We're getting chickens!

failboat wrote: Another potential chicken owner here. We have been talking about it since we bought our house almost 2 years ago. My biggest concern is I am going to be the one who ends up doing all the care and upkeep of the dang things.

logdog wrote: We slide the axle under the rear and move it with the lawn mower every weekend.

So, move it about once a week? Yours looks pretty large, do the chickens stay in there for days at a time, full time, or into a separate coop every evening?

They live in it full time. The lower level is all grass and a ramp goes up to the upper level. One end has the roost with a wire floor (no cleaning!) and the other end has the nesting boxes and food (minimal cleaning, mostly just sweep the mess to the floor). Its nice because the food/water/nests can be accessed with bending down or crawling in the coop. Everything is at waist level. There really isnt much work in taking care of a handful of birds. The coop design keeps cleaning and maintenance down. They are way easier to care for than the horses or even the dog.

pinchvalve wrote: Remember, Chickens kill more people in the US every year than Pitbulls. They are often trained to fight and will turn on their owners in a heartbeat. Viscous, deadly animals. OK, that is completely untrue.

I saw a documentary once about how you cant trust chickens.

DrBoost wrote: supercoop

I see what you did there

failboat wrote: So, move it about once a week? Yours looks pretty large, do the chickens stay in there for days at a time, full time, or into a separate coop every evening?

If I were to let mine go for a week, it would be bare earth and craters (from birds dust bathing) and nothing would come back for months. I have to move mine every day, and the area is going to look ragged for a week. A lot of that has to do with how many chickens you've got in a tractor, I tend to have 4-7 at any time.

A tractor parked for a week invites predators to dig under. Move it every day and they don't dig under nearly as much. Sometimes a little scuff, but that's about it.

A tractor where the birds roost up high out of sight of the predators does a great deal to disuade predators from working the tractor. Not a guarantee, but I can say that the only birds I've lost in mine are those determined to roost down low on the axle.

thanks for the tips.

fasted58 wrote:

DrBoost wrote: supercoop

I see what you did there

Thanks.
I'll be here all week folks.

My neighbor has chickens and four roosters. I love the chickens, but I wish the roosters would at least wait until the sun is thinking about coming up before starting in. I have heard though, that hens can start crowing if there are no roosters around, so I guess there's no getting around the crowing part.

I love watching them chase moths and bugs around the yard.

My neighbors have a dozen or so that roam the neighborhood keeping the bugs in check. Some of them make nice army green eggs.