I highly recommend it!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom