This group is full of diverse people, pets, faces, sports, and hobbies. I figure some of you might have some experience raising chickens?

In a few months (hopefully), our backyard will finally be done. This is what we get for buying a fixer upper, but so far it's been worth it. Anyway, we have a large area planned behind the bathroom/poolhouse, where we hope to have some chickens for daily fresh eggs. My wife has been doing the research. So far, we are planning on:
- Room for 5-6 chickens
- All enclosed coop and chicken run, to keep the coyotes at bay. Probably wood and chicken mesh all around, with a flip top so we can walk in and get eggs and clean up
- Decomposed granite on the ground, with a hefty drain and a high pressure hose bib nearby

Concerns:
- We have a lot of rats that come up from the adjacent valley. Are rats attracted to chicken coops for the eggs?
- This will be on the shade side of the pool house. Is that ok?
- How bad is the smell? This is downwind from the pool, but upwind from the entrance gate to our property. Is it just a matter of hosing things down frequently, or is it simply a smelly thing no matter what?
- Will decomposed granite withstand a lot of hosing? Or is a layer of pebbles better, bark chips, something like that? Or concrete, but I don't want too much $$ going into this.
- I don't mind some fresh chicken for the dinner table, but my family has already voiced that chickens past their egg-laying prime will NOT be harvested and will become our pets. I foresee the chicken coop getting bigger and bigger as chickens keep retiring on their fat pensions. How long do chickens live past egg-laying? Maybe we'll need a big sign, Manfred's Retirement Home for Senior Chickens.

Manfred

Manfred,

FORGET CHICKEN.

If I lived in USA, I would raise BISONS!

Pedrinho wrote: Manfred,

FORGET CHICKEN.

If I lived in USA, I would raise BISONS!

No bison ped those things are huge and can tear a lot of stuff up in a hurry.



Ok manfred I live In a very rule area and we had chicken growing up. We keep our chicken in a pen probably 20 x 20 with a dirt floor. Six foot tall chicken wire fence. The chicken coop was probably 8 x 10 with a concrete floor. Along one wall was shelves with dividers so to make roughly one foot square boxes with straw in the bottom for the chickens to lay eggs in. During the day we would let the chickens have the run of the far totally free and after dark you would have to go close the chicken building up. Most of the chicken would go back to there building of their on accord but a few we would always have to heard them back. We never had much problems with rats a few mice . The biggest predator problem we had was with raccoons when one of use kid forgot to close the door.

Bison! I bet them are some huge eggs! (I love you, Ped!)

Sorry, Manny. Although I've had chicken poop between my toes, I have no expertise in raising chickens. I can tell you fresh eggs are worth the hassle. They're far superior in taste and quality to store-bought. I have an uncle and friends that raise them and gathered a little knowledge. I also know that it's roughly 12-13 weeks for a chick to become eating size and egg-layers (not sure if that is a correct term/spelling) retire after a couple years. Life expectancy of a "useless" chicken has not been observed under my experience. They've all gone in the pot once they've gone to pot. (I believe that's the origin of that saying, btw)

ParrotHead wrote: Bison! I bet them are some huge eggs! (I love you, Ped!)

Sorry, Manny. Although I've had chicken poop between my toes, I have no expertise in raising chickens. I can tell you fresh eggs are worth the hassle. They're far superior in taste and quality to store-bought. I have an uncle and friends that raise them and gathered a little knowledge. I also know that it's roughly 12-13 weeks for a chick to become eating size and egg-layers (not sure if that is a correct term/spelling) retire after a couple years. Life expectancy of a "useless" chicken has not been observed under my experience. They've all gone in the pot once they've gone to pot. (I believe that's the origin of that saying, btw)

Yep ph you hit the nail on the head when hey stop laying it was time for fried chicken.

Make sure you get all your chickens from the same place too. They tend to not welcome smaller outsiders, and have been known to peck them to death. Don't know if I'm the only one who has had this problem, but I figured id warn you anyways.

Being an official non official member of the ACHA, I'll happily tell you that chickens when kept in any quantity smell like he!!

As far as what to do to remedy the situation, I have no idea. My wife's Uncle's (by marriage) parents are big time chicken farmers for Tyson. Their place just simply smells awful. But, I usually deal with them more on a postmortem basis (although they still stink even then).

Anxious birds awaiting their field trip through a South Georgia chicken plant. Little did they know, their next ride was with me.



Good luck with the chicken house Manfred.

I thought Jackalopes and chicks got along.... Oh wait thats the other Bunny!

Hi Manfredo , if my memory serves me right you have horses ? And you will have experience mucking out stable boxes ?

If you can get your hands on cheap/free woodchip/sawdust from a local sawmill or wood working shop this can be spread on the ground and in the coop. Then it can be mucked out just like a stable and the wood/manure mix can be left to compost somewhere away from your house. Wood needs a whole lot of nitrogen to decompose and chicken nuggets have the highest nitrogen content of any manure which makes it difficult to dispose of , so mixing it with wood chip/ sawdust neutralises that nitrogen and the smell a little .

Another thing worth considering is getting some diatomaecus earth to keep your enclosure and chook house mite and inscect free plus the birds love to dust bathe in the stuff to stay mite and lice free , google has piles of info on the stuff think they mine it in Nevada ?.

Rats are a problem where I live and bait stations are the only thing that keep them under control you can also dig your wire into the ground but it needs to be quite deep as rats are great tunnellers .

On a side note a thread on horses could be interesting ? I'm just starting out with horses I have never ridden but I look after my wife's and sons mares and I've got my new steed arriving tomorrow a Clydesdale gelding that I'm going to use for logging around our property I will post some pics when I get the chance .

Ignore Jason, buy a buffalo!

Thanks everyone. Sounds like this is going to be a very stinky endeavor. Hmm, it may keep the house guests at bay... not so bad!

Farc, FYI the horse(s) are not on our property. They are at the local horsepark, a conglomeration of stables and riding schools. We used to lease one for her and one for me, but then I didn't win the last megamillions pot so we backed off to just hers (and took out a second mortgage lol). But we are muckers to the max! Glad the skills are universal!

Oh man, all we need are more rats! I hate those things. For a while, I kept an old convertible out on the driveway covered with a soft cover, and within a week of driving it, some mother rat would be nesting in the engine compartment. They sure are mean when they have baby rats. Finally cleaned it all up, got the emissions inspected, and cleared out some space in the garage for it.

Do chicken coops attract... snakes? We've got a rather healthy supply of rattlers down in the valley, and they seem to come up to the yard when they are hungry or when babies strike out on their own. How good are chickens at chasing away snakes? My guess is that they'd be pretty good, being sharp at the beak and fluffy everywhere else.

Post the horsie pics on the pet thread. Hopefully Parrot won't mind including some barn animals. I figure that if the animal has a name and isn't destined for the dining table, it's a pet.

Manfred

Manfred wrote: Thanks everyone. Sounds like this is going to be a very stinky endeavor. Hmm, it may keep the house guests at bay... not so bad!

Farc, FYI the horse(s) are not on our property. They are at the local horsepark, a conglomeration of stables and riding schools. We used to lease one for her and one for me, but then I didn't win the last megamillions pot so we backed off to just hers (and took out a second mortgage lol). But we are muckers to the max! Glad the skills are universal!

Oh man, all we need are more rats! I hate those things. For a while, I kept an old convertible out on the driveway covered with a soft cover, and within a week of driving it, some mother rat would be nesting in the engine compartment. They sure are mean when they have baby rats. Finally cleaned it all up, got the emissions inspected, and cleared out some space in the garage for it.

Do chicken coops attract... snakes? We've got a rather healthy supply of rattlers down in the valley, and they seem to come up to the yard when they are hungry or when babies strike out on their own. How good are chickens at chasing away snakes? My guess is that they'd be pretty good, being sharp at the beak and fluffy everywhere else.

Post the horsie pics on the pet thread. Hopefully Parrot won't mind including some barn animals. I figure that if the animal has a name and isn't destined for the dining table, it's a pet.

Manfred

Yep... They are gonna attract snakes. Be careful where you stick your hands. A copperhead taught me that the hard way.

Maybe a big mean Rooster would keep them down. I'm sure someone can tell us.

Kill the rats... That should slow down the snakes. Really, kill em both. That's why farmers aren't too soft on such things. Snakes get their heads cut off and rats get shot. A quality CO2 pellet pistol works well for that in close quarters environments.

I'll talk to my Grandma. They had chickens for years and years in an area that's practically infested with Copperheads and rattlers. She'll know. I imagine her response will be kill all of the nuisance animals. You may also have issues with Coyotes and or whatever else you have around there. I used to night hunt Coyotes in AR when I was a teenager b/c they caused issues with my boss' horses on their way to his neighbors chicken coop. Any stray dogs, mountain lions, bears, or whatever will happily come for dinner.

I still think fresh eggs (and maybe a fresh chicken dinner) will be worth it, but you probably will have to put on your farmer hat and be ready to protect them.

Get a female tortoise color cat. I have one and so did my mom. They are natural born killers. Our neighbors got a nice chicken coop next to our back fence. We had a rat problem for about the the one week it took her to hunt down and kill 4 or 5 of them by breaking their necks and then finally a big ole male she let die in the sun in our back yard. She also gets about 10 to 15 birds per year amd a handful of field mice.