Trying to decide where to put the darn thing now! My vegie garden is quite a ways from the house, a very long walk. While I'm out there every day in nice weather/summer, I don't know if I'm going to really be thrilled to go out every morning when it's cold and rainy. Am I making a mistake putting it out there? I'm even considering 2 coops right now, one out there for nice weather and another one closer to the house for the rest of the year, which is the majority of the year. I really only want the chickens out in the potager May - October.
We have 3 acres. The potager is at one extreme end lengthwise and the house is at the other.
Situating coop in relation to house
Gwendalou, I wouldn't put it out at the extreme other side of your property. When it's cold outside you won't want to venture out that far in the wind and the chill. You also need to put it close to a yard hydrant or some other source of water, so you can fill their waterer from a hose instead of carrying heavy buckets when it's icy out.
Things to think about....
Good advice. I haven't even thought about winter and water. We should be able to clear a path to the barn with the tractor when we're swiping the driveway with the blade. We usually shut off our outdoor spigots in winter to prevent freezing. Right now we have a long garden hose from the house all the way to the barn. In winter ??? We could save milk jugs and wash them out and fill them with water and carry a couple of them from inside the house. Problem is the faucets inside the house are hooked to the water softener so there is salt in the water. The outside water does not go through the softener so it's just plain well water. What to do ???
Here is what I think I'm going to do.
I was going to put this coop (see photo) in the potager (we do have water out there but we turn it off in winter, and that's an excellent point that I hadn't thought of, which is exactly why I keep bugging all of you with good ideas and experience!) for the nice months and then get the randall burkey coop, either the 6x6 or the 4x6 (both on sale right now for great prices!) www.randallburkey.com and put it near the house next to the greenhouse in the original area I wanted to put the chickens.
Then I would move the chickens to the rear closer coop in the rainy months.
But now I think what I'm going to do it get this coop here and put it in the potager when it arrives. Then when the rains come, I'll pick the whole thing up and bring it to a little area right off the deck of the house. There are actually areas there they can free range and hopefully they'll stay off the deck. If not, I can move them a little bit farther.
Now to decide on which size. 3x4, 4x4, or 6x4. I'm leaning towards the 4x4. The runs are 6 feet long and then they are the width of whichever coop you order. So if I got the 4x4 coop, the runs would be 4x6.
Anyone see any big flaws with this plan?
How many chickens do you have, Gwendalou? I would go as big as possible
We have a yard hydrant that doesn't freeze in the winter; it's made for that. The water comes from far enough down inthe ground that it flows no matter what the outside temperature. Once in awhile if it's super cold the handle will stick until the sun hits it, but that's the only real problem. I also got a base heater for the waterers so I didn't have to deal with frozen water. It was a true lifesaver.
If you have a rainy season rather than an icy one, that wouldn't be an issue for you. But you still want to have to carry food and water as short a distance as possible, especially when the days are very short and the weather is foul.
Without a clear mental image of your place it's hard to tell how workable your plan is. I think your chickens would be up on your deck if that were an option; ours range wherever they can get to. But you can always make changes if necessary, especially if the coop is easily moved.
We have 7. It gets cold here and the water in our pond usually freezes every winter. We turn off the water to all the outlying areas normally and still get a broken pipe or two every winter. We get snow off and on. Last winter we had a ton of snow and it would have been a drag to get thru all the snow out to the potager several times a day.
Where did you get your base heater? I'd like to look into that; it'd be handy here.
We're having someone come tomorrow to fix all our irrigation and I'll ask him about a yard hydrant.
I'd put it a moderate distance... not too close, not too far, and downwind. Chicken yards stink after a rain. Not a par-fume I want wafting in my kitchen window. Especially after a couple/three years. A few days of rain and then the sun comes out... hooo-haw, smell the fertilizer.
I think mine was about 60' from the house and that was usually good enough.
I got the AEB heated poultry waterer base from Stromberg's. It will keep either a 5 or 7 gallon waterer - metal OR plastic - from freezing. It was a godsend last winter!
Yard hydrants are good things. You may have to unscrew the hose each evening to prevent it from freezing, but if you drain it well you won't have to.
Shesh where were you guys when i was hauling buckets of water from the house clear across the yard in freezing rain & snow! I near froze my fingers off trying to get waters to the demanding ungrateful chickens.. all snug in their little house, fussing at me bc I opened the door & let the cold wind in. Do you know how hard it is to stand up on a hill that covered in 2 inches of ice while carrying 2 buckets of water? I will be looking into that heated poultry base thats for sure!
I had a long thread about that last winter, Kitten. It was driving me nuts. And the waterer with the heated unit built in does NOT work well, so don't be tempted. It's impossible to fill and then flip right-side up again, especially if your fingers are cold. Stick with the heated bases and the regular waterers.
i will look into that.. i have a heater I stick into the rubber waters for the birds but it is always flipping out when they land on it & shutting off. I'd never heard of heated bases before. If i could figure out how to attach this heater I've got to the rubber waterers I'd be good.. bc I can get teh deeper pans to put it in. I do need to look into all of this before winter. and its already August.. we could have the first snow in October.. really need to start looking.
If you have a farm supply store anywhere nearby they'll either have on or can get one. I ordered mine from Stromberg's because their base is supposed to work with the 7-gallon plastic waterer I already have. Some of the others are described as working only for smaller waterers and/or only for the metal ones.
The information that comes with them says that they should be used in a sheltered location. I don't do that and they still seem fine, but if you have some shelter that would be a plus.
I've heard heated dog bowls work too. I thought about using one when I get ducks but I think I may stick to a regular poultry waterer with a heated base. I'm sure the ducks would like have a heated bath everyday....lol.
shoot my chickens would love a heated bath with little towels for their feet afterwords... I can just see them all lounging on a hay bale with their little feet stuck in the heated waterer & towels around thier necks gossiping about the Roos across the street with the pretty tails.
Great image, greykyttyn!
We have forty or fifty chickens, so a dog bowl won't cut it. Also, especially with the geese, it would get filthy in no time. As it is I clean the drinking trough section every time I refill our waterer because it's full of sand and mud. Poultry can be very messy drinkers!
I think some of them drink with their feet.
Or something....
I just looked up those Stromberg heated base things. It says the cords are not designed to be subjected to rain or snow. So I'm not sure how I would be able to use it. I would need to put it in the covered part of the run and then run a cord from the base unit to an outlet somewhere.
If I kept the cord that's attached to the heater fully in the covered run, it would still get rain/snow on it from blowing in thru the sides, I'd think.
Also, I wonder if there's a chance the chickens would peck at the cord of play with it. I wonder if I could somehow secure it to the wire side of the coop and then run the extension cord all the way to that.
Anyone use one of these in their tractors?
You could run your cord through pvc to protect it from the weather... make a wide cut through a cap, big enough to slide the cord into and seal with silicon caulking. It might take a few applications to close up the cut, but if your cord connections were inside the pipe, I think it'd be pretty well protected from the weather. Don't glue the caps on... they'll fit pretty tight. Just set both ends up on cinder block or something to keep them out of puddling water.
We use pvc pipe for ours, too, and the pipe we have is large enough to accommodate both the plug and the outdoor extension cord that it is connected to. We run the extension cord from our winery to the chicken yard, and once it enters the fencing at the yard it and the heater cord are protected by the pipe up to where the heater cord enters the metal base. Otherwise our geese would have a heyday with it. As I said, we don't shelter our base, either, and so far it's been fine.
How big is the pvc then? Do either of you have photos of your setup?
Greenhouse Gal, you have a winery? How fun!
i ran the cord they the coop for the brooder light this summer.. ended up with Chickens roosting on it like a little swing. i will be looking into pvc pipe for that one also.
DH tacked the wiring in the new coop up against the ceiling; otherwise we too would have trapeze-artist chickens.
The winery is on the back of the garage by the chicken yard fence. He makes wine most autumns, using either grapes or only the juice. He buys them because we don't have enough to make a barrel of wine. We just tried some of his Sangiovese which he made last year and needs to put in oak now. I liked it because it was a bit sweeter than his usual product. Once it breathed a bit it was really tasty. I tried to talk him into bottling some of it now, for me, but that would leave too much air in the top of the barrel for the rest of it, which isn't a good thing. I'll just have to hope it doesn't change a lot in the interim.
yummy.. i've been wanting grapes. My grandpa use to have them. We have great weather for them too.
That's very cool that he does that! How many bottles of wine a year does he end up with? Do you have your own 'label'?
Just take your cords down to the pvc store and fit them into the pipe... That way you'll get what works for your cords, rather than what works for ours. Or draw a tracing around them and fit that over the openings... make sure you've got plenty of room.
Gwendalou, he makes about 115 gallons a year because he usually does two different varieties, but all of his rowdy friends are cutting back on their consumption so he probably won't be making that much any more. This fall he'll probably skip it entirely!
We use 1 1/2" pvc to run our cords through. I'm sure that would work for you; it accommodates the end of an outdoor extension cord, the plug for the heater, and a loop to keep them connected reliably.