- #FENCING FOR CHICKEN COOP HOW TO#
- #FENCING FOR CHICKEN COOP PORTABLE#
- #FENCING FOR CHICKEN COOP PLUS#
(Our chickens still have access to some chicken food on the side, so we’re sure they’re receiving all their necessary nutrients.) The chickens get lots of really fresh and healthy food, which means we end up with eggs with the nice dark orange yolks.For a specified amount of time, chickens have access to a certain bit of land to graze, scratch, hunt for parasites and insects, and “clean up.” Then after anything from a few days to a few weeks (depending on the number of chickens, the size of the run, and the type of land), we move the chickens to their next spot. The last thing we looked at (and - spoiler alert - the one we ultimately ended up using) was rotational grazing. Rotational Grazing with Electrical Fencing If it’s left in the same place for too long, you’ll end up with bare soil (and that’s really not what we permaculturists want!). The downside of a chicken tractor is that it needs to be moved around often (usually daily). Take a look here at Joel Salatin’s pastured poultry pen. This works quite well if your land consists of big, flat fields, especially for meat chickens who don’t really fly anyway. When the chickens have exhausted the particular spot of land, you can easily move the chicken tractor to the next spot. Mobile Chicken Coop – also called Chicken TractorĪ third option is to house chickens in a chicken tractor, a moveable enclosed pen that keeps your flock safe from both predators and weather fluctuations.
If you’ve got loads of space and not too many predators, free-ranging could work for you. Many people compromise by supervising the free-ranging of their chickens, and when this isn’t possible, the chickens go inside the fixed run. To protect your flock, a good livestock guard dog, llamas, or alpacas could help, but perhaps that isn’t the best investment if you only have a few chickens or live in an urban or suburban situation. Aside from birds, foxes, wolves, a neighbor’s dog, and even a feral cat could be a problem. Your chickens could easily wander into the open where predacious birds can spot them - here in Spain, eagles are usually the ones stealing chickens, but vultures have been known to do it as well. Free-ranging chickensĪllowing chickens to roam freely is fantastic: they’ll find loads of insects, trim your grass, hunt and peck here and there.
#FENCING FOR CHICKEN COOP PLUS#
On the plus side, you can protect a fixed run like it’s Fort Knox, making it very predator-proof. There aren’t many plants that can safely be left inside a chicken run without extra measures to keep them secure. Be warned - if you’ve got anything growing in that run when you first put the chickens in, it won’t last long! Chickens have a habit of eating and scratching everything that grows until it’s all gone. If you’ve got limited space, a fixed run might be your first thought. Most of them have many advantages, but what works for you will depend on your situation.
#FENCING FOR CHICKEN COOP HOW TO#
When the Sanchitas’ owners came back from their travels, they kindly allowed us to keep their chickens for good! As our chicken system clearly was not a long-term solution (and we still had to return the coop), we did our research and figured out how to keep chickens so it would benefit both us and the land, but also be as little work as possible.įree-Ranging Chickens vs.
#FENCING FOR CHICKEN COOP PORTABLE#
On top of that, the portable chicken coop was quite heavy, so every time we needed a few extra pairs of hands to move that as well. Every time, this task took us half a day to complete. Every time the chicken-run grass started to get scarce, we would remove all the posts and “plant” them again somewhere else.
Our “fenced-in area” was simply an outside surface surrounded by ordinary wire fencing held up by heavy wooden posts. When we were at home during the day, the Sanchitas would free-range, and when we were away and at nighttime, we would lock them in a fenced-in area. They stayed with us while their owners were traveling for a few months. Less than a year after arriving, we got to borrow our first flock: a rooster (Sanchez), and four chickens (the Sanchitas). When we moved to Spain, we had big dreams of having free-range chickens. This is the 2021 update! Building a Chicken Run This article was first published on in October 2017. The eggs of free-range chickens taste so much better as well have you ever noticed how much more orange the yolks are? That’s what we’re aiming for! We also simply love to see happy free-ranging chickens it’s how they get to display their most natural behavior, instead of being cooped up and pecking at one other. Chickens de-bug your garden and turn your garbage into compost, all while providing you with delicious eggs. We are passionate practitioners of permaculture - that’s one of the reasons we got chickens in the first place.
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