Thanks for the welcome!
If anyone is curious about where to find the very best of advice on how to properly raise chickens in your back yard, then by all means visit
http://www.backyardchickens.com/
If they can’t answer your questions, nobody can. If your community allows chickens 9and many do) it really is a very fun hobby in addition to being a very self-sufficient thing you can do for yourself and your family.
Consider that eggs are one of the best sources of nutrition that exist, and that five hens can pretty much guarantee you at least three eggs a day, you can see the benefits, especially in a barter economy...
Our coop is anchored into the ground with concreted 4x4 posts. My two main design criteria were (1) high winds here from the Columbia River Gorge, and (2) the presence of numerous predators here in the ‘hood including a couple of urbanized coyotes and plenty of egg-loving ‘possoms. I don’t want anything digging under the coop so it is permanently mounted in place...in fact I pity to poor SOB who has to dismantle it in 100 years or so...
Cheers folks, and be well!!
>>>(2) the presence of numerous predators here in the ‘hood including a couple of urbanized coyotes and plenty of egg-loving ‘possoms.<<<
We just ‘trapped’ one of those pesky opossums last week...
I have a 12 X 12 shed attached to the North side of my chicken coop where we keep feed and misc. garden tools. I use barrels for feed storage with plywood lids - well, anyway when one of the barrels was empty, Christi didn’t put the lid back on squarely and the ‘possum ventured across the top, trying to find a way into the coop, the lid tipped and dumped him into the empty barrel which was too deep for him to get out of.
Next morning, Christi picked up the lid and screamed - came running to me saying that there was this great big (holding her hands about 3’ apart) animal in there - and said it’s head was big as a basketball..... Of course it was only about a 5-6 pound ‘possum....
After giving the full homeschool education section on the lowly opossum, including how they raise their young, how they play dead as a defense (where the playing ‘possum came from), and how they emit a dead meat odor as a defense since most predators won’t eat dead rotten meat - it didn’t seem right to shoot it, so it is now a resident of a wildlife refuge about 6 miles away... A couple of ponds and a major 4 lane highway to cross to get back here.....
Anyway, class taught, chickens safer and Mr. ‘possum has a new lease on life and a new home.....
http://www.backyardchickens.com/
That is an excellent site.
I don’t have the possoms here, but do have coyote and wild dogs.
They can go through a flock in days and will take the chickens and cats, until the last one is gone.
I do have your wind and building for a 100 years is a good idea, for much of what was built here has blown away.