# My new coop!



## hellofromtexas (Feb 16, 2014)

My new coop is finished and I'm really happy. I didn't build it myself. A local small farmer built it. I have an injury that wouldn't make building it work out.

It is meant for 3 standard birds as of right now. I am in a area with a hot summer and mild winter. I also can have mild high winds.

It has a removable nest box for easy cleaning and it's an ark tractor coop. I can add a nest box for 20 bucks if I expand.

I can't have more than 4 though or my neighbors may not be happy. Plus the dogs need a bit of a yard. Jedi, my problem child when it comes to chickens, photo bombed one. He's the brown and white dog.

I'm gonna build a pvc pipe covered run to aid with my hawk and dog problem. I don't have any raccoon or possums. Just large packs of dogs/coyote/hybrids there of and a 2 hawks. I wish I could shoot them with a bb gun but that's a felony.

http://www.ranch-coop.com/index.html This is the farmer


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## powderhogg01 (Jun 4, 2013)

there are other options for dealing with hawks. not my specialty, however I will suggest a few things. first suggestion is a moving owl decoy. place it where the hawk will see it, they will likely move away from the area. If you have ravens in the area, getting them to nest ear your property can help keep hawks away. BE AWARE that ravens can and will take out young chickens. so dont free range your younger birds without supervision.
the coyote/dog problem is easy. shoot them. I am unaware of where you live and your local laws, however, I am a hot blooded american, and if a canine of any sort is harrassing my flock, it shall meet the same fate as the ***** and foxes. you will have predators visit your coop, whether you think they are there or not. this coop looks good and secure from everything but diggers, and having a dog in your yard usually keeps them away.
if shooting them is not an option for you, you might consider looking around for a trapper, if they even catch one, the rest will likely avoid the area in the future


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## hellofromtexas (Feb 16, 2014)

powderhogg01 said:


> there are other options for dealing with hawks. not my specialty, however I will suggest a few things. first suggestion is a moving owl decoy. place it where the hawk will see it, they will likely move away from the area. If you have ravens in the area, getting them to nest ear your property can help keep hawks away. BE AWARE that ravens can and will take out young chickens. so dont free range your younger birds without supervision.
> the coyote/dog problem is easy. shoot them. I am unaware of where you live and your local laws, however, I am a hot blooded american, and if a canine of any sort is harrassing my flock, it shall meet the same fate as the ***** and foxes. you will have predators visit your coop, whether you think they are there or not. this coop looks good and secure from everything but diggers, and having a dog in your yard usually keeps them away.
> if shooting them is not an option for you, you might consider looking around for a trapper, if they even catch one, the rest will likely avoid the area in the future


I can't shoot my dog. I love my dog. Even if he is a brown and white problem child sometimes.

For the dog problem, I'm kinda attached to the brown and white problem child of a dog (he's in the pictures) but for strays I have 6 foot fence.

The packs of coyotes/strays do keep *****, skunks, foxes and possum away. Nobody seen one in years. But I nearly hit the dogs alot. They hang out in an old abandon libary and leave people alone and maybe come up to you begging for food.

The hawk and my pet dog are the only two I can't shoot.

My solution is just a covered run. At least for training my dog not to herd chickens but they probably won't be able to free range sometimes, these hawks are freaking bold when it's cold out. They have gotten chased by my cousin's dogs and cats and still come back. The dogs and cats miss, the hawks don't. The owl decoy doesn't work on them. But the hawk has killed a lot of my cousin's birds and she's a couple blocks away

My digging pet predator is bad at geometry... He's been attempting to dig to the neighbor's breeding bunnies for the past 6 months. The only boundary is a chain link fence. I haven't filled the hole though I need to because it's a tripping hazard. He's 1-2 feet off. I don't want to tell he'll never get there...

The run I'm building is going to be out of pvc pipe and it will be a rough 7x7x2ft box that attaches to the coop, covered in hardware cloth and has green house roofing. It's the best thing I can do to protect the flock.


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## powderhogg01 (Jun 4, 2013)

I must have misunderstood about the dogs, no dont shoot your baby. haha. train him to herd the chickens, as long as he does not harm them, a beautiful relationship will form. I have a boxer/pit mix who loves to herd the chickens. I allow it, as not only does the dog get all the birds back into the run, he does so much quicker then I, and as long as the dogs are in the yard nothing come near.
sounds like one heck of a hawk you have, there is the possibility to have a falconer come and capture the hawk in question, as it seems you have a personal relationship with the raptor. 
the run sounds good for your area(mostly predator free), I know it would not hold up to the predators around my place, as my coop nearly got tipped over last year by a black bear. my coop is a 4x8 shed.. its nearly 10 feet tall at its peak, I came home to it only being held up by chicken wire that went over the run, the criminal bear... was found in the pine tree a few yards away. I shot its fuzzy but with a roman candle, and have never seen him again... (boy was that a sight)
my biggest issue here was *****. I trapped a total of 25 in a season, and all of those came from right next to my coop. I live in a very small mountain town, and everyone in town has been delighted at the lack of raccoon this winter.


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## hellofromtexas (Feb 16, 2014)

powderhogg01 said:


> I must have misunderstood about the dogs, no dont shoot your baby. haha. train him to herd the chickens, as long as he does not harm them, a beautiful relationship will form. I have a boxer/pit mix who loves to herd the chickens. I allow it, as not only does the dog get all the birds back into the run, he does so much quicker then I, and as long as the dogs are in the yard nothing come near.
> sounds like one heck of a hawk you have, there is the possibility to have a falconer come and capture the hawk in question, as it seems you have a personal relationship with the raptor.
> the run sounds good for your area(mostly predator free), I know it would not hold up to the predators around my place, as my coop nearly got tipped over last year by a black bear. my coop is a 4x8 shed.. its nearly 10 feet tall at its peak, I came home to it only being held up by chicken wire that went over the run, the criminal bear... was found in the pine tree a few yards away. I shot its fuzzy but with a roman candle, and have never seen him again... (boy was that a sight)
> my biggest issue here was *****. I trapped a total of 25 in a season, and all of those came from right next to my coop. I live in a very small mountain town, and everyone in town has been delighted at the lack of raccoon this winter.


I actually hate red tail but I like the endangered one. They look similar but they have a different diet. The red tail one I can shoot but it looks similar to the endangered one....

The dark morph endangered one eats insects, doesn't touch chickens and fights the red tail (chicken hawk). It comes around summer and fall and lets my birds free range. So if I shoot that one, I shoot myself in the foot and commit a felony for no reason.

But the red tail is a problem. The problem is when the endangered one goes away the red tail comes out and play. The endangered one goes somewhere around Argentina and Peru for the winter. I might need to find a trapper for the red tail though next winter. The endangered one is starting to come back and I want that one to stay.

The endangered one is smaller but that's the only difference.

The endangered one is the reason for most of the reduction in hawk attacks in the summer and spring months for the pacific side and midwest. It won't eat chickens and it fights the others that do. It's endangered due to the use of pesticides killing off it's food.

All my ***** and possums got eaten.

The hawk that keeps the chicken hawk away and only eats insects









The chicken hawk that attacks during the winter


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