[kev]

The current chicken yard is too small. It gets the job done, but there is no room to plant fig trees or blueberry bushes.

Before my wife and I moved to the farm, with the help of friends and family I we got a 75 feet long by 35 feet wide chicken yard. With 2,625 square feet 100 chickens could fit in the yard and each chicken would have 26 square feet. It is recommended that each chicken have at least 10 square feet in the yard. That is double the minimum needed square feet, but there is little to no room for fig trees, blueberry trees,,,, or anything else.

It is time to build a new chicken yard.

The old yard is 75 feet X 25 feet.

The new yard will be 200 feet long, 100 feet wide on the back end and around 175 feet wide on the end where the chicken house is going to be.

The original chicken house is 6 feet wide X 8 feet long.

The new chicken house is going to be 18 feet wide and 20 feet long.

Planting fig trees in the chicken yard

A few weeks ago my wife, our grandkids, my nephew, his wife and their son and I planted 3 fig trees in the new chicken yard. Saturday, May 17th my wife and I planted a fourth fig tree in the chicken yard. Before everything is said and done, there may be 5 or 6 fig trees in the chicken yard.

2 – Kadota fig trees. Kadota fig produce a green fig when it is ripe.

2 – Brown turkey fig trees. Chances are most people have seen a Brown turkey fig. The Brown turkey fig has been a long time favorite here in the south. If your granny had fig trees, they may have been a Brown turkey fig. These produce a brown/purple colored fig when they are rip.

To go along with the fig trees I want to plant a small orchard of blueberry trees inside the chicken yard. I would like to get as many blueberry bushes as I can fit. To start off maybe plant 5 or 6 next spring.

Why are we planting fig trees and blueberry trees in the chicken yard? To supplement the chickens diet with fresh fruit. Blueberries and figs are packed with all kinds of nutrients. Not only are those nutrients good for the chickens, the nutrients are passed to the eggs. The healthier the chickens eat, the healthier the eggs will be.

The chicken manure is also good for the trees. The manure is deposited a little bit at a time and is not be enough to damage the tree.

Chicken house

Instead of building a new chicken house my wife and I are going to have an 18 X 20 carport put in. Enclose the 4 sides, put in some perches, some laying boxes and we have a chicken house.

The end of the chicken house will be flush with the fence. To keep predators from digging under the wall I am thinking about burying a 4 x 6 treated timber in the ground, then setting the wall on top of that timber. I could always run a hot wire around the chicken yard that would cover everything besides the gates and door. I might even do both. Bury a cross-tie or treated timber under the wall, then run a hot wire outside the wall and around the chicken yard.

The plan so far is to go with 8 foot sides on the carport, then build a lean-to off each side. Enclose the lean-to sides with 1 x 6′s so the chickens have somewhere to go to get away from hawks, out of the rain and out of the hot summer sun. Install a rain gutter on the edge of the lean-to that would direct runoff to drums where it would be stored and used for the chickens.

Timeline

I am hoping to start the new chicken house and chicken yard in June.

In June get the carport installed, some fencepost and drive some tee post.

In July buy two rolls of field fence and start fencing the yard.

Hopefully by August and September the solar panels will be in place and we will be ready for winter. Not that we are goign to use solar to heat the chicken house, I just want the new yard and chicken house complete by the time winter gets here.

 

[Iowa102]

200 by 100 is a lot of roofing, or are you going to leave the top open to birds of prey? That is something to consider so that it doesn't become a feeding ground for hawks, falcons, eagles and owls.

 

[Old Soldier]

That's a BIG chicken yard. Do you have a market for your excess eggs or are you going to raise some layers and a bunch of Cornish Rock Crosses for meat birds?

I don't have a "bird of prey" issue here, (100 miles north of you), is it a problem down there Kev?

BTW, I love figs, they make good jelly!

 

[kev]

200 by 100 is a lot of roofing, or are you going to leave the top open to birds of prey? That is something to consider so that it doesn't become a feeding ground for hawks, falcons, eagles and owls.

That's a BIG chicken yard. Do you have a market for your excess eggs or are you going to raise some layers and a bunch of Cornish Rock Crosses for meat birds?

I don't have a "bird of prey" issue here, (100 miles north of you), is it a problem down there Kev?

BTW, I love figs, they make good jelly!

Hawks are a problem here, but it just comes with the territory. A couple of months ago I lost one of my black jersey giants to a hawk. I found her half eaten inside the chicken yard.

To offset our losses my wife and I bought two roosters:

1 Buff Orpington

1 Australorp

I hope to add a Dominicker rooster and hens after the new chicken yard is built.

In the past 2 weeks the Buff rooster has started crowing.

If 2 or 3 hens go broody every year they will offset our hawk losses. If we lose 10 chickens to hawks, but the hens hatch 20 chicks we will stay on the positive side.

We do not live in city limits so there is no issue with local ordinances. My aunt and cousins might complain. But if you want chicks hatched out you need a rooster. The rooster may crow, but we want a source of chicks besides having to buy them from the feed store.

The long term goal is to have a self-sustaining chicken flock. The rooster will do their thing, and the hens who go broody will pass those genes down. If a hen does not sit, those genes will be culled from the flock.

As for the extra eggs, we can sell the eggs or give them away.

 

[Old Soldier]

Yea, that's pretty much what we do. I have 14 hens and one rooster and collect 7-11 eggs every day. The guys I work with love them and so do the ladies in my wife's office.

Don't have a hawk/owl/eagle problem here although they are in the area. Never lost a bird to them.

 

[kev]

Don't have a hawk/owl/eagle problem here although they are in the area. Never lost a bird to them.

The timber companies cut around here, so there is always some kind of fresh cut open areas. It seems that hawks like to patrol the clear cuts more than forest.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

We've been doing chickens for 6-7 years, & only lost one ( verified ) to a red tail hawk... we keep ours in 4 different "pens" not in yards, so it would be possible to bird net the top of the pens ( which have 6ft tall sides, they are made from old steel corn crib pieces ) MRS caught the hawk in the pen with a chicken, it was too heavy for it to carry off, so it had started trying to eat it in the pen, when MRS came out, it got frustrated & flew off...

we had bald eagles here this spring, but they don't usually stay, & are gone now... but the red tails hang on the power lines of the drive way hunting... I started mowing more of the road & driveway ditches, offering them more varmint access, hoping they find enough to leave our birds alone...

 

[chantrie]

I use shrimp netting my neighbor aquired from a shrimper friend......nylon netting smaller tham an inch, big quantities, and free....to cover my yards.....I've started using the 2"x4" horse fencing for the wire for my poulty yards.....i got about 6 6' rolls that had been smashed up a little for a good price....working on a 150' square one now!

 

[arleigh]

My chickens eat every thing green on the ground They even cleaned up al the cactus apples .
I am thinking of narrowing their yard a bit so I can put a net over it to keep the predator birds out . I caught ravens stealing eggs.
i think one of them injured another then and she died .Gurr

 

[Hardieranch]

We are moving to our ranch in the next six weeks or so. My plan is to have each pen for each breed at first. Before spring of next year each pen will have a fenced in garden area that hopefully the chickens will till and fertilize over this winter. The outer ring will be kept as a "chicken tunnel" to hopefully have the chickens eat any of the biblical proportion grasshoppers that we seem to be getting lately before said grasshoppers can get to the garden. In between each chicken pen will be an open area which will be patrolled by my dogs in an effort to protect chickens from any predators. It's still in the theory/planning stage but that's a general idea of what I hope to accomplish.

 

[Alexanderg23]

1.5 leg hold trap on top of 4x4 post will cut down on hawks. They'll land there before they grab a chicken.

 

[kev]

Update

This past weekend was rather productive.

• My uncle came over with his tractor and auger and drilled 3 holes for me.
• Got a corner post set
• Built three H-braces
• Got field fence installed on one side of the yard, about 180 feet of fence went up.

Seeing that fence go up late Sunday evening gave me a sense of accomplishment. It was like "yes" things are moving along.

Next weekend I hope to get the backside of the yard fenced in. Then I hope to start working on the other long side, which is about 200 feet long.

 

[kev]

Got the first section of fence up.

 

[Runamok]

Looking great kev, thanks for the videos!

 

[DocHoliday]

Very nice man. I'm new to chickens, we just got 6 this year from day old and I got them in their new coop which I built about 2 weeks ago. This weekend I'll have my "paddock" fenced in like you and will be moving the coop to its new permanent home in it. My birds are 100% free range and they will be in a 35' x 35' fenced in area that has all kinds of bushes, grass, berries, etc. When I am home in the evenings and weekends the gate will be opened and they can go anywhere in the 2 acre yard they want. The fencing is mainly to keep them from getting away and to hopefully help keep predators at bay during the day. They say chickens are the gateway drug and they are right, I already have plans for some goats and pigs next year

 

[Micah525]

... My birds are 100% free range and they will be in a 35' x 35' fenced in area that has all kinds of bushes, grass, berries, etc.

By 100 percent free range you don't mean that you're not feeding them feed or grain?

 

[DocHoliday]

By 100 percent free range you don't mean that you're not feeding them feed or grain?

I guess 100% should be clarified. They were given organic non medicated local grain when they were being raised and before they went to the coop. Now that they are in the coop they get let out in the am and locked safely back in the coop at night, during the day they free range and I give them no grains or bought food. If we go away for a weekend I have to keep them in the coop and they are given grain. This winter will be its own challenge since I live in a state that gets a lot of snow, so I'll cross that bridge hen I get there. I'm not completely opposed to giving them a little grain or treat now and then or while I'm away, but the majority of their diet is coming from free ranging, which they seem to love!

So basically they are 100% free range 99% of the time

 

[Micah525]

....So basically they are 100% free range 99% of the time

Impressive. How old are they?

 

[kev]

Building a chicken yard

Backside of chicken yard

This morning was off to a good start. My wife and I slept a little late (I get fridays off), we got up, go the grand kids up - the grand kids are staying with us on and off through the summer, sure beats the step-daughter paying for day care.

We got the trailer hooked up, got everyone loaded up, then headed to Texas electric coop in Jasper to get two telephone pole sections 8 feet long that were dipped in creosote. The poles were first pressure treated, then dipped in creosote.

On the way to TEC we went by the donut shop on HWY 190 in Jasper Texas, the one next to burger king. We got the kids a large kolache to share. I got a ham, egg and cheese croissant and chocolate glazed donut, and my wife Kristy, she got a small kolache and a regular glazed donut.

I had not finished eating by the time we reached TEC. So we sat in the parking lot and finished our breakfast. I was shoving the last morsel of that chocolate glazed donut in my mouth as I walked in the front doors of TEC.

Why did I go with creosote poles? Read this thread - fence post in wet soil.

The corner where these post are going is a low spot. After my uncle drilled the holes with his tractor auger, the next day all but about 1 foot had backfilled with water.

I wanted to make sure these poles lasted a long time, so I am going with creosote in this one corner.

After leaving TEC my wife and I went to Lowes here in Jasper. We bought 7 t-post that are 78 inches long and 4 bags of quikrete.

We got back home, got the grandkids and Kristy unloaded, then it was time to go to work.

Thursday evening after work I used some post hole diggers to open the holes up. When the holes filled with water all but about 12 - 18 inches collapsed.

The end post was a full 36 inches deep. The inside post was only about 33 inches deep. I hit sandstone on the second post. I wanted to go a full 36 inches, but I did not want to dig through sandstone.

I set the end post first. Between the two poles, which one was going on the end? To answer that question I measured all four ends, then used the largest pole for the end post.

The base of the first pole measured 11 inches across. I had to slide it off the trailer then rolled it over to the hole.

One end of the pole was set to the edge of the hole. When I started to pick up the smaller end, I thought I was going to throw my back out. Holy crap that pole was heavy.

After almost getting a hernia, ****ing myself and throwing my back out all at the same time, I got the end of the pole lifted and the other end slid into the hole.

Two bags of quikrete were mixed in a wheel barrel, then the quikrete was poured into the hole. A short oak limb inserted into the hole was used to level the post.

How do you level a sloped pole? I split the difference on 4 sides.

Once the first pole was set I took a break, went to the house, cooled off, checked my email, facebook, foxnews,,, then went outside for my second round of self-inflicted torture.

The planets must have aligned while I was taking a break, because the second post was a whole lot easier than the first. Or I was numb from the pain or just a pinched nerve.

Once the poles were leveled and the quikrete was poured I decided to call it a day.

Saturday I plan on driving the t-post, building the h-brace and getting the fence put up.

 

[62bravo]

We are having a real weasel problem up here in ND. Three people have lost a lot of chickens and my buddy lost all his female Muscovy ducks. My son and the daughter's boy friend just built us a new chicken coop. Good solid floor and heavy screens in the windows. We also lined the bottom of the whole chicken yard with chicken wire. We put 2 x 4 wire 6' high. Lined the bottom 4' with chicken wire and sewed the chickenwire on the sides to the liner on the bottom. Fruit tree netting over the top. We lock them in every night so hopefully we won't lose any.