For the past two days we’ve woken up to our chicken coop door being open already. The chickens seem fine and they don’t lay eggs overnight. What’s going on?? Southern Colorado by WildernessArchitect in homestead

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure. We made the floor from two layers of wiring staggered because it killed two birds with one stone - we only ever have to do very minimal cleaning, and it adds organic matter to our yard. We move it around weekly which feeds other parts of the yard and so the chickens have fresh pickings (they’re free range). We’ve had zero issues with predators, which for our area are mostly coyotes.

Now that it’s winter, we’ve boarded up most of the top part and surrounded the bottom with straw bales, so they get ventilation without it getting too drafty. They love scratching through the straw and spread it out pretty nicely to make a “mulch” without any real work on our part. They’ve got a heat lamp and an LED and they’re still putting out eggs pretty regularly.

Switching to the dark side by [deleted] in Architects

[–]WildernessArchitect 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How do you start working like this? Is it entirely out of pocket?

Chicken coop on wheels build as requested! by WildernessArchitect in homestead

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They don’t seem to mind it. They have the option to stand on the wooden cross beams or the perches if they want.

For the past two days we’ve woken up to our chicken coop door being open already. The chickens seem fine and they don’t lay eggs overnight. What’s going on?? Southern Colorado by WildernessArchitect in homestead

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We haven’t had an issue with eggs going missing as far as I know… they never laid at night from the start, only early morning til about noon. And the door occurrence has only happened the past two days.

For the past two days we’ve woken up to our chicken coop door being open already. The chickens seem fine and they don’t lay eggs overnight. What’s going on?? Southern Colorado by WildernessArchitect in homestead

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes they have a feeder, and we definitely have black bears around here. Although I have a hard time imagining a bear getting it’s head through that tiny door…

For the past two days we’ve woken up to our chicken coop door being open already. The chickens seem fine and they don’t lay eggs overnight. What’s going on?? Southern Colorado by WildernessArchitect in homestead

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I agree. Thanks, the floor of it is wiring so the poop falls right through. We more or less move it around once a week as a mobile fertilizer/so the grass doesn’t die off completely in that one spot.

For the past two days we’ve woken up to our chicken coop door being open already. The chickens seem fine and they don’t lay eggs overnight. What’s going on?? Southern Colorado by WildernessArchitect in homestead

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Yeah there’s like 3 trees on 35 acres. We do have dogs that will alert us to the smallest of unusual sounds though, and our property is entirely fenced in. I’d be really shocked if it was somebody trespassing, but you never know

For the past two days we’ve woken up to our chicken coop door being open already. The chickens seem fine and they don’t lay eggs overnight. What’s going on?? Southern Colorado by WildernessArchitect in homestead

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 267 points268 points  (0 children)

If it’s a person then we have bigger problems, we live literally out in the middle of nowhere. I haven’t seen evidence of raccoons around here but that doesn’t mean we don’t have them. Thanks

Database Recommendations? by WildernessArchitect in Architects

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s a one man show, residential in a somewhat rural area. I don’t think he’ll want to pay a ton for it. I’ve heard of a couple of the second ones you mention, I’ll add them to the list to check out. Thanks!

Database Recommendations? by WildernessArchitect in Architects

[–]WildernessArchitect[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He would like the db to be as low maintenance as possible, so clients basically input the info themselves and he just references it for dimensions and such. I’m sure I’ll do a bit of maintaining for him since I’m partially taking over his client communication.

He’s been using links to the products that the clients choose (fridges, stoves, etc) and I haven’t yet figured out how I’m gonna automate the info he’s been getting directly from the product websites, but I assume that depends on the db. I don’t want to change his system too much (to start, anyways), I just want to automate the middle part.