- Jan 8, 2011
- 33
- 1
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Hello!
We are still working out the bugs in our overall layout. We live in a semi-urban area but on a one acre lot. About a 1/3 of it is landscaped. I'd love it if you could respond w/ your wisdom on this as we are . . . pre-newbies! Here goes . . .
Key components:
1. Small coop, enough for 3 med-large hens they tell me, with two nesting boxes. It was an assemble it yourself kit. If chickens turn out to be a good thing for us we may get 1 or 2 more.
2. We plan to pour an 8'x8' concrete slab. On top of it we plan to put a welded wire 8'x8'x6' dog kennel as a pen, with the top panels in so that it is larger-predator protective. I understand chickens can put their heads out the holes in the thing and get nailed, but since most of the time they will be in their coop I hope at night, they will be quite a ways from any one of the four walls in the dog kennel.
3. We will have a door out of the pen to an area of the undeveloped yard which is in pretty good shade and has a fair amount of native vegetation. We will put up a lightweight chicken wire fence to cordon off maybe an area about 30 feet x 50 feet or so for them to wander around in when we're not home during the day. This is primarily to protect our landscaping and decking, etc.
So, the hens will have 4 living areas: coop, dog kennel/pen where the coop lives, a cordoned off section of native plant area in our yard, and the entire yard area.
Questions on this:
1. Any downside to the concrete in the pen? We thought it would be a snap to keep clean---can just hose right thru the welded wire pen. We hope to not have them in there much of the day as we hope to range them in the larger yard when we're around to supervise a little at least for a while. And when we have to leave for a few days we would keep them in the kennel/pen for sure. I'm thinking from responses in the Predators topic that I may have to use 1/2" welded wire to keep squirrels and rats out of the feed, and chicken heads in! Any other tricks on keep little varmints out of the kennel/pen? It will have 2x4" welded wire construction, so squirrels/rats can get in. Don't see snakes.
2. How hard is it to lure hens back into their pen or coop when you need them too? Is it a case of training w/ food? In order to manage things like when we have to leave for work we'd like to be able to get them in their lightweight chicken wire pen I described above.
3. If we had 3 med-large hens, how long would it take to decimate the vegetation in the 30'x50' chicken wire pen?
I know I'm asking a lot of specifics here, but any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Noel
We are still working out the bugs in our overall layout. We live in a semi-urban area but on a one acre lot. About a 1/3 of it is landscaped. I'd love it if you could respond w/ your wisdom on this as we are . . . pre-newbies! Here goes . . .
Key components:
1. Small coop, enough for 3 med-large hens they tell me, with two nesting boxes. It was an assemble it yourself kit. If chickens turn out to be a good thing for us we may get 1 or 2 more.
2. We plan to pour an 8'x8' concrete slab. On top of it we plan to put a welded wire 8'x8'x6' dog kennel as a pen, with the top panels in so that it is larger-predator protective. I understand chickens can put their heads out the holes in the thing and get nailed, but since most of the time they will be in their coop I hope at night, they will be quite a ways from any one of the four walls in the dog kennel.
3. We will have a door out of the pen to an area of the undeveloped yard which is in pretty good shade and has a fair amount of native vegetation. We will put up a lightweight chicken wire fence to cordon off maybe an area about 30 feet x 50 feet or so for them to wander around in when we're not home during the day. This is primarily to protect our landscaping and decking, etc.
So, the hens will have 4 living areas: coop, dog kennel/pen where the coop lives, a cordoned off section of native plant area in our yard, and the entire yard area.
Questions on this:
1. Any downside to the concrete in the pen? We thought it would be a snap to keep clean---can just hose right thru the welded wire pen. We hope to not have them in there much of the day as we hope to range them in the larger yard when we're around to supervise a little at least for a while. And when we have to leave for a few days we would keep them in the kennel/pen for sure. I'm thinking from responses in the Predators topic that I may have to use 1/2" welded wire to keep squirrels and rats out of the feed, and chicken heads in! Any other tricks on keep little varmints out of the kennel/pen? It will have 2x4" welded wire construction, so squirrels/rats can get in. Don't see snakes.
2. How hard is it to lure hens back into their pen or coop when you need them too? Is it a case of training w/ food? In order to manage things like when we have to leave for work we'd like to be able to get them in their lightweight chicken wire pen I described above.
3. If we had 3 med-large hens, how long would it take to decimate the vegetation in the 30'x50' chicken wire pen?
I know I'm asking a lot of specifics here, but any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Noel