Rookie chicken question

[chopped]

You might also consider joing a yahoo group like this one
CHICKENS-101 : Chickens-101

 

[tjse9006]

Thanks! This site is great. I bought 16 acres 3 years ago and have cleared and developed it to a point I'm comfortable with and finished building the house. Alot of it is do to the information I have gotten from this site. Again, Thanks! TC

 

[duckgeek]

We converted a 1968 13' tin camping trailer into a coup for our 30ish chickens. I gutted out the cabinets, covered the floor in remnant vinyl, built nesting boxes into the closet and hung three 2" dowels in a diagonal formation for roosting bars. My 13 year old is the hen-master. She is tasked with cleaning the coop every Sunday and she keeps cedar or pine shavings on the floor which are easily swept out the back hatch storage door.

I cut out a small door leading into the chicken pen and the humans use the big door to get in/out from the driveway area. Advantages are that the trailer is off the ground, waterproof, mobile, ventable, and very safe from predators. We've got it plugged in to electricity so we can use the existing lights to extend the day in the winter and add a little heat.

Learn how to check for mites! They are a pain to get rid of if you bring them in from another flock.

 

[MotorSeven]

My five year old daughter and I are on our second attempt at raising chickens, the first ones got eaten by a coon. We built a good chicken house and have gotten the 7 birds to 4 months. A couple of questions we've come up with. How do you guys keep them from wasting the food, I bought a gallon feeder from TSC and as quick as I put the feed in they scrape it all in the floor. The second question is What precautions do you guys take for the kids when around the chickens. Thanks for your responses!

I have found the best way to keep predators out is with an electric fence. Without it, once coons, opossums & weasels find you coop, they will raid or attempt to raid it almost every night. Running out there at 0100 hrs in your skivies with a firearm does not work too well and you will usually be too late.

You can go solar if the coop is too far from an outlet, but the small plug in type is way cheaper. A roll of wire, some insulators, & a ground rod is all you need. Once set up properly and the predators get zapped, they will leave and go find easier pickins.

Here is mine:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/199912-solid-cedar-predator-resistant-chicken.html

 

[forgeblast]

I put hardware cloth around theh bottom the coop and then burried it in the ground. I then took chickwire up the rest of it and made a roof too.
Glad I did I had a Hawk sitting in a tree across from the coop trying to figure out how to get a snack.