Chicken coops

[honolulu]

Anyone have luck building a basic portable chicken coop? We are thinking of getting about 4 hens. Good for bug control and fresh eggs.
Mahalo, Al

[lquade]

[?]say how large a problem are the mongoose? someone said they lost all their hens when 3/4 grown.. i know the problem is only daytime but how aggressive are we talking about? will they chew through wood or wire? will they climb a wire fense? or are we just speaking of something they can dig under? what about full grown hens? thanks for any lessons or experience in mongoose-ese...

[jade]

The mongoose will not bother the large chickens but they will steal the eggs. We have our chicken in a large chain link pen (used for dogs) and put a roof on it. We then lined the chain link with chicken wire half way up. The mongoose climb them then go over the top with no problem.[xx(] We noticed some eggs missing and decided to set a trap. We caught 9 mongoose within a few days. When you see one, you actually see several. I think we got most of them that were stealing the eggs. They will eat the small chicks. I have had them do that too. You can trap them easily. Hope this helps

Jade

[pslamont]

It's a battle but we are winning with even free range chickens. As stated above, full grown chickens have no problems but chicks are targets to the max and eggs... well, we wrestle over the eggs. I have found trapping mongoose the best way of handling things and don't bother to restrict my hens. Have fun!!!!

Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!

[Hotzcatz]

If the chicken coop is several feet off the ground on legs, then it is easier to care for the chickens and the mongoose can't get in. Ours have wire bottoms so everything falls through and the cage doesn't have to be cleaned out very frequently.

[lquade]

wow thank for all the info. ok the part of the coop i was worried about was the roost area that i put hardware cloth on the bottom. it is about 2 feet off the ground. so mongoose cant chew through. that had me concerned. the girls spent their first nite out there. the run area is again a chain link dog kennel, lined with chicken wire but i wont let them out there until they are alot bigger. i was worried about my banty frizzles that will be small even full grown... thanks again for advice.

[Nalu]

I had originally asked this question when I got chickens about 8 months ago. Since then, I have gradually allowed my chickens more and more free range time without any problems. they have a 5 x8 ft. coop with an attached run about 5 x 20. At night, I have a trap door I close off to the run. In the coop it is a dirt bottom, that I dug down 2 feet and placed chicken wire. The roosting part of the coop is an enclosed structure set about 3 feet off the ground. I have a fenced in yard, and if I'm home for the day, I let them roam about. At the least they get an hour or two at sunset. I've seen mongoose outside of our fenced yard plenty, but not in the yard itself. I have 2 big, loud dogs, so that may be the deterrant. They lay their eggs in the nest which is in the coop even when they are roaming in the yard, so I haven't had any problems with losing eggs. We do have lots of hawks flying over, but they haven't shown interest either. But my dogs go nuts running all over when the hawks fly over, so that might be why. I have 5 Rhode Island Reds and get 5 eggs almost every day. I've definately noticed a richness in their eggs and the color since I increased their freeranging times. Plus they just look so happy roaming around clucking and digging. Their kind of more like pets.[] Angela

[Nalu]

Just wanted to add this link for people interested in chickens. Lots of info here!
http://www.backyardchickens.com/msgboard.html
Aloha, angela

[JayJay]

Mahalo for the link Nalo - great one

JayJay