ok, slightly refined chicken housing questions for your expert (or otherwise) opinions pls:

[twoGsinBuggerOff]

right, whole new thread for quick poll of suggestions. i can spend a fair bit, but i need to get it right.

i have currently 8 hens, mixed sizes. they are seperate at present but i want one big new house to hold them all. (they are in a cube and a rabbit hutch)
i also want it to cope with expansion as i dabble in a bit of egg hatching.
which will undoubtedly result in some male, er, table birds if you get my drift.

SO

should i get one main house, tall and close to the ground (for the large breeds, like orpys) and one house and run setup to put the boys into?

or

one big house and lump em in together? ()

also; we are rural and foxes dont seem to be a problem (unlike anywhere even vaguely urban these days) but bothe badgers (signs seen of) and mink are a possibility as we are about 3-400 metres from a small river. (uphill)
so right now, security is v lax; they free range all day within a fenced orchard and get locked in at night, before dusk ideally.
DO I NEED TO SERIOUYSLY THINK ABOUT A SECURE RUN FOR THE MAIN HOUSE AND INDEED ALL OF THEM? which i could then attach a broody house to etc.
??

so many questions... so little experience

[overthemill]

i would get something with arun attached and get he biggest thing you could conceive of neding and then go one bigger (like sheds imo).
we have foxes which are rampant and we nearly at the point of giving up

we have 12 hen henhouse and keep 2 in it - size seems ok for those days when they simply have to be confined (most days sadly)

[twoGsinBuggerOff]

yeah, i was thinking of a large secure run into which any/all houses could open. then the door would be open for them to free range all day but i could shut them up safe in the evening before fox-o-clock and anyone taking care of them while away ever would have an easy job too...

[OldGregg]

We're rural, we had totally free-range birds for 5 years and then lost 3 flocks in 6 months to the fox. So be prepared!

Buy the covered run and a henhouse that takes between 16 and 20 birds. I would also say, get a little ark for the broody. You may also need a house that will take up to say, 6 birds, in case of non-acceptance of young upstarts by your old girls!

Btw, if the large, main henhouse is low to the ground for your cochin/orpy, you could put the house on slabs or wire mesh to stop rodents nesting underneath and gnawing their way in.

[twoGsinBuggerOff]

that is precisely the set up i think i want Og... but pricing it all together is a bit much to swallow - and to convince dp to swallow.
hmmm, what about buying what i need now and adding later?

considering i wont get delivery for 6 wks, and by then the chicks may or may not have appeared... maybe i should just get something like the Thicket and be done with it? i could stick a teeny broody ark and run inside the thicket, underneath the house... but then, the orpy and cohin wouldnt be happy, would they?
why cant i make this work??

[OldGregg]

Covered run with low-level house?, it is more expensive than the Thicket but at least those big girls of yours won't break their legs getting out.

[twoGsinBuggerOff]

lolol
are you suyre thats the link you meant to put there?

if so,

well, either way really...

[twoGsinBuggerOff]

this low house and run is a contender... but the run doesnt quite look big enough to stick a broody house/run inside, which i had in mind and im not sure i could attach another house to it for any picked on or bully younguns, nor if i could afford such a house should i need one after spending all that.
but it does look really good... like the pull out floor.

have emailed wells for a rough quote of my ideal setup... am deluding myself it'll be affordable

[pigleto]

Ours always ended up fighting and needed to be separated anyway, so don't throw your other runs away.

[twoGsinBuggerOff]

really?
oh bugger.

tbh, i think the best solution would be to get two of those and put a broody coop/run inside one of them and separate as necessary. but thats megabucks.

[OldGregg]

arf @ using Old Gregg instead of a henhouse!!!

I meant this!.

[OldGregg]

Snap!

[tortoiseSHELL]

PMSL at your link OG! (When are you going back to DONB?)