Anybody raising chickens?

[Mrzllewellyn]

I haven't built a coop or got chickens yet but I've been looking at designs too. I plan to put my coop in the chain link fence with my Great Pyrenees dogs and put an electric fence wire around it to keep the dogs honest. I've already bought the electric fence controller and the wire, etc. I currently am using it to keep cats out of a small garden spot I'm building. They peed on most of the things I planted last year and killed all my onions, watermelons, and almost killed my tomatoes. I killed a bunch of the cats that were damaging my garden but I can't kill my daughter's cats. That would be a disaster.

We have alot of chickens... Mom is in the process of building a chicken mote...around her garden and chick nursery.... Awesome stuff.... But my parents own a great pyrenees great protector... But still a few night attacks one of the genies were killed just lastnight and just the head was left... But they are great with hawks and other stuff when they sent dead asleep lol

 

[gth813x]

sophisticated! my dad has an old detached garage that he put shelves in and called it a day. they just run around his yard all day

 

[Cornbread475]

Ive got 15 hens at my house. Me, my brother, and my dad built a pretty nice coop to match our barn. Its got a pull out poop tray so its really easy to clean. For varmit protection, on the bottom areas, weve got two layers of chicken wire and some larger guage multipurpose garden fencing. Dont have any pictures now but ill post it up if i get em.

 

[Blue Moon]

Just got 4 Rhode Island Reds about 3 weeks ago.
My daughter loves them!

 

[User170512]

You could look into making a chicken tractor, that's what we have.
You can move it around and expose fresh ground for them.
We lost a batch of chicks to a predator (dog was inside that night).
We had them in a temporary coop/tractor that we hadn't put a permanent top on.

 

[robster31316]

Foxes and other predators don't stand a chance with my dogs. They are very protective.

My dogs are the biggest threat to our chickens... Make sure if you keep any roosters you keep only one, most feed stores take them back once they mature. As for the coop we use the 10x10 fencing for a dog kennel, along with a chicken wire and tarp roof. If you want to get extra security bury some chicken wire where the fence meets the ground to keep out this digging critters.