day. To do that, you’ll probably need a chicken pen, or run, attached to your coop. You can allow your chickens to free-range (wander wherever they like), but “wherever they like” may be in your garden—or in your neighbor’s garden—or somewhere where predators can attack them. To save their skins—and your infinite vexation—consider providing a fenced-in area.
Chicken runs are traditionally crafted of chicken wire (also called poultry netting), which is a flimsy, 1-inch mesh woven into a honeycomb pattern. If a dog or larger varmint wants to get at your chickens, this lightweight mesh is not going to be a deterrent. If you value your birds, don’t use chicken wire as a barrier. Workable alternatives include substantial posts with attached medium- to heavy-duty yard fencing or sturdy wire sheep panels (sometimes installed two panels high), or electroplastic poultry netting.
If predators, including dogs, are an ongoing headache, a strong electric charger and two strands of electric wire fencing can provide effective but cheap insurance. String one strand on 10-inch extension insulators 4 inches from the ground, along the outside bottom of the run. Using the same type of insulator, stretch another strand parallel with the top of your existing fence. These wires will prevent hungry critters from scaling or tunneling under your chicken-run fence.
Allow at least 10 square feet of fenced run for each heavy chicken in your flock, 8 square feet per light-breed chicken, and 4 square feet per bantam. In general, you can contain your chickens using a 4–6-foot fence, but most bantams and certain light full-size breeds can neatly sail over 6-foot barriers. Keep them in by installing netting over the enclosure.
Straw works well as bedding to insulate the coop.
Location
Don’t create your coop area too far from utilities, especially if you must carry water or run a hose or electrical extension cord from your house, garage, or barn. Place your coop area at a reasonable distance from neighbors’ property lines, especially when setback regulations are part of municipal or county codes.
Choose a well-drained area where storm runoff and melting snow won’t make coop floors and outdoor enclosures a sodden mess. Remember also that your coop area should be close enough for you to enjoy your chickens because that is why you wanted them in the first place.
Building a Cheaper Chicken Coop
If your desire to keep chickens exceeds your ability to buy or build a standard chicken coop, don’t worry: chickens can adapt to simple accommodations. If you keep them dry, safe, and out of drafts, they’ll be happy. Consider the following inexpensive options.
You can build chicken accommodations into existing structures, such as your garage or back porch, the kids’ abandoned playhouse, or an unused shed. Build coop-style quarters, or house your chickens in cages. Show-chicken fanciers often cage their birds in wire rabbit-style hutches.
It’s best to forgo keeping heavy-breed chickens if they must live in cages; continually standing on wire floors will likely damage their feet. Allow 7 square feet of cage floor space for each light-breed chicken or 6 square feet per bantam. Place a 2-foot-by-2-foot sheet of salvaged cardboard in one corner so inhabitants can rest their feet; replace it when it gets soiled. Caged chickens appreciate roosts—affix them at least 6 inches from the floor—and boredom-squelching amusements, such as toys.
A large wooden packing crate fitted with a hinged roof makes a dandy indoor or outdoor coop. Prop the lid open during the day (if you keep flying breeds, you’ll have to fashion a screen) and close it at night. Outdoors, install a latchable dog door in one side and attach a small fenced run.
If appearance doesn’t matter, fashion a funky, cost-effective walk-in coop out of tarps, a welded wire cattle panel (or two), and scrap lumber. It’s amazing what can be done with plastic tarps if aesthetics don’t count.
| Did You Know? If it’s possible for a chicken to hurt itself on something, it will. This is important to remember when building a coop. Get down on your hands and knees—at chicken level—and really look at the finished coop to try and spot chicken hazards, like a stray piece of sharp wire poking out. |
Chicken Tractors
Chicken tractors are lightweight, bottomless shelter pens designed to move wherever grass control and soil fertility are required. They appeal to small-scale raisers, and maintaining a chicken tractor in your garden not only enriches your soil but also allows your birds to supplement their diets with yummy greenery and crunchy bugs, worms, and grubs. There’s a place for a chicken tractor (or two) on most every hobby farm!
Chicken tractors are engineered to move around your yard or farm, usually by hand, to areas in need of enrichment. Size can range from 3 × 5 × 2 feet tall for three or four chickens to a whopping 8 × 12 × 3 feet tall. Usually, the sides are crafted of wood-framed wire mesh, and a hinged roof protects inhabitants from the elements and allows easy operator entry. If you build compact tractors to fit the width of spaces between your garden rows, the chickens will neatly weed and fertilize your garden without filling up on produce while they do it (provide water and feed inside the tractor, and move the unit once or twice a day). Larger chicken tractors can be set atop spots needing more thorough cultivation over longer periods of time. Chickens are day laborers; remove them from the tractor at night.
Owls and Weasels and ’Possums, Oh My!
It’s no fun—for you or your birds—when hungry midnight marauders visit the chicken coop. The best way to thwart potential predators is to lock your birds inside a safe, secure chicken coop at night. Another approach, if it’s legal in your state, is to humanely trap and relocate bothersome nighttime marauders.
After sundown, block or screen in every door, window, and any other crack or portal in the outside walls. To be effective, screening must be small-holed and made of strong material. A mink or weasel can easily slip through 1-inch chicken wire, and larger species can simply rip it down. Choose ¾-inch or smaller mesh galvanized hardware cloth for screening windows and building outdoor enclosures to save your chickens’ lives.
To discourage chicken-swiping predators, install concrete block foundations into coop floors, set at least two rows high. In addition, bury outdoor enclosure fencing at least 8–12 inches into the earth. Make sure the buried fencing is toed outward, away from the fence line. If winged predators, such as daytime hawks or nighttime owls, pursue your birds, cover the outdoor enclosure with chicken wire; for this purpose, it works nicely.
If your birds range freely and you live where chicken-thieving hawks wreak havoc, think camouflage. For example, don’t choose a white-feathered breed. Plant ground cover—bushes, hedges, and flower beds—so that your chickens can hole up in the greenery when predators soar above.
If predators are simply getting into your feed, secure container lids using bungee cords. The key word is secure for both your chickens and their feed.
Chow for Your Hobby-Farm Fowl
While your chickens’ nutritional needs vary depending on age, sex, breed, and use, their diets must always include water, protein, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and fats in adequate quantities and proper balance. All chicken keepers are in agreement on this point. But when it comes to the question of how best to supply all of those dietary elements, it’s a different story.
