Chicken Coops

[sombrueil]

Originally Posted by Submariner

Never spend money on any contraption that heats drinking water.

Best thing I ever bought for my hens was a Premier One heated drinker.

Other best thing was a feeder that only is open when a hen stands on the treadle bar. Rest of the time, rodents and birds can't get into it.

[sombrueil]

Originally Posted by Parnassia

The very large bruin strolling across by deck last night reminded me why I don't keep chickens. Between building to withstand snow loads and keeping those out, their coop would need to be a second house!

Electrified netting and a good sloping roof. Perfectly doable. I have significant snow loads and no shortage of bears.

The main reason people give up poultry keeping (besides neighbors complaining) is predators. Predators can be foiled by good design.

Most people do not start with a good design. Then they either give up, or start all over again to build it the way it should have been done in the first place.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by sombrueil

Best thing I ever bought for my hens was a Premier One heated drinker.

Other best thing was a feeder that only is open when a hen stands on the treadle bar. Rest of the time, rodents and birds can't get into it.

I live in Maine, in this area we normally expect to see two months at -20F temps. Since it never gets very cold here, we just do not have any need for heated water bowls here.



But I can understand, if a person were located somewhere that it gets cold [maybe in the Arctic Circle] heated bowls might be a good idea.

[Threerun]

A couple from CA moved into the property just west of us. They started raising chickens, ducks, eurasian geese, turkeys and lord knows what else. At one point over 30 birds.

From my kitchen window I would watch the coyotes make a chicken run early in the morning. One afternoon a chicken with a pompadour head was wandering between our properties and I watched a bald eagle hit that thing so hard feathers were flying. Another time in the spring when their turkey's were getting horney their big fat Tom got annihilated by the wild turkeys that roam our hills.

I don't know what kind of enclosures they had, but suffice to say they were inadequate. They have no more birds, lol.

The nice thing about them having so many birds is that these guys hung around house all the time

[JONOV]

Originally Posted by LeisureSLarry

I am going to start to build a chicken coop. I live in the country and there are lots of predators according to people in the area so maintaining a healthy chicken stock is a challenge. I am starting with concrete rubble I broke up from old tile drain pipe and am going to have gravel brought in over the top for the base and leveled. It is overgrown with weeds now but they are starting to die so I will post pictures once the base is prepared.

Chickens "like" a substrate they can scratch in. Deep litter is a good way of doing it; basically two or three inches of wood chips that you change maybe once a year. That allows the chickens to compost it for you with minimum stink or mess.

Originally Posted by LeisureSLarry

There are 2 big trees on either side I want to hang a deterrent netting on.

I wouldn't attach anything to the tree. That's where everything that eats them lives.

Originally Posted by LeisureSLarry

I am going to use hardware cloth on all sides at least 1ft away from the structure which will have chicken wire - kind of like a prison and I haven't figured out yet how the chicken run will look but want to secure the shed first. They will have access to the backyard but the wire cloth will back up to woods. Not a lot to go on I know but any suggestions will be used if I can make them work in my designs.

You're overthinking it. Your coop should be secure enough without a secondary fence. Have the chickens exit to the run, and make sure the run itself is secure. Make sure the door latches shut with a carabiner for a lock as raccoons can't seem to operate large caribiners the way they can door handles or other latches.
If you're concerned about predators, you can't give them unfettered access to your backyard. You need to build a run, 10 sf per bird. You can use an apron of hardware cloth to prevent digging predators and probably want hardware cloth for the roof.

If I were to do it again I'd just go with an electric fence wire around the exterior at ground height and again around the top. A simple switch and you can turn it off to enter without trying to hop over hte hot wire with bags of food, etc.

[LeisureSLarry]

Thanks for the feedback all - going to have a gravel base put in here in the next weeks over some rubble I excavated and didn't have anywhere to put it. We have been getting rain here so the weeds are still hanging on but will clear it soon. Definitely concerned about predators - every person I talked to warned me so I am apprehensive. I am in Southern Michigan so have never seen a bear but definitely raccoons, possums, coyotes, fox and birds of prey (small and large) and my house is surrounded by fields and woods.

I grew up with chickens in Ohio in a big old barn and we didn't seem to have a lot of these issues but it was in wide open farmland, no woods within a couple miles so that may be why the problem of predators wasn't as bad. They had roost boxes but in no way was the barn secure and they would walk outside without issue for the most part.

[sombrueil]

Originally Posted by LeisureSLarry

Thanks for the feedback all - going to have a gravel base put in here in the next weeks over some rubble I excavated and didn't have anywhere to put it. We have been getting rain here so the weeds are still hanging on but will clear it soon. Definitely concerned about predators - every person I talked to warned me so I am apprehensive. I am in Southern Michigan so have never seen a bear but definitely raccoons, possums, coyotes, fox and birds of prey (small and large) and my house is surrounded by fields and woods.

I grew up with chickens in Ohio in a big old barn and we didn't seem to have a lot of these issues but it was in wide open farmland, no woods within a couple miles so that may be why the problem of predators wasn't as bad. They had roost boxes but in no way was the barn secure and they would walk outside without issue for the most part.

There were more hunters and trappers then. And DDT did in a lot of predatory birds as well.

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by LeisureSLarry

Thanks for the feedback all - going to have a gravel base put in here in the next weeks over some rubble I excavated and didn't have anywhere to put it. We have been getting rain here so the weeds are still hanging on but will clear it soon. Definitely concerned about predators - every person I talked to warned me so I am apprehensive. I am in Southern Michigan so have never seen a bear but definitely raccoons, possums, coyotes, fox and birds of prey (small and large) and my house is surrounded by fields and woods.

I grew up with chickens in Ohio in a big old barn and we didn't seem to have a lot of these issues but it was in wide open farmland, no woods within a couple miles so that may be why the problem of predators wasn't as bad. They had roost boxes but in no way was the barn secure and they would walk outside without issue for the most part.

Use electrical lines around either the coop or the small, fenced, open area around the coop. The perimeter fence should be 6 foot tall, 2x4 wire fencing. If the predators are as bad as you state, building defensive measures is a must.

Look on craigslist in your area for coops for sale. Not to buy but see what “works” in your area. Coops are just for the night. You might be in an area where even the runs must be covered. Also it will be interesting to see how winter works with Michigan chickens. The chickens can do well in cold weather but not eggs. If chicken eggs freeze, the egg shells crack.