I would like to see some pens and numbers of chickens per unit.

I'm thinking on having some 6-8 hens and one rooster.

Maybe Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons for eggs.

Any suggestions on predator control?

I didn't explain that enough as to size and quantity of hens.

I would look into building a chicken tractor. I built one and used it, but I have more chickens than can fit in it and just keep them in a coop. Mine was built like an 'A' frame exactly. The top of the a is where the chickens roost and lay. The bottom of A is where they scratch, that is covered in chicken wire. The size of two 4x8 plywood was big enough for 8 to 12 chickens. Move it around the yard to get new grass once in awhile. P.s. I never used the unit in the winter, but I would see very little issues other than those common to all winter endeavors.

Are you wanting full time coop or free range days and place to sleep?

So FF, that would be good for raising chickens as meat chickens mostly?

I have looked at the moveable coupes to fresh ground and grass.

The winter use could be done with throwing in some alfalfa hay on occasion in the yard area.

Its an issue of getting layer chickens that can produce 5-6 eggs a day.

Thanks

tjm: I am looking at either one.

The free range is an issue here with a lot of hawks and eagles.

I have lots of open grass and field area also pines close by.

If I go that way it will be sitting by with the shotgun.

The closed in and run area might be my best bet. A mobile unit like FlyinFinn suggested.

Not for broilers, for laying hens. Something similar to this: http://www.ana-white.com/2012/05/plans/frame-chicken-coop
Mine was bigger, as I used 4x8 plywood as sides of the upper part of the 'A'. Door opens on side to collect eggs from nests. The cat's meow.

Also, the logistics of ordering 6 hens and 1 rooster might be difficult. Unless you plan to hatch your replacements I recommend ordering red sex linked chickens. They lay a nice brown egg and are easily sexed by color at hatching so they send you all hens 98% of the time.

Thanks.

*

My shed is 8'X12' with 9 nests, two feeders and a number of roost poles, with attached 12'x16' wire covered run.
For full time this gets a bit crowded with (works best for about 15) over 20 birds, but when allowing them to run out all day I've had 52 or 53 birds there.
Shed size should be small enough that they can body heat it, but at least 3 square feet per bird, out side run could be 15-30 square feet per bird for no crowding.

Tractor store near you? Birds I have now were Easter left overs that started to molt and looked half naked ugly, I bought them at three?/five? weeks old for $.50 per hen rather than day old at $4.00 each. Or order 20 straight run Buffs.(you will like them better than any Reds) That will give you 6-10 pullets and and 10-14 roosters, eat the roosters and you will lose some birds so you will need the extras.

Thanks again.

Old 10X12 lawn shed barn fits about 35 hens 12X24 run made with 2X4 fencing it's wired so I keep 2 red 250 watt heat lamps on in the winter when it's really cold. Green floor and insolates walls and roof with a vent for in the summer when it gets hot. 60 degrees in there when it's below zero snow still on the roof so it's insulated well. LOL 15 hole nesting box heated water in the winter but they free range in the day all summer long then go to roost at night and get locked up every night.

For that few chickens, I would build a fenced in chicken tractor, with an enclosed roost for the night out of plywood with a covering of tin.
Put it on wheels so you can move it for grazing the chickens, and make things easy to clean up.
I use a plastic silage tarp for the top for sun, rain and snow.

As for predators, you have to make the roost are shed area tight or you will have mink or weasels kill the chickens. That goes for penning too. Some heavier breeds you can leave out as they may not roost in trees, but you have to pen them up at night or you will be feeding everything from fox to horned owls.

I honestly keep a cage trap by my tractor and keep one operating at a slough just outside my yard to pick off skunks to coons before they become a problem. Chickens are a magnet and you will soon discover animals appearing in droves.

If you like birds, the chickens will be pets. I have goldstar that my cats cuddle with and she sleeps with them. It gets personal when predators the state is raising start eating chickens that are looking to you for protection.

As an additional point, you should discover that the bugs start not being as big of a problem as the birds do eat a great deal of them for protein.

Here is a chicken "coupe"....

Mine is similar to Lawdogs. But I have my outside run shorter...so I can tarp it during the winter. The thinner tarp turns it into a greenhouse. Nice and warm and dry all winter.

I hated my Buff Orpingtons. They were loud. Annoyed me so they found a new home down by the river by the park. Owls and fox gotta eat, too.

I agree with FF on the sex links, if you want 5-6 eggs daily you can't beat em.
We have a 5'x12' coop with an attached 10'x12' enclosed run with 10 hens. Can't let em free range around here, mink,fox,coon and hawks.
They wouldn't last a day!

We keep 6 hens and a rooster. I raise meat birds when I switch out my laying flock. That way all the birds are the same age and there is no fighting. If I wanted to raise broilers this spring I would build a "tractor" of some type.

My wife and I built our 8x12' coop with an attached 600sqft fully enclosed run. Currently, we have 21 hens and 3 rooster in there. We do have plans to add a few more hens in the future. I built a fully automatic waterer that will hold a weeks worth of water and feeder that will hold 2 weeks of feed. We free range the chickens most days, but the attached run is nice for when the hawks and eagles get too thick. The key to building a coop is to have more ventilation than you think you will need. The windows help, but I added 22 eve vents which adds an extra 8sq feet of ventilation. I added a 10' skylight to aid in egg production naturally.

This is an outside shot of the coop. I poured a concrete slab and bolted the walls to make a secure structure.


Inside the coop looking at the roost and poop board area. I wanted to make the coop as easy to maintain as possible. The removable poop board (shown unfinished in the picture) helps keep the coop clean. We fill the poop board with 300 pounds of sand and mix in some Sweet PDZ horse stall refresher (to absorbed ammonia). We scoop it out 1x a week and have never had a problem with ammonia or moisture build up.


If you look to the left of the picture, you can see the installed roost boards and as well as the installed removable poop board. In the center of the pic is the external nest boxes. This allows for easy access to collect eggs without having to enter the coop. we do the deep litter method inside the coop. We put 4 bundles of pine shavings on the concrete, and I add 1 wheelbarrow of hay per week. The chickens scratch through the litter and turn it over with their droppings. This creates a nice compost and is relatively maintenance free. I clean out the coop 2x a year this way.


as for predator control, I have 6' welded wire fence that I buried 1' deep. All the fence post are 12' long set in 3' of concrete, so the post and fence is pretty stable. I took a heavy duty bird netting to create the canopy. To help support the canopy, I took 1/2" air craft cable and ran it from the corner of the coop to the furthest fence post with a turn buckle. All the fence post have an aircraft cable running to the reinforced fascia board with a turnbuckle, as well as a cable running the top perimeter of the post for support. In this picture you can see us installing the support wires.

Pintail: Is that blue board insulation on the outside?

I take it the wood floor is just dropped in there so its removable?

Very nice style.

Thanks again folks.

Seniortrap: its pink board underlayment for metal roofing. There is no wood floor in the coop, it is concrete covered with pine shavings and organic matter. The poop board under the roost is essentially a piece of left over plywood that I attached a scrap piece of vinyl flooring. I then took some 2x4's and attached them around the edges of the plywood to create a box to hold the sand. This is a removable tray so-to-speak. I doubt I'll ever need to remove it, but if I need to I can easily.

This Auto feeder I made has an internal slanted floor. and Holds 240#'s of feed.


I framed in the backside of our cow lean to. Framed it in 8 x 12 and insulated it with pink 2" foam. The chicken Yard has wire buried almost 3 feet, the bottom section is buried chain link around and then also buried chicken wire coming up out and around the whole outside yard. We also have lots of hawks, owls and even eagles around our farm. I used $4 totes screwed to the wall with the lids cut out for nest boxs.. real nest boxs are too expensive and these can be cleaned easily. We have had many different types of Layers over the years. mostly all brown egg layers. The initial effort of renting a Trencher and burrying the outside run Wire was well worth the cost and effort. We also have a walk in area, divided like a vestibule for the feed in metal cans and garbage , tools etc.

The best birds I have had over the years were Plymouth Rocks from Hoover hatchery they live a long time and produce a large brown egg.

Here's some pics from my set up. I normally keep from five to twelve chickens, currently have five hens and a rooster. I built the coop myself. There is a 625 sq. ft. pen attached. The coop is on attached 6 x 6 skids and has heavy-duty eye-bolts attached so it can be easily towed to new locations. Not exactly a chicken tractor but we take the fence down and move everything to a new location every couple of years. The pic below is several years old, we had too many chickens at the time and they wiped out the grass. We moved everything soon after.

The old rabbit hutch to the left serves as a place to raise chicks, we buy them when they are a day or two old. It serves double duty as a pen to break broody hens of their broodiness.



The nesting boxes stick out the back.



The food tray and water fount. The water fount sits on a heater base in the winter. It keeps the water liquid down into the single digits. There are three nesting boxes and a storage area on the left for things like heat lamps and small feeders and water founts for the chicks. You can see the roosting areas on the left and right. There are also two diagonal roosting areas up higher on the left for a total of about fourteen feet of roosting space.



A close up of the nesting boxes. Although there are three and they are identical, nearly all hens over the last ten or so years have preferred the one on the right. I've seen three hens trying to lay in there at the same time while the other two boxes stood empty.



I put covers on them in an attempt to make the other nesting boxes more appealing, it didn't work. Now the covers stay rolled up.



I put two glass windows in, one in each side. The openings are covered in galvanized hardware cloth. They are kept down in warrm weather for ventilation.




They are closed up during cold weather.



The chicken door/ramp.




It can be closed up and locked at night.




The two photos above are several years old. The coop and fence have since been moved to a new location and the old chicken door replaced. It was worn out from never being closed. We've never had a problem with predators getting inside the coop at night.






Years ago I put the inside and outside coop lights on a timer to give the hens 15-16 hours of light each day during the late fall and winter months. It made a huge difference. Most of my birds lay an egg a day right through the winter now.



An old oil drum I found at camp. It holds exactly 100 pounds of pellets.



I keep a chart to make sure none of the girls are slacking. Slacking will get you invited to dinner.



The result of all our hard labor.

Nice information Lugnut. Great pictures and explanation.

I see your yard area is open at the top. Do you clip the wings?

Thanks

We do when we have to. Once one goes out the rest soon follow suit.

We haven't clipped the latest batch yet. They are ten months old. Back when they were about five months old one flew over the fence and was promptly killed and carried off by a fox. It happened right next to the fence in front of the others. No more fliers since then.

Plymouth rocks might be this springs chicks... hmmm

There's always a couple of barred rocks in my flock, a couple of Rhode Island reds too.

Meanest rooster we ever had was barred rock, second meanest too, but also had red roosters get bad. Best ever layers I've had were Delawares, easy keepers and long lived. Our Buff Orpingtons started laying a month ago and so far so good they are about the tamest fowl we have raised. They run-fly to us on sight or can be called to come at a run from 150 yards away, kinda hoping they don't wander off more than that.

Had a Production Red that needed a lesson in a sandal smack it took a good whack upside the head to break him from trying to spur me. he walked in circle for a few laps but never tried that again.

Hatched another P-red the next year we were buds when he was growing up then one day he drew blood out of the blue, did not end well for him.

They take pressure cooking well.

Our current rooster is a buff orpington. He's pretty mild-mannered compared to some of our others over the years.

But, he broke bad with me the other day, jumped up on the roosting rail and pecked the back of my hand as I was reaching for another scoop of food. A knock on the head with the feeder scoop and a swat across the coop seems to have dissuaded him from that type of behavior...for now.

our best birds that laid like they were on fire was the Golden comet. Brown eggs and when they start laying look out!

Our Black Austalorps lay really nice brown eggs. The breed hold the world record of 364 eggs in a year.

We have foxes and hawks aplenty but, have not lost any yet. Been 2 years free ranging with the only issue being that they love to move the gravel away from the house perimeter with all the scratching. If you want max egg production feed layer pellets or mash.

Our coops are simple 8x12' frames for the base covered with 1/2"X1/2" wire. 2x2 framed walls covered with vinyl coated chicken wire. Sides can be covered over winter with material of choice. Corrugated metal for the roof. Nest boxes mounted four feet above floor and project out from the rear. These are on wheels and can be easily moved to spread the poo over the field.

Tip: if you get an egg eater and can positively identify her, have her for dinner. Keeping in mind that they are getting enough calcium. If shells are thin add some oyster shells to feed. Most layer feeds have this in them.

Lots of good information.

Thanks

A good tip is, do away with the water tank underheater. And just put the water in a oil pan directly below the Red Heat bulb. Mine just drops down from the ceiling. Easy to fill and clean. And cheaper.

Never use foam insulation board around chickens they will eat it.

X2. This makes me say swear words.

The one version I saw for that was wire on the inside to protect the insulation.

Even putting 1/2 inch on the roof and outside will help both the heat and cold.

Providing you protect the inside from pecking.

I have the walls in the coop insulated with roll insulation and covered with OSB board and the floors with green plywood and the seams are tarred, even with 2 heat lamps going and it being 60 degrees in the coop the roof snow does not melt. I trimmed the bottom of the walls with a wood "mop board" to keep the OSB from getting wet when the wood flakes pick up moisture from them tracking in and out.

or I had a stack of 2" pink board behind one of the sheds, yesterday I was back there and a foot or two is gone up as high as the hens can reach. )
And they have worked up behind the tin on another building as far as their necks are long.

Have to be careful with heat lamps. Just a few days ago a neighbor lost his whole flock due to fire. Figured it was caused by the headlamp.

I used 2" and overlaid it.

A heat lamp won't go poof like a regular bulb when damaged it will toss sparks for a long time when broke at the stem even. Almost lost the brooder house a few years back to a bulb the chicks knocked down. Just made this guard out of some rod material I had in the shop, I sleep better that way.

Most people over think it. No need for insulation, and no need for a light at all except to increase winter time egg production. When I do use a light, it's just a 25 watt bulb. I can buy eggs for less than it costs to just burn a heat lamp bulb every night.
Having both heat and insulation is actually just inviting pneumonia.

How cold does it get in Ohio?

It gets below zero several times/winter. This year had sub zero temps for many days in a row, over a week in one stretch if I recall.

I wasn't going to mention that. I have two screened "windows" that stay uncovered down to about 10F,and no insulation. Birds need ventilation much more than heat. The light is on when I'm in there or if they are cooped up for bad weather, it is so they can see to eat. In a properly sized coop the birds will heat themselves.

I keep fresh wood chips and my coop is vented, I plug the roof vent in the winter but the little door and the door screen is cracked a bit for ventilation. -16 the other morning I think a heat lamp is warranted if the wind is out of the East it rarely is the little door gets shut. My thermostat has a humidity gauge on it also with fresh chips, the venting of the coop and heat lamps I don't have much for problems.

Lugnut, What kind of chickens laid the three redish brown eggs and the green looking one? My wife is getting bored with just light brown eggs.

The reddish brown ones, some speckled, some not, were from our Welsummers.

The green ones were from our Chanteclers and Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers).

Thanks

Lots of ideas to choose from.

Sounds like some working project to start.

Thanks again.