How Many chickens Can This House ?Trying to delete

[Just-Moxie]

I use straw piled in the coop. And huge piles of Fall leaves piled in the run. Not only is it deep litter, it gives them more to scratch in. Oh, they love grass cuttings too.

 

[bobm]

My dog chain link fencing DOES prevent the predators around here from entering the coop, and, surprisingly, the bird netting on top prevents hawks and owls from getting in, too. You need to count on chickens getting smart enough to hide from hawks and owls if they free range, and I am not so sure that they all can do that.
Chicken wire fencing is feeble, but might work if you have a strong wooden fence around your yard. Don't have bear and don't live near running water, so ferrets and their relatives aren't around my property.
I only had ONE predator get into a previous bird enclosure when I had strung chicken wire on top, and it failed, so the owl got in and killed two hens. I HEAR both hawks and owls around here. There is an aviary where they raise pheasant about 10 miles from our house and THEY have 4 enclosures with bird netting on top of each of them. They have a wooden fence about 4 ft. high on each of their runs and we often see male and female pheasant perching on the top of the fencing, but inside. They also grow corn for them, which makes a great cover by the Fall, but NO cover for the chicks.
This is their Business and I doubt that they would house them like this if it didn't work.
Not MY opinion, just my observations which cause me to spend over $100 on the netting, which I have secured over the "walls" to prevent any gaps.

Way back when I whent to College. I rented a small farm from a retired farmer who used to raise pheasants for sale to hunters. He had a 100 x 200 foot pen similarly built as you describe. I raised about 100 male Chinese pheasants to hunters per year. Game birds are very flighty,especially when a predator or human is around, so I had a thick cover of milo, corn and sudan grass for them to hide in. When a game bird flushes to fly away, they first fly straight up then away . Occasionally when the pheasants ( quail , etc. ( flush, they hit the top netting or the perimiter fence since they can't see it and on occation break their necks.

 

[Beekissed]

I like the idea of deep litter. Do you use it in the outside run or only inside coop ?

I pile it in both the coop and the run.

I don't have a run but use it in my coops, concentrating composting efforts in the area under the roosts where I can more effectively contain the nitrogen and bind it with the carbon added there.

Chickens in a tractor are not likely to find many ticks...ticks are more likely to live in taller grasses and undergrowth where they can snag a ride on any passing animals. A lawn one can push a chicken tractor across isn't a likely place for ticks.

NY, here's a brief article I put together some years ago on effective free ranging if you are interested: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/bees-key-points-to-successful-and-safe-free-ranging.65895/

 

[ducks4you]

I expect to have a lot of leaves from DD's bc their town just outlawed leaf burning. It's fun to watch them turn that into fertilizer.