We got a lot done today! The coop itself is still up, but the pallet-wall run is disassembled. A good bit of it is at the house now. We worked from about 7 to 10 on taking it all down. Very well made.
Looks like Sunday will be the day we get it all back over here because it's gonna take a box truck to get the coop. It's up about 5 feet off the ground and measures about 4x8x4 feet high.
The chickens are cute black bantams with feathery feet and red faces. Three hens and a rooster :)
So that will give you 172 sq. ft. Bantams need a bit less room than standard size birds. I grew up having bantams. So that's just over 40 sq. ft per bird. They should be in heaven...
I'm hoping so :) eventually we'll work up to a few more, but I hope to keep them at a very comfortable level. No less than 10sf per bird.
I don't know yet if we'll free range em. I'm leaning more towards what I've heard described as a"bug moat" where there's chicken wire tunnels through the garden so they can access bugs and still enjoy some safety from predators. Best of both worlds I suppose.
I liked the idea of the tunnels, but it just isn't practical here. This is what we do instead:
They get a new area each week and they are protected from land and aerial predators. We call it the snake fence because it's long and skinny and has lots of twists and turns.
If you decide to NOT let them roam, check out my post on chicken entertainment. It will go a long ways towards preventing bad behaviors.
We got a lot done today! The coop itself is still up, but the pallet-wall run is disassembled. A good bit of it is at the house now. We worked from about 7 to 10 on taking it all down. Very well made.
Looks like Sunday will be the day we get it all back over here because it's gonna take a box truck to get the coop. It's up about 5 feet off the ground and measures about 4x8x4 feet high.
The chickens are cute black bantams with feathery feet and red faces. Three hens and a rooster :)
So that will give you 172 sq. ft. Bantams need a bit less room than standard size birds. I grew up having bantams. So that's just over 40 sq. ft per bird. They should be in heaven...
I'm hoping so :) eventually we'll work up to a few more, but I hope to keep them at a very comfortable level. No less than 10sf per bird.
I don't know yet if we'll free range em. I'm leaning more towards what I've heard described as a"bug moat" where there's chicken wire tunnels through the garden so they can access bugs and still enjoy some safety from predators. Best of both worlds I suppose.
I liked the idea of the tunnels, but it just isn't practical here. This is what we do instead:
They get a new area each week and they are protected from land and aerial predators. We call it the snake fence because it's long and skinny and has lots of twists and turns.
If you decide to NOT let them roam, check out my post on chicken entertainment. It will go a long ways towards preventing bad behaviors.
Oh yeah, that's an even better idea! That way you can change the direction every week. That's a great idea.