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Do you have more photos of the ventilation? If one were to illustrate the exchange of cool and warm air like in the below guide, does the rising, moist, warm air from the chickens' breath have anywhere to go, or does it get trapped at the peak of the roof...

Was this actually a polycarbonate roof, or was it PVC? Poly roof panels are designed (and usually manufacturer warranted, if installed per their specs) to hold up to things dropping on them, to not get brittle from UV, etc...especially just in a couple years. It's usually the PVC panels that...

Frostbite is more of a moisture problem than a temperature problem. Those folks most likely don't have enough ventilation in their coops to deal with all the moisture from the chickens' breath and poops. Even in the northern parts of Alaska, Canada, Nordic countries, etc., chickens do just fine...

I'm getting my first chicks soon (have always gotten pullets in the past), so I've been researching BYC and compiling similar lists myself. (Just a disclaimer that I'm not speaking from experience, just from what I'm planning to do at the moment.) You should have corid on hand either way so...

Thank you very much!

Question for aart or anyone else who knows: what is the tool on the right called? Thx!

Yes, I'm planning on hardware-cloth-ing each panel individually so we can move them as needed. And using a separate piece for those removable panels in case we someday want to attach a coop. All gaps between panels will be covered as well of course. I want zero gaps because black snakes are a...

Run Update: I actually ended up getting a larger budget approval from my partner, so I'm going with kennel panels! :wee (Note: ignore all the extra accessories in the stock photo for the roof kit above.) I bought two 5x10 Tractor Supply Retriever kennels and two 10x10 roof kits, which will...

What a great setup, thanks for sharing! I'd be very happy to have such a setup. Those 83% light panels really do keep things nice and bright, I'll have to keep that in mind. Indeed, those rats were a total nightmare. I love rats as pets or out in the wild...but they poop and pee SO MUCH. So...

Those are some industrious rats! Good to know that an apron may not be as effective as buried HC. Although I also know from experience that putting pavers on top of the HC actually reduces the effective range of the HC by a foot, so you'd need 3-4' of HC skirt instead of 2-3'. Rats...

Neat, do you have a coop/run thread? I can't find it on your profile but I probably just didn't look back far enough. I believe the idea is to help them differentiate between what they poop on and scratch around in, vs. what they lay in and don't disturb too much. (I've never tested the theory...

Using J-clips on hardware cloth is such a good idea that it almost seems obvious in hindsight. Thanks! And your setup is also very clever, turning 2 10x20s into a 30x20. Good to know that yours seems to be handling extra weight with no issues. I do plan on wrapping the whole thing (anything...

That's a great point, thanks! I'll look around at some used or on-sale coops and playhouses to see what's out there. I'm also going to contact the zoning office next week to double-check that my reading of the ordinance is correct, that the coop is the only thing with a setback requirement and...

Sadly, no.

I've been reading a ton of reviews of these kits, and I'm leaning towards the peaked roof style like yours. It definitely looks like bracing will be needed, especially along the ridge pole. For the version that is 2 sections long, I saw that someone used a vertical chain-link fence pole with the...

Hi Victoria, thanks for stopping by! And thanks for the great write-up of your design process, it's been a huge help. And I do apologize for my huge walls of text, haha! I'm using the term "open air" to mean that it has an open front and partial openness on the sides (except when covered for...

The Plan I'd like to turn one of those crappy metal frame chicken runs into a fully predator-proof open-air coop. This "Vevor" brand run seems like a promising starting point. (Link to their web store, but it is also sold on Amazon). Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions for how to...

I'd make that hen the matriarch of your son's new flock, so he doesn't have to give up that connection (or at least, not right away). We had a very dominant brahma hen (not a bully, just the confident, capable queen of a small roosterless flock) who was the sole survivor of a predator attack. We...

I'm in the mid-Atlantic (Maryland, near Baltimore). You're going to want to start with wood chips, most likely. They help with drainage, which is going to be important when we get heavy rains. The lowest-maintenance option is definitely the deep litter method. If you've ever done a compost pile...

Wowwww, I'm so thankful for this thread and the linked ones! I've been eyeing Sandhill for a couple years now, planning to order from them eventually. But it looks like I'd been overlooking some pretty significant red flags.