Do any anons have experience keeping chibbens?I'm getting myself some soon, I've built a coop complete with a little aviary and will be keeping four chickens in my backyard.My yard isn't too big, the main part is about 40 square meters (400 sq ft), the coop and aviary are on the side of the house where there's another narrow strip of yard.I won't be getting a rooster, the neighbors don't mind the chickens but surely they would mind getting woken up by a rooster at five in the morning (as would I).The yard doesn't have grass, just some large beds with small trees growing there, I'm thinking of planting some greens there.Would like to hear any experiences with chickens. I've read up a lot on the interwebs, but personal accounts are always interdasting.
>>5112831Ask the guys on /out/Theres some proper farmer types there/an/ is mostly furries pretending they dont rape animals
>>5112831Nice. They're quite easy to keep.If you have laying boxes you should close them at night so they don't sleep and poop in them. Chickens poop collects most at night where they sleep.
>>5112831>come to /an/ to vlog about how a fox just attacked my birds and took the entire ass off my chicken but my dog saved the dayI piss on foxes and coyotes dude holy shit. They went hungry today tho.
>>5112833I'm putting a board below the perches so the poop lands there and is easy to clean. I hadn't thought of closing the laying boxes, will the chickens want to sleep there if they're on the floor?
>>5112833Alternately if you put roosts above the entrances to your lay boxes, they will always choose the higher roost bar.>>5112831Chickens are very easy if you have a basic tolerance for stock loss, but if you can’t bear the idea of them dying, you need more advanced biosecurity efforts and anti-predator measures and it’s pretty easy to go so hard in the paint that you make a simple thing difficult.
>>5112834Damn that's harsh. I heard a story here from around town where many people have chickens, they have one of those automatic coop dors that opens at a set time, apparently the fox figured out it opened up at the same time every day and just waited right in front of it to gobble up the chickens.This is partly why I'm building an aviary, so that instead of something like that the chickens can just go outside the coop at all times and I'll just let them into the yard in the morning.
>>5112836I'm building an aviary right in front of the coop, I hope that keeps them safe from predators, but I get what you're saying. It's pretty common here for people to keep chickens and it happens every now and then that someone gets careless.As they say hope for the best plan for the worst.
>>5112839Make it dig proof as well. Hardware cloth is the correct choice over chicken wire.>>5112835It depends, but some birds may choose to sleep in nesting boxes. Providing good roosts like the other guy said may work well also.
>>5112837There’s a high price to pay for free roaming freedom, I have huge geese and a sheepdog on high alert at all times, but they do have a coop they sleep in I lock at night, but I want them to have free roam of my yard and woods and shit.
>>5112843I'm indeed using hardware cloth, I'd read online that it's much better for some reason.I'm also providing two roosts at different heights. I hope that's good enough for the birbs.>>5112847My idea is to let them out in the morning and put them back in the evening, but they'll always be able to go into the aviary (it's built in front of the coop and completely closed off on all sides), except in very cold weather when I'll close the coop door.I don't expect predators during the daytime, I live in a village and there's buildings all around my house, no forest or open field nearby. There's actually a small pig farm next door. We do get martens around here, and foxes may also roam at night. But during the day there's too much going on for them to show up so I think the chickens will be fine in the yard.
>>5113109Should be. Hardware cloth is better than chicken wire because raccoons and other animals cant reach through and grab your birds.If you check on them at night when they're roosting you'll be able to tell if they need any modifications.
Your small yard is going to turn into a chicken manure pit faster than you think
>>5112831I'm a free range chicken farmer Hens will still do a egg song so they could possibly be a noise issue.If you got no enrichment they will get destructive. No grass, no foraging? Their gonna get into trouble. Mone have 2 acres and I still catch them finding Styrofoam to vacuum up Don't ever leave a chicken around Styrofoam or foam board holy shit.I'm a big hippie. I don't like when people just cage birds as egg machines in their side yard. You need to treat them well and treat them like living things. They are gonna need a shitload to do all day if your gonna coop em up.Keep egg boxes tighter than you think.Learn deep litter technique to save yourself alot of cleaning.Have a plan for winter. They can handle temps but you still need to supplement heat if you have long stretches of cold.I'd be happy to any any questions but just a heads up. I'm a autistic weirdo poultry farmer. This is how I live, it's not a business or a hobby Here's1 of my roosters....of like....idk 4....either way here's his asshole.
>>5112831Quit looking at his butthole. He is shy.
>>5112834Why not just hunt em back? Look at this idiot.
>>5112834>I piss on foxes and coyotes dude holy shitExtremely based
>>5112831Keep chickens in a pen unless you want your life to literally be shit. Elevated. Gravel floor. Covered 24/7. 0 water ingress possible.
>>5113991Your life is shit either way man...don't torture birds cause you can't tend em.
>>5114036>torturebirds are relatively unimportant and also dumb as fuck and filthy as fuck to match. people shouldnt have to ruin what little land they have and be guaranteed all other pets being too filthy to let inside to enjoy food self sufficiency.
>>5114054The same could be said of Republicans.
>>5114141>>5114054Thirdie mentality.
