*waves hi* Need some advice. Just getting started. :)

Pics
Date sort Score sort
C

caprice859

Chirping
Aug 2, 2022
15
62
56
Butler, PA (near Pittsburgh)
Hello fellow chicken tenders!

I wanted to introduce myself. *waves* I'm Dahn (pronounced Dawn) and I live near Pittsburgh, PA. I have a husband, almost 3 year old daughter, a pup and two cats. I finally convinced my husband to get some chickens. Yay! I grew up raising chickens (one of my most favorite core memories) and really want my little girl to experience the same thing. We live in a small city north of Pittsburgh and he was hesitant about getting them. But my daughter loves our neighbors chickens and we inherited the coop from another neighbor who gave away their two hens. :) The coop needs a bit of TLC but it's still in great shape.

I am in need of advice about a run. I want to use T posts and galvanized fencing. I want it to be high so I'm thinking 6-7 foot? I'm not overly concerned about predators on the ground (raccoons, opossums, etc) because we rarely see those in the city. My neighbors have had no issues with them. But I know it's still possible so I'm going to close my girls in at night. What I am concerned about are hawks so I want to put a cover over the run. I am attaching a photo of the coop and the area for the run. As you can see there is a wall behind the coop. I've been nervous about this part of it because I've never built a fence by myself before. And I have no idea what to use for door. I could build something but with a toddler I was trying to do this as easy as possible.

Any advice would be welcome and appreciated. :)

Thanks!
Dahn
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3738.jpg
    IMG_3738.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 5
caprice859 said:
Hello fellow chicken tenders!

I wanted to introduce myself. *waves* I'm Dahn (pronounced Dawn) and I live near Pittsburgh, PA. I have a husband, almost 3 year old daughter, a pup and two cats. I finally convinced my husband to get some chickens. Yay! I grew up raising chickens (one of my most favorite core memories) and really want my little girl to experience the same thing. We live in a small city north of Pittsburgh and he was hesitant about getting them. But my daughter loves our neighbors chickens and we inherited the coop from another neighbor who gave away their two hens. :) The coop needs a bit of TLC but it's still in great shape.

I am in need of advice about a run. I want to use T posts and galvanized fencing. I want it to be high so I'm thinking 6-7 foot? I'm not overly concerned about predators on the ground (raccoons, opossums, etc) because we rarely see those in the city. My neighbors have had no issues with them. But I know it's still possible so I'm going to close my girls in at night. What I am concerned about are hawks so I want to put a cover over the run. I am attaching a photo of the coop and the area for the run. As you can see there is a wall behind the coop. I've been nervous about this part of it because I've never built a fence by myself before. And I have no idea what to use for door. I could build something but with a toddler I was trying to do this as easy as possible.

Any advice would be welcome and appreciated. :)

Thanks!
Dahn
Click to expand...
Hi Dawn you will get alot of help and great ifo here.I havent had birds or chickens in along time so Im refreshing my memory. Some ot the best fencing out there against predators is the 1/2 inch Hardware cloth 19 gauge to start. Others will add dont worry theres some great builders here. Your coop looks great!
 
Congratulations on finally getting your lifelong chicken dream! I bet your daughter will be thrilled.

It looks to me like your coop already maybe has hardware cloth, and I am totally on board with keeping your girls inside at night. I have limited carpentry skills myself and have to admit to having "temporary" runs on two of my coops -- one of them for several years.

These are by no means sturdy or predator-proof, they're just enough to keep the chickens contained when I let them out of the coops in the morning and before I left them loose for the day. I just take metal fence posts from Menards, pound them into the ground with a cheap mallet, zip-tie wire garden fencing to the posts and attach the netting I use to keep birds off my fruit trees, again with zip ties.

Again, these are certainly far from a "best practices" solution. But it's something just about anyone can do to give their chickens a little more space. BTW, none of my birds is EVER loose or in the runs unless I am home -- even those chickens who have actual sturdy runs stay indoors; I KNOW I have predators here.

Also, you may not be seeing predators, but increasing numbers of wild things are moving into city settings where it's easy to find meals. I had no idea minks live around here -- until one committed a massacre at one of my coops.

Welcome to BYC, Dahn! Let us know how things are going!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom