Chicken coop in backyard as part of Urban Garden?
Image by kandyjaxx
buh-kawk! you never – ever – see chickens in downtown vancouver. unless they’re dead and wrapped in plastic. portland, you hold many scruffy charms.
Question by james: Chicken coop in backyard as part of Urban Garden?
I live in a small town in northeastern Ohio. We live in the suburbs of the city, and the laws allow us to have chickens. We were planning on having a small coop with maybe five chickens? We were going to add a fence around the bottom of it to allow ample space for them to eat and drink. But in the warmer months allow them to range and run around our backyard. Our backyard isn’t huge but is definately large enough for them to run. We were just wondering what everyone else’s thoughts were? PS: we were planning on our coop looking like this: http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=34685-new-henstein-castle
What do you think? Answer below!
3 Responses to Chicken coop in backyard as part of Urban Garden?
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Great to have a chicken in a chicken coop. Their fertilizer is great for gardens once aged and dried. However they are a a huge mess in the yard, gotta watch where you step and the poop everywhere.
Perhaps you can build them a fenced in area for warmer weather with a small house for shelter so they can roam in a designated area without the mess.
machotti1
May 2, 2012 at 12:54 am
Cute coop. I like the nesting area with the roof that raises for egg collection. That’s what we did, really helped.
I guess I didn’t look carefully, but we found the girls like to roost at night on poles….I assume you have those or something for them. That lower area must be strong and hopefully a way to enclose them at night as raccoons are real buggers. We had dogs who protected the chickens from the raccoons, but other friends have had the *&^%! animals tear back metal siding to get into the coops.
Yes, they are messy with water so daily change or at least proper chicken waterers necessary.
I often thought a rolling wire cage would be great, each day roll it, with the chickens inside to a new area I wanted freed from ground bugs. Never worked that out in my head let alone do it.
Hens are pretty quiet, it is the rooster that gets neighbors upset. As soon as we had a rooster, he was destined for the dinner table as soon as he but on a little weight. Remember the wings must be clipped, one side only so they don’t fly. Winters can be a bit much for them unless you live in a mild climate. It was easier to start with new chickens than trying to carry them through tough winters.
Plenty of straw in the coop to catch droppings and the straw put into the compost pile ASAP or even just dug into the ground. Remember to wear a mask when cleaning the coop as the chicken coop can carry disease.
fluffernut
May 2, 2012 at 1:02 am
The coop will work, though you might want it a bit larger– in the winter they’ll be inside it all the time and will need plenty of room. We have chickens, they roam our back yard freely and not a mess at all. I rarely step in any mess, though our back yard is nearly an acre fenced with chain link. But they do like to range around the yard, I’d suggest Buff Orpingtons as they are really tame, and too heavy to fly so they won’t fly over your fence. Make sure you use wire mesh for the bottom of the pen and sides, if you have skunks or raccoons they will reach through regular chicken wire and can kill the chickens when young. We also had a raccoon dig underneath and go through a gap in the wire we had on the ground and kill two chickens. At night the chickens are helpless and easy prey. When they are young use the chicken pen for them to grow in, when they are nearly grown you can then let them out in the yard. Note that dogs and cats will kill chickens, though none bother our big Buffs at all. The ones that were killed were really young. Have fun, we pick ours up and pet them all the time, really tame and produce lots of eggs.
Jasper
May 2, 2012 at 1:36 am