Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

sammyjammy said:

So pleased for you all, I have no ducks or chickens but love following all the trials and tribulations of your girls (and boys maybe!), it must be so hard when they can't potter around the garden.

Aww, how lovely, thank you.  There is nothing more pleasing than pottering about outside and having a hen or three right by your feet hoping there is a treat or two in your pocket. Most hens just love the company of people and will just jump up and sit on your lap whilst you are having a well earned sit down whilst others will just potter about so near to your feet that you need to be careful when they are around.  I certainly can't wait for Monday now.  I'll take some pics and put them on here.

Thank you for posting.

Edwink x

Glittering_M

So we've loosely measured out an area of the garden for the run (and coop inside that). 

We've marked out 3x5m at the moment, I think it looks a bit small, particularly once the coop will go in. Although I do only want 4 chickens max (with 6 being my ultimate max).

We could make it a little bigger, probably 4x5m but the ground starts sloping and that will make it difficult to build the run.

We want to build it ourselves now as can't find one on the market like we want. We are going to have wire up to about 1.8m and a sloping roof with sheeting on top. So just going through trying to work out where to buy it from. 

Also still not sure what coop I want. I think I've narrowed it down to:
1. raised one from nestera (was Green Frog). 25yr warranty is appealing. 

2. One from I think the cosy coop company, they are promoted by Kate Humble, their door opener is solar powered, but it doesn't come with a stand so I'd have to make one. Also the options are for either 4 chickens or 10-12 I think.

3. Omlet, can't remember the specific one, a raised one, I get 10% off there through Defence Discount Service. 

4. One from Shaneco - medium coop I think 

I know for the run to get as big as possible but how does it work for the house? If I have 4 chickens in one that says 8 medium chickens for example, will they be cold or unhappy. Or is it better to give them a bit more space.

I'm finding it difficult to justify the additional space to my partner as he doesn't understand that the 10sqft is just minimum requirements for the outdoor space, so he thinks 3x5m should be enough. It just doesn't look that big to me. If I say I want a 10 chicken coop but only 4 chickens, it may take convincing. 

Also, they are all so expensive! Obviously I want to get good quality that will last but it is a big outlay. I'd be getting an auto door opener which increases the price but is non negotiable for me.

Ps.any idea where to buy the wood and wire?

edwink

Glittering_M said: So we've loosely measured out an area of the garden for the run (and coop inside that). We've marked out 3x5m at the moment, I think it looks a bit small, particularly once the coop will go in. Although I do only want 4 chickens max (with 6 being my ultimate max). 

We could make it a little bigger, probably 4x5m but the ground starts sloping and that will make it difficult to build the run.

We want to build it ourselves now as can't find one on the market like we want. We are going to have wire up to about 1.8m and a sloping roof with sheeting on top. So just going through trying to work out where to buy it from. 

Also still not sure what coop I want. I think I've narrowed it down to:
1. raised one from nestera (was Green Frog). 25yr warranty is appealing. 

2. One from I think the cosy coop company, they are promoted by Kate Humble, their door opener is solar powered, but it doesn't come with a stand so I'd have to make one. Also the options are for either 4 chickens or 10-12 I think.

3. Omlet, can't remember the specific one, a raised one, I get 10% off there through Defence Discount Service. 

4. One from Shaneco - medium coop I think 

I know for the run to get as big as possible but how does it work for the house? If I have 4 chickens in one that says 8 medium chickens for example, will they be cold or unhappy. Or is it better to give them a bit more space.
I'm finding it difficult to justify the additional space to my partner as he doesn't understand that the 10sqft is just minimum requirements for the outdoor space, so he thinks 3x5m should be enough. It just doesn't look that big to me. If I say I want a 10 chicken coop but only 4 chickens, it may take convincing. 

Also, they are all so expensive! Obviously I want to get good quality that will last but it is a big outlay. I'd be getting an auto door opener which increases the price but is non negotiable for me.

Ps.any idea where to buy the wood and wire?

Hi Glittering

If you are going to have 4 hens with maybe a maximum of 6 a 3x5m run would be plenty of room but as you say you are not sure on the size of the coop yet. To give you an idea our hen's run is just over 3.5m x 8m (12ft x 26ft) which is the whole of their run area as their coop is attached to the run from the outside if that makes sense. Their coop is just over 1.2m x 1.9m (4ft x 6ft) and we have the capacity for 7 perches and add or take away perches as our hen's numbers go up or down.  Their nesting box is not included in the coop size because it is attached to the coop at the side. We have had 24 hens in that space really comfortably.  

In the summer you will find that the hens give each other space and spread out perching on the bars at night so they don't get too hot.  And, in the winter they will snuggle together on the perches to keep warm.

If you were to get a coop the size enough for 8 hens that should be ok for 4 hens.  We looked at them going back a good few years now and I was shocked at the size of some of the coops on sale and the number of hens they were meant to be suitable for. Some were really quite tiny I thought.  I would be happy to house 4 hens in a coop big enough for 8 hens. As said they often snuggle up, especially if it is cold so you wouldn't want the coop too big for just 4 girls. Another thing to consider is if you buy a coop that when sited in place is raised off the ground the hens will have useable space underneath it. So in theory the coop wouldn't take up any space in their run at all.  

With regards to the roof over our run, we used correlated Polycarbonate roofing sheets as they are so easily overlapped when fitting so there are no joins to fix together. We sloped our roof and added guttering so we could collect the rainwater that lands on the roof into water butts. Our hens and ducks have only ever had rainwater to drink and never tap water.  But when they are in Avian lockdown we remove the pipe that goes directly into the first water butt so it goes into our pond instead.  We have 4 water butts which are all linked together with the gutter pipe just directed into the first one in our duck run which is right next door to the hens run. Hope that makes sense.  Having the water butts there saves us having to carry water in watering cans to fill their water bowls up. I have to say that is one of the best things we did because it has ended up being much less work regarding carrying water for them.

I'm going to have a hunt for the pic on my laptop when I get a minute of the hens and duck run we have here to give you an idea of what we have done. It is on one of the posts on this thread but I've no idea what page it is on 🙃🙃🙃.  I was looking for an emoji that was scratching its head but couldn't find one so went for the upside down faces instead 🤣🤣🤣

Edwink x

Glittering_M

Hi Edwink,

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. Sorry for my late response.

I had thought about guttering and collecting the water but hadn't thought about using it for the bird's drinking. Do you put anything in it or just as it?

It is really stressing me out as even if we build our own run, with the coop it is going to be well over £1k and that is without the chickens or any bedding, food etc. As it is a lot of money, I just want it to be right. Also, we've seen the fox in the fields by the house and in the garden over the last couple of days so particularly keen to ensure it is fox proof!

edwink

Glittering_M said: Hi Edwink, Thank you very much for your detailed reply. Sorry for my late response.

I had thought about guttering and collecting the water but hadn't thought about using it for the bird's drinking. Do you put anything in it or just as it?

It is really stressing me out as even if we build our own run, with the coop it is going to be well over £1k and that is without the chickens or any bedding, food etc. As it is a lot of money, I just want it to be right. Also, we've seen the fox in the fields by the house and in the garden over the last couple of days so particularly keen to ensure it is fox proof!

Hi Glittering

It can be a bit daunting I guess when you add it all up cost wise but something like the roof can wait.  If we get another lockdown you could always use tarpaulin or some plastic sheeting to keep them safe from wild bird droppings. Maybe you could sort the permanent roof at a later date. We didn't put a permanent roof on our duck and hens run for almost 10 years, seriously. Once the UK started to get Avian Flu in poultry we used tarpaulin as our runs didn't have a roof. 

With regards to their water, you can from time to time put a little crushed garlic in it as it is good for them, and at other times a little apple cider vinegar. I normally do one or the other whilst they are molting and starting to grow their new feathers. It takes a lot out of a hen when they are growing new feathers so the Garlic and the apple cider vinegar helps with their overall health and also are good for their immune system. 

We do filter the water in several ways. From the guttering, before the water goes down the downpipe we have a tightly scrunched up into a ball shape mass of wire which stops any leaves or debris from going down the downpipe. At the end of the downpipe where it reaches the water butt, we have a little net bag tied to the downpipe hanging inside the water butt which catches any debris that the wire ball lets through. It is just to make sure the water is as clean as possible but saying that hens will gladly and sometime prefer to drink out of any dirty puddle they can find around here. It is so much easier to do than it sounds so I hope I haven't confused you too much.  You could easily get some guttering and maybe the water butts through Freecycle or one of those local groups so no need to buy any. 

I'll do another post about protecting hens from foxes soon and explain what we have done here. 

I do understand that you want to get it right because any responsible person would, like us here. You will want to make sure your girls are safe and comfortable which is fully understandable. 

Try not to stress too much, it will all come together nicely in the end 😊

Edwink x

edwink

edwink said:

This one is taken from the inside of Hoppys duck run and shows her hotel, the 2 huts to the left of that are the hens outdoor huts and the door to the far left is the hens coop door. The hens coop is not actually in the run itself but attached to the side. It's very safe there as it is totally covered in chicken wire including the coop roof. Just gives them a lot more space in the run if they need it.





A rather wonky pic of the hens coop with only their little door open.




Standing inside the run looking out with the duck run on the left.




Inside the hens coop, all mite powder dusted and ready for them tomorrow. For their perches we take away or add them when needed.




From outside the chicken and duck run. Hens coop on the left, then the 2 outdoor huts and then Hoppys hut on the right.




Looking in to the chicken run with the duck run and Hoppys little grey ramp on the right.




I was really hoping to get these pics on here in some sort of order but for some reason I have had a right old hassle getting them on here tonight. Anyway, I am sure you will all be able to piece the coop and run all together so you know what I am talking about :rotfl

Edwink x

Finally found the pics of our hens run and coop and Hoppy's run and hotel.

Edwink x

Glittering_M

Thank you for sharing the pictures and explaining about the water, that's really useful.

I've hopefully got a little bit of time off next week so can do some proper planning.

edwink

Hi everyone

All going here with my girls and our little Hoppy, bless her.  Just ordered some mealworms for them as they are a favourite of theirs and we ran out of them earlier last week, god forbid eh?. We had awful weather here yesterday with really big hailstones so I decided to keep them in their run for the day after seeing the forecast so they didn't all get soaking wet. It's odd with hens because when they are young they have the sense to run back to their run and shelter but as hens get older we have noticed that when it rains they will stand under an apple tree for example with hardly any leaves on it and think they are sheltering from the rain, odd little creatures they are.

Glittering.....How is your planning going?.  Hope you are making good progress and making sense of it all. 

Cheery is not about this month as I noticed on her Simple Living thread that she has taken a month away from the forum to concentrate on things closer to home. Gosh, she has been so busy with everything this past couple of years I often have wondered how she finds the time to post, to be honest, bless her. I have missed her though.

Keep up the good work everyone and do post when you are able to.

Edwink x

Glittering_M

I'm well thank you. I hope you are too? That's interesting what you were saying about the rain!

Currently looking at Flyte so fancy. I know it is wooden which isn't what I originally wanted though.

Current thinking is:
Their Maggie high coop (the 6 one), either in the Maggie run (9 ft one) or the Junior poultry protection one either with or without a connecting panel, so we could have it outside. 

Or we get the Junior or normal poultry protection run (probably 15ft one), with the poly carbonate roof and either the Maggie one inside or outside or another, e.g. the Nestera coop. Obviously, if we did the Nestera one, I'd be worried in case it didn't fit exactly. Flyte so fancy is expensive though. 

I do worry if the 6 would be big enough but ultimately, 6 would be my max number anyway.

I'm now warming to the Idea of getting an electric fence for the garden too, so they'll be able to semi free range. My boyfriend feels a lot happier with that as he works from home permanently, whereas I only sometimes do, so he'd be less worried about them being outside the main run. Obviously I'd have to think about how they'd access the fenced bit, whether through the Human gate, or if we'd put a pop hole in.

I really want a covered, sloping roof. 

I've seen some built in coops but I think they give less flexibility than these for the future. E.g if I wanted a different coop or run.

We did look at making our own in detail, but we really don't trust our DIY skills! Saying that, I'm so indecisive, I'll probably be back to considering DIY by next week!

I think I've accepted it is going to cost over £1k to set up, we've got the savings (although it will come out of our saving for a house fund!). We are hoping to buy the place we live in now in time so wouldn't have to move everything. Still, the cost makes me feel a bit sick!

MysteryMe

Have you tried Facebook market place, you might be able to pick up a decent second hand coop or run etc