50 bird mobile coop

[devonbrion1998]

Hi All, I am maybe looking to get 50 p.o.l but my issue is closing them in at night
does anyone have any experience with the auto door open and close gadgets, do they work?
also what's the best way to go with a mobile coop, need something we can tow around the fields as I would like to keep them on some spare pasture

 

[puppet]

One on the Farming Life tonight

 

[Still Farming]

Foxes be your friend

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Electric fence on the mains and buffer feeding

 

[Clive]

Hi All, I am maybe looking to get 50 p.o.l but my issue is closing them in at night
does anyone have any experience with the auto door open and close gadgets, do they work?
also what's the best way to go with a mobile coop, need something we can tow around the fields as I would like to keep them on some spare pasture

https://twitter.com/x/status/1160953801072873472

No dead chickens yet !

 

[Steevo]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1160953801072873472

No dead chickens yet !

Friend of mine has two similar - he says they work really well.

 

[Pan mixer]

They should be good if you delay the opening in the summer from dawn, Mr Fox is often out there very early on.

I have a manual system but truly believe that the only option is electric netting.

In 10 years of having two huts with about 50 birds in each the only problem that I have had with Mr Fox is when he got through the only non-electrified piece in one of the pens. We have a fox trap set up next to the chicken paddock and have caught 4 foxes in it in 2 years, so they are patrolling.

With a 50 bird hut I think that you need more than 1 pophole anyhow - that can be worked with the automatic thing with pulleys and so on but keeping things simple and non-mechanical is probably the best method of longevity for the system.

 

[Still Farming]

We had ferras fencing , sheep netting and buried into the ground chicken netting and fox got in and killed the lot.
They'll have them.

 

[devonbrion1998]

Umm thinking both the auto door and the electric now, We do have a good fox population here and 50 birds are a bit of an investment, might be the way to go

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

We have a very healthy fox population and a fence on the mains.

I don't shut them in at night, after I had big problems with feather pecking in May/June when there was 3 hours of daylight before they were let out. An auto door on a timer is a bit extravagant for my scale.

I've only had a fox problem once, when heavy snow buried the fence and shorted it out.

 

[Chasingmytail]

on wheels - you can get old trailer chassis and put unit on there make it easy for quad to move weekly. If you dont move them they dig. We use a large old electric fence but its not on. The biggest issue for us has been the Goshawk who took a bird every other day. So I made sure the hence was close to the edge of the caravan and put bird netting over the top of the large run. Its hassle but worth it. Cut the net to size, mark the corners. We also use the metal poles for each corner as the wind catches the fence so these are like camping poles to keep it all taught etc. You can use a full electric system. Id recommend one with a gate as endless hopping over is a nuisance and drags it down plus its better for the kids to do. Our caravan had a slatted floor to stop the poo from building up and was made of timber and aluminium sheets and roof. Its too heavy to be moved by quad and that was the first mistake. I only have 12 chickens now and the investment in continually replacing them was too high. I only have eggs for home use now. I was selling a lot and it made money but it took up too much time and replacing birds made it uneconomical.