2 winter chicken coop / shlters: one earth berm and one portable

[paul wheaton]

Both add strategies to add warmth, and, thus, reduce the food needs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCyRNA4p3Xc

 

[Beekissed]

The first is impractical for egg collection, nor could it keep a chicken in or a predator out, so it has no real application in the actual world of raising and keeping chickens.

The other, though lovely, doesn't address the humidity levels of being parked over "composting" manure, so adding warmth and humidity could also add more chance of frostbite and occurrence of illness in a flock. Seems like properly managed deep litter in a stationary, well-ventilated coop could achieve the same purpose without having to build hay pits and dragging heavy coops upon them.

The cost of the materials alone in building the coop and wasting all the hay could never be recouped in the money saved by less feed given to a flock. And the chickens they have in said coop are not a breed one would choose if one was wanting to save money on feed~BOs eat more and lay less than most other DP breeds, hands down.

 

[paul wheaton]

The first is impractical for egg collection, nor could it keep a chicken in or a predator out, so it has no real application in the actual world of raising and keeping chickens.

I found so much to object to just in your first sentence, I couldn't even read the rest of what you wrote.

And now as I am reading this one sentence, there is just too much to object to about every other word. So I am going to limit my response to:

predator? what predator? With a livestock guardian dog, there is no predator issue. None. Zip. Nada.

Oh, I know that all sorts of people have all sorts of ways of dealing with predators that feature doors, and electric fence and timers and .... well, it's a long list. But once you have a LGD all of those problems go away. And your solutions can be richer.

 

[donrae]

I'm kinda with Bee on this one. My chickens like to roost, not den. I guess it could be shelter from a hawk, but that's about it. When my birds free ranged I never saw them under our cars. Pooping on the porch, yes. Hence the reason they no longer free range.

I also see problems with the second, including the humidity of decomposition and wouldn't ammonia build up? Plus, I'd think having your pretty wood structure sit on those wet straw bales would rot the wood away, and that would be a shame cause it's a pretty coop. Plus, anyone with mobility issues, seems like they'd have problems accessing the coop doors or egg doors.

I have chicken but do not have a lgd. I have two bbds (big black dogs) who keep a lot of things scared away. And I have a pretty secure run. My predator losses have been minimal over the last ten years. Lgds are not for everyone!

I do like seeing out of the box thinking, but nothing shown there looks practical to me.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm sorry you posted something that elicited an opinion that you found objectionable but that is the risk you take on a public forum. I'm also sorry that I don't find a brush pile with a few bricks propping it up to be a viable solution for housing chickens....I can see only a few fitting in there comfortably anyway.

To me, it looks like something a person would build in their back yard with dreams of it being a more natural home for chickens with natural insulating properties. It sure enough may be snug for a rabbit or groundhog to den up in~ but then, they don't lay eggs nor do they need a place in which to place feed in order to get it out of the rain and snow. Nor does one normally need to clean out a rabbit or groundhog habitat to insure they aren't wallowing in their own fecal matter for too long.

Recovering the eggs would mean crawling on your hands and knees and climbing halfway into the recesses of the shelter to collect them....which is probably why no one sees old farms with beaver dam-like coop structures on them from bygone days. Hence the pronouncement that the structure has no working, practical application for chicken husbandry.

I use dogs for my chickens too and I don't have predators either, but many people don't have that resource, nor do they want to use it.

So the first chicken coop may be practical in a yard where they only have a few chickens, they don't mind crawling half way through chicken poop covered ground under said brush pile to get the few eggs they are keeping said chickens for, and they have a dog that won't eat those eggs before they can ever recover them. Very specific conditions, don't you think?

If practical logic is offensive, I have been~ and I must admit without it ever being my intention to be so~ indeed offensive and I apologize. I should have couched my analysis of the coops in question in much less utilitarian statements and probably should have said they were great ideas, but I didn't think they were and so I must tell the truth.

Edited to soften tone...sorry about the knee-jerk snark.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Am with Bee too. People who have an LGD probably have a good sized property, right? At least, I've been told that anything less than 35 acres is boring for an LGD. So could the dog possibly be everywhere in time to save every egg or chicken or chick? And personally, with the amount of snow we can get here, I can't see digging out the hole (assuming I haven't marked where it is at least 6' tall) then crawling on my belly with several layers, going headfirst on the ice and snow to collect a few eggs. It simply isn't practical. HOWEVER, if you made it tall enough to walk into, with a gate at the entrance to keep critters out (but it wouldn't keep mice and snakes out), then it WOULD be more practical. And even more practical in keeping my girls cool in the summer.

Here in Colorado we had a hay shortage. If I was using hay like that out in the open, it would be assumed by neighbors and passersby that it was being wasted, and would be better used for nearby goats, horses and alpacas. And with the dampness and snow in general, again wouldn't be practical.

Paul, you guys did a decent vid but while it might work for you, it just doesn't resonate with me.

 

[pinkfox]

an LGD dosnt solve ALL predator problems...
Ive freinds with various breeds of LGDs, and multiple LGDS who have lost animals to other critters. i know of a great pry that was killed by a pack of coyote, and an LGD who ha to be euthanized after a rabid raccon managed to get its teeth into the dog and severly injure it (it was a marema if i remember right.)
1 lgd could easily cover 1/2 an acre on constant watch but anything larger than that 1 dog cannot be everywhere...
an LGD is an increidbly valuable addition to any farm but assuming youll solve ALL predator problems with an lgd is like saying owning a gun will ensure your home will NEVER be broken into...

coop 1: makes no sense, chickens are a jungle fowl and they roost, its unnatural for them to go underground...a bermed building would be great at ensuring a relitivly stable temperature if its built right, but a tiny little hole in the ground is actually quite unnatural for them...even a nest box is relitivly unnatural...
I also agree that collecting the eggs would be wholey unpractical...youd either have to crawl into the thing OR remove the roof every time to check the den.

its a great design for a colony rabbit siuation, but for chickens...its just not practical.

 

[animalfarm]

I am with Pinkfox and Beekissed on this one.

I personally do not see it as suitable housing for a flock of chickens. It would be buried in snow here, impossible to feed and water or protect the feed and water from varmits. Would attract varmits thinking it was suitable housing for them. Not one of my free range chickens has chosen such a habitat for themselves. I for one would not want to be crawling around in the mud in a rainstorm fetching eggs they laid there either. I am too old to use this shelter plan even if the chickens loved it. I am sorry, but I don't see it saving on feed costs either.

LGDs are not a panacea for predation and do not work on my farm. The dogs have been attacked by coyotes and other stray dogs. They cannot protect chickens and themselves at the same time and have learned to stay close to the house. So unless I build that shelter under my porch, the LGD is not going to help, and then we are back to the first points. To each his own, so while it may work for some, it would not for me.

 

[BarredBuff]

The first is impractical for egg collection, nor could it keep a chicken in or a predator out, so it has no real application in the actual world of raising and keeping chickens.

I found so much to object to just in your first sentence, I couldn't even read the rest of what you wrote.

And now as I am reading this one sentence, there is just too much to object to about every other word. So I am going to limit my response to:

predator? what predator? With a livestock guardian dog, there is no predator issue. None. Zip. Nada.

Oh, I know that all sorts of people have all sorts of ways of dealing with predators that feature doors, and electric fence and timers and .... well, it's a long list. But once you have a LGD all of those problems go away. And your solutions can be richer.

Not to be rude or anything. But that is so far from the truth. Sure they help and all. But its not fool proof...I have a LGD and lost 7 chickens and 2 rabbits this week to pack of large feral dogs.......

Do you have ANY sort of livestock?