Just casually came across this. We are getting chickens next week. Never had them before. So anything I should know going in ?
Think about predators - everything: rats, cats, dogs, hawks, mink, snakes, raccoons, foxes, bears, alligators, human thieves etc - depending on where you are. They taste like chicken. Can you predatorize the coop or will you accept a certain rate of loss (be aware that once they know the chickens are there, they’ll be back). And what are you going to do with injured, not dead chickens?
Our run has hardware netting on all sides including the top and under the dirt, and we let them out in the garden to live their best lives when we’re at home. So far this has kept predation down although we have had some curious cats.
Also if you have kids think about whether your chickens are livestock or pets. Ours are pets that lay eggs.
Yeah we have possums that we are slowly whittling down. Only other predators are swamp cats and stoats. The coop should be fully protected but I suppose we won’t know until we get them in.
We have dogs and they know the cows. Will be a bit difficult at the start but they will get used to them. They will know soon enough hopefully. I think dog will get used to them soon enough.
