Any chicken experts on here?

[NetHog]

Do you have a problem with roosters in town or just eliminate them?  In the cities in Mexico you can hear them just before daylight, but they don't go over so well up here it seems.

The local law doesn't allow for keeping of roosters. Since we had sex-links, we had no problems.

[glenn kangiser]

I assumed that might be the reason you had them.  We had some sex-links before also -- at one time or another in the past anyway.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

And they also insinuated that there would be trouble with the neighborhood association that we never asked to join but received and annual bill from none the less.

I hate it when groups of snotty people get together and form little mobs.

I have to stay away from groups like that as I would be inclined to get even.

One of the neighbors acted offended when I first mentioned putting up a fence (an idea we later abandoned because the permits and stupid fees were over $500 before we ever put in a single post)  and I seriously thought about making a fence out of sheet metal and old car hoods.  Where's the devious little devil smiley when you need one?

[Redoverfarm]

HT have you ever considered "multi-flora rose".  I would gladly send them to you if you wanted.  What a thorn in my side.  They smell good one time of the year but after that they are terrible.  First introduced in the US from asia(somewhere) to use a fence row.  It is to the point now they take everything over and are hard to eradicate.  Once filled out they will hold back about anything.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Ah, but this was when we were living in Wisconsin.  No permanent plantings allowed here, and I think the weedy roses would be considered a permanent planting. 

[NM_Shooter]

Okay....

Here is a question for all of you afflicted with chicken fever:

I am building a run / coop in my yard, and want to enclose the top of the run.  We have issues with cats as well as with owls and hawks. 

How large of a run to keep them comfortable for 6 hens, or for 12 hens? 

Do they socialize pretty well in terms of roosting at night, or do they want some seperation? 

Thanks,

Frank

[MaineRhino]

Frank,

I'm no expert, but this is what I have found...

My coop is 8 x 16, with their area being 8 x 8. There is a 4' storage/entrance on one end, and a screened-in porch on the other. Inside they have a few perches to choose from, but usually divide into 2 groups. They usually huddle close together.  I have 3 roosters now. It took a while to weed out the bullies, but life is good now.

They also have a 16 x 12 courtyard attached to their coop. They can go in and out at any time. Put their food & water inside to keep unwanted critters away. The courtyard is surrounded by chicken wire with 2' wide hardware cloth (wire) closest to the ground.

Roosters will help with the cats and hawks, or at least alert the others. My bantams go wild when a hawk is near! The roosters will also fight a dog or cat (small one). They usually won't win, but they will protect the hens, at least temporarily.

Our setup has had up to 30 chickens (tight squeeze), but now we have 15.

[Redoverfarm]

HT you are right about the "permanent".  I was looking at the spreadability that it has.  Within a short period of time you would have it half way across OK.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Shooter, especially if it gets cool at nights, you'll want them to kind of be able to huddle together for warmth.  In the summer, you can leave the windows open in the coop to help circulate the air.  Our permanent chicken coop was about 4' by5', and about 2' off the ground to give them more room (as well as ventilation and shade) in the outside pen.  The outside pen was about 5' by 15', and tall enough that I could (barely) stand up inside to work and to clean.  Granted, they were outside in the yard most of the time during the day.  We had two big branches inside the coop for roosting, and two nesting boxes.  I think the most chickens we ever had in there was about ten, but I would not have had that many if they weren't free ranging during the day. 
There is a photo of our chicken house here: http://homegrowntomatoes.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0 
It is in the "Garden" album.  These pictures are at least 3-4 years old, because they were taken when I was pregnant with dd #2, who is now 3.5.  If I had it to do over again, I'd make the coop bigger, and would have probably made a bigger pen, too... my dad has a nice setup for his chickens.  He used a little 8' by 10' storage shed and he framed a little wall about 4' inside the walk-through door and covered it in chicken wire and made another walk-through screen door to the chickens' space.  He keeps all his feed in the little room, and then the other half belongs to the chickens.  Makes feeding everyone an easy chore.  Then he has two "chicken doors", one to a big pen and one to the outside world.  Instead of putting chicken wire on top of the big pen, he used that mesh shade fabric (the stuff they use sometimes to filter the light in greenhouses.)  It seems to work well, and gives the chickens at least one place outside that they can go when it is just too hot. 

[Sassy]

NetHog, forgot to tell you thanks for posting the pic of your chicken coop - looks nice! 

HG, you chicken coop looks nice, too!  Hey, you never posted any updates pix of your remodel job before you moved 

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I know... I'm terrible.  I just downloaded them from the camera about three days ago!!!  I'll try to get around to it!