What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[skippyinspace]

Hi

 

Been lurking here for the last week or so, As we have just moved to the country and have decided that sometime soon we should get some chickens.

 

The only firm decsion is that they will be BWHT ones and probbably 4 of them.

 

We keep flipping between the cube and FSF.

 

But we are looking at other advice, Our external property fences are not secure and 2 of them are straight onto cow fields, So Free ranging them over the whole property isnt good idea, Aslo we would want to move the coop or the run aound to give the garden a chance to recover, So I assume a larhe WIR wouldnt be a good idea.

 

So what about an electric fence, How high does it need to be, Also as there are Buzzards and possibly a sea Eagle in the vacinity would this need to be covered over?

 

all I can say is the more I read the more confusing it all gets, Wife wants to go to the Turrif show to see if there is anything there sutable, She was at a Garden centre in Aberdeen where they had some coops on display but 2 of the chickens had escaped and were wandering the Garden center (Not a good advertisement)

 

Our "garden" plot is 30x40m but the OH is wanting to do the whole small holder thing and convert it into a chicken run, Veg patch, Flower garden etc.

 

Anyway any suggestions

 

Ian

[ScottishMike]

If you are planning to grow veg and fruit in the garden I'd strongly suggest you don't free range the hens near them

 

Plenty of people have successfully made walk-in runs to house their hens, often with an extended fenced-in 'free range' area that the hens can get access to

 

Don't panic - you can take time looking at how other people have done it, come up with your own design that'll fit your property, then take the time to build it before the hens arrive.

 

My only tip beyond that would be to place it strategically so that there is easy scope to extend/expand it

[Snoxy]

Good luck with whatever you choose Hazel

 

I started off with an Eglu and had 3 girls for around 18 months...now my 14 girls are in a converted plastic shed and my rabbit lives in the Eglu which I was going to sell I had intended to buy a Cube when I got more girls than was suitable for the Eglu and then DH came up with the idea of converting a plastic shed...so far so good

[chicken bark]

I do like the FSF wooden houses.

 

I have two other plastic houses a Green Frog Design one which I cannot recommend highly enough and a Solway which is a bit of an eyesore but good. Actually Solway have just brought a cheaper but smaller hen house out that looks a bit better.

 

All houses get mites etc. I find plastic easier to clean and at least I don't have to maintain the wood. But it is a close call between wood or not.

 

My advice if pushed is go for a Green Frog one.

[hopetofinish]

I can totally emphasise with this problem. The choice seems to be between the cube and the maggie six!

 

The maggie six is lovely to look at and can have the most desirable feature of that automatic door opener.

 

The cube is easy to clean.

 

I am thinking, and I wonder if anyone else has done this... my cube will go on the outside poking in to my WIR, if it butted right up against it, could not a wooden hatch be fitted onto the side of the WIR that would go up and down in front of the cube door. Sure someone must have tried this. Hubby seems to think it could be a goer.

 

Any thoughts or am I totally mad

[Chicken shack]

Hi My friend has kept chickens for years in wooden coups and was trying to to get me to get one then the red dreaded red mite appeared and not only have the hens been covered with the beastly things but so has she. After all her nagging me to get a wooden one she has just purchased a cube to go in her WIR and although she is reluctant to addmit it she is now getting on top of the red mite invasion. Only got my chickens today!

Bluebelle

(Rhoda)

(Jasmin)

(Light sussex) yet to be named

[Snoxy]

Congratulations Chicken shack on getting your chickens

 

Have you any pics we can see?