Third Time's a Charm

[tjs19]

Hi All,

My wife and I are on our third round of chickens after having 2 previous small flocks wiped out by a weasel. We are in the Boston area in the suburbs abutting swamp so we have lots of predators to worry about. Coyote, fox, weasel, fisher, racoon, skunk...

This time around we are trying to take every precaution to protect our girls. We have a coop integrated with a run, fully roofed. We have redone the fencing on the run, locked down every doorway into the run and coop and placed the coop/run on top of buried hardware cloth with pavers as a base for the footing of the coop/run. Oh, and we even wired an old baby monitor into the coop for overnight monitoring.

Needless to say, the big topic that I am concerned about is predator protection. Next on the list is how our girls get along through the winter, since neither of our previous flocks were around for the winter months.

We have a flock of 6 composed of a Silver Wyandotte, Speckled Sussex, Ancono, Easter Egger and 2 of what our family chicnk experts (4-H kids) tell us are Sultans. The Sultans (black) were supposed to be straight run bantam chicks but they look nearly the same size as the rest of the birds at 4 months old. They don't have the foot feathering that I've read is typical.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Those breeds will be fine in winter. Anconas are Mediterranean class but mine did fine in harsh St. Louis winters.

I had mink wipe out several flocks so I feel your pain. Just make sure there is no opening as large as an inch and they'll be safe from all predators.
I did the same with a baby monitor and it actually saved half of a flock because it woke me up with all the thrashing and I caught it in the act.

 

[tjs19]

Thanks for the assurances ChickCanoe! As I mentioned, we refenced the run. It is now all 1/2" hardware cloth. Our full setup has a 4'x8' footprint so it was still reasonable using hardware cloth. We have also tried to close up any gaps at doors where there was some play. The last weasel intrusion was when the coop door was closed but the door has enough flex to it that the weasel must have been able to pry its way in. Finding a closed coop full of dead chickens was very frustrating.

I'll need to read up on winter care. We know we will need some kind of warmer to keep water from icing up. I've been wondering how well that works with the chicken nipples that we have setup. I also assume we will need to put up plastic sheeting around the run for wind/weather protection for the winter.

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard chickens. I think it would be very good for you to subscribe to your state thread. You can find out first hand how others get their birds through severe weather. I know your area really DOES winter !! Chickens do handle cold much better than heat. They come with their own down jackets.

 

[tjs19]

Thanks dd! Sounds like good advice. I'll check it out.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!