Chickens

[smarch]

Attention all chickenowners and anyone who can refer a chicken owner to this I need your help.
I've been looking into keeping chickens for a long time now and want to build a coop this summer, there's so many contradicting ideas out there I'd like some successful chicken keepers to add imput to what I should do and shouldn't.
I live in MA so winter's get cold, I live with a barn so I'd build next to that, and we do get foxes and coyotees so obviously you put them away at night but I'd like a way to let them go out in a run during the day even though I'll be at work. Strong wire suggestions? Also the cows get an electric fence around then keep them in and others out, would this be ok as long as the chickens can in no way touch it?
You've all helped so much with Franklin so thanks in advance for help with this.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Building your run with T-posts and no-climb fence should work. That's what I used. To the no-climb fencing, I attached chicken wire. I didn't close them up at night, but they all had high roosts inside the coup. Like 3'-4' off the ground. I had a dog yard that ran the length of one side of the chicken yard, I believe this is what kept the coyotes, raccoons, possums, and skunks away. The chicken wire went over the top of the yard to keep hawks at bay and to keep the chickens in. I didn't clip the wing feathers. I'd fresh water fish, and any trash fish I'd catch, I'd throw to the chickens. Nothing better than dark yellow almost orange yolks, compared to those pale yellow yolks from store bought eggs.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

On an aside. No climb fencing is welded wire that has 2"x4" openings with the 2" being the horizontal. Normally it is 4' high sold in 50' rolls. When stretching it to attach, us a bar or pipe woven in the openings to hook a come-along to. Other end of the come-along hooks to a truck/car or something else solid. Hope this helps.

 

[mike taylor]

Look up chicken tractors . It's a coop and a run all in one . How many are you thinking of getting?

 

[smarch]

Building your run with T-posts and no-climb fence should work. That's what I used. To the no-climb fencing, I attached chicken wire. I didn't close them up at night, but they all had high roosts inside the coup. Like 3'-4' off the ground. I had a dog yard that ran the length of one side of the chicken yard, I believe this is what kept the coyotes, raccoons, possums, and skunks away. The chicken wire went over the top of the yard to keep hawks at bay and to keep the chickens in. I didn't clip the wing feathers. I'd fresh water fish, and any trash fish I'd catch, I'd throw to the chickens. Nothing better than dark yellow almost orange yolks, compared to those pale yellow yolks from store bought eggs.

its actually the eggs that ae the reason I want to raise chickens, I stayed at our local Heifer farm for a few days 2 spring breaks ago and I literally LIVED off of the farm fresh eggs, and even got to go to the coop one morning and get them as my chore. So since then I've been wanting to get chickens, and I've been told their care is fairly simple (I'll look a lot more into care after I plan and cost building the coop, because I know I'm willing to put the work in, I'll just need the specifics before actually getting them). I had no idea the no climb fencing was called that, I've seen it before but never knew the name. I saw pictures where people put it as a backing to a post fence, would you recommend that or it to be strong enough on its own? I think having the fence for extra support would make me feel better about their safety while i'm away during the day. I also had no intention to clip wings so wire top was definitely what I was thinking. any suggestions for how large the run should be?

 

[smarch]

Look up chicken tractors . It's a coop and a run all in one . How many are you thinking of getting?

My plan is to definitely have the coop and run all in one, didn't know there was a specific name for that, that'll help greatly with research. And number will be space depending but I want to have between 4-8 I think.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

How many humans you looking at providing eggs for on a daily basis? If I remember correctly, while a bachelor, I had 6 I think, which gave me a consistent 4 eggs a day. I provided Crumbles mash, but they rarely ate much. I was on was on the edge of a slough and that provided all manner of insect life they consumed. I also scattered scratch on a daily.

 

[smarch]

How many humans you looking at providing eggs for on a daily basis? If I remember correctly, while a bachelor, I had 6 I think, which gave me a consistent 4 eggs a day. I provided Crumbles mash, but they rarely ate much. I was on was on the edge of a slough and that provided all manner of insect life they consumed. I also scattered scratch on a daily.

I'm not specifically sure how many they'll be feeding, there's 5 of us at home and I know I'll eat them and bake with them, and with the baking alone using eggs would probably use most, and theres my grandparents who technically own the farm so I'd certainly let them have their share. 4 a day would be a good number, so I probably shouldn't get more than 6, I'd probably start with 4 to begin with anyways until I got the hang of the care. how big a coop dimensionally would you say is a good judge? I was thinking about 5x5 feet then up about 8 slanting back to 6, with a run off of that around 8x5. I'd put it up against the barn building where it would get sunrise and decent shade through mid-day since I've read its easy for chickens to overheat if allowed too much heat and sun.

 

[mike taylor]

The chicken tractor is the way to go for a small scale flock. You can move it around the yard and the birds will eat the bugs and fertilize the yard all in one. Plus it keeps you from having to clean bird poop all the time. Trust me they can poop and it smells.

 

[bouaboua]

The chicken tractor is the way to go for a small scale flock. You can move it around the yard and the birds will eat the bugs and fertilize the yard all in one. Plus it keeps you from having to clean bird poop all the time. Trust me they can poop and it smells.

Ha! ! !

You know chicken very well too. I grow up with chicken. They are noisy and smell........I stay with Torts. Even my Mother in-law really wants to rise come chicken.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

The key with chickens is to know how many you need, and not get more than needed. When my kids were young, we had 9 hens and a trained attack rooster in a large run for a family of four. I used saw dust in the coup and top cleaned it once a week, deep cleaned/stripped it twice a year. The yard was under a huge broadleaf maple tree. They never stank. One corner of the yard, I'd dump the ash from my wood stove for their dust baths.

 

[bouaboua]

Where I grow up, we do not have the luxury of a yard under a broad-leaf maple tree.

We have a strip of space, under the stairwell or a outside hall way that partially under the rain gutter. Always concrete floor. My parents use old newspaper under it. The coop always next to someone's bedroom window or it not really matter because we can hear all the rooster in the morning from the entire neighborhood. almost every household had some kinda of poultry as a supplement for income or food source.

 

[smarch]

The chicken tractor is the way to go for a small scale flock. You can move it around the yard and the birds will eat the bugs and fertilize the yard all in one. Plus it keeps you from having to clean bird poop all the time. Trust me they can poop and it smells.

My biggest worry about the tractor and being able to move it is the level of safety from predators. We live in rural new England and the farm is half boarded on woods (other half being the road our house and another farm surrounded by woods). We've had problems with foxes, never bothering our cows obviously but picking up neighborhood cats, and they would go after chickens. We've also had coyote packs come by, never hurt a cow but the barn is more secure. I've become okay with building a permanent coop with the built in run, the constant poop cleaning will just be a fact of life I guess, and I grew up with the smell of cow manure so how much worse can chicken poop be?

 

[smarch]

Ha! ! !

You know chicken very well too. I grow up with chicken. They are noisy and smell........I stay with Torts. Even my Mother in-law really wants to rise come chicken.

Noise and smell are no problem to me, they wouldn't be in my yard they'd be across the street next to our barn, so I wouldn't hear them much more than the occasional moo we hear
But yeah its more of a farm hens situation than backyard coop so my only year problems are finding a good place to build and having the farm owners (my dad and granddad) allow me the space I need.

 

[smarch]

The key with chickens is to know how many you need, and not get more than needed. When my kids were young, we had 9 hens and a trained attack rooster in a large run for a family of four. I used saw dust in the coup and top cleaned it once a week, deep cleaned/stripped it twice a year. The yard was under a huge broadleaf maple tree. They never stank. One corner of the yard, I'd dump the ash from my wood stove for their dust baths.

I only plan to have a handful of them, because while I want the farm fresh eggs not many other people in the family are huge egg consumers, and I'd rather keep the coop and run relatively non-huge, so I have to have that in mind when getting numbers of them, because its their needs before having a huge flock.
And perfectly we have a wood stove, and in the summer we have fires so I got plenty of the ash.