Farmer Joe’s Chicken Ranch

We used to have free-range chickens in the yard, and they loved having three acres to roam.  We handled them frequently as growing chicks, so they bonded with us.  The drawback to that was anytime we were outside, the chickens were quickly there with us following along as if they were dogs.  If we were sitting around the bonfire or on the porch, the chickens would jump in our laps and sit, or attempt to get a piece of anything we were eating.  The other drawback was the poop.  It wasn’t overwhelming, but it was a fair amount.  It just didn’t work well on our painted deck, or on the door mat as we entered or left.

I had a wonderful chicken coop I adapted from an old garbage can lean-to, and had a small fenced area under some small trees for them to forage in.  Letting them in and out each day was easy, as I had made a door with a pull-string handle I could easily reach from outside the coop.

Our problems came from forgetting once to close their door at night, and a raccoon got one of them. Not long after, another was taken by one of our resident eagles in the trees across the street on the dike.

I knew at that point I needed to provide them 24/7 protection as well as self-service entry and exit to their coop. What I came up with was a structure that allowed for flock growth as well as spacious areas to forage.

I found my spot when a small evergreen tree died.  I cut it down, leaving it about 5-6 feet tall, with three heavy branches between the top two feet.  I cleared the area around and used standard wooden fence poles for the base.

I knew I needed to protect against digging predators, so I dug down a trench along the fencing line about one-foot deep and placed the fencing wire down that far.  I reinforced the bottom half of the fencing with chicken wire, which I curved on the bottom to make a small trough, then I spread a bag of quick-drying cement around the trench – not a lot – just enough to harden so a predator couldn’t pull out the wire.  I used this same fencing technique for the entire perimeter of the enclosure.

I made a raised structure with ability to roam below protected from wet weather.  I used old doors from the barn to make it easy to gather eggs from the nesting boxes, as well as a making clean-out a breeze under their roosts.

Here is a picture of the structure at that point.

An entry door for me works and has a small latch, while a small door for the hens is always opened to the protected yard area.  I also spread heavy gauge plastic screening from Lowe’s across the top of the hen yard, securing it with wire clip pliers every 12 inches. The only predator that could have a chance at getting through this would be a raccoon or possum, but the mesh is so strong, it would have great difficulty getting into it (and definitely not back out!)

So, with my roof, I used corrugated metal roofing, installed a gutter and led the outflow down a drainpipe to a rain barrel.

I’ve had the structure in place now for about a year, and it has worked beautifully. We did have something try to get in around most of the perimeter, but it couldn’t make any advancement and ended up leaving without success!

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