Enjoy your chickens! And that business about keeping 'just a few'...Ha! :) I started out with three and very quickly succumbed to Chicken Addiction. *G* As for covering the coop/run, I'd provide a solid roof over part of it to protect the birds from wind, weather & sun. You can cover the outdoor part with hardware cloth (please never use chicken wire, it is way too flimsy and won't stop a predator, plus the large holes freely allow vermin to come and go), but with the current climate of Bird Flu hysteria you might want to seriously think about covering the entire run with a solid roof. We are building a new run right now and it's going to have a corrugated steel roof. It will also help to keep out diseases & problems that are carried in wild birds' poop, such as parasites. Where we are, we see the writing on the wall that is going to demand that chicken owners show that their birds are housed in such a way as to protect them from wild bird-borne disease, or risk the government coming in and killing your flock. :( Velvet ~:>

No, not all chicken owners have lost their entire flock to predators.... We have 2 means of keeping our chickens safe. The first is livestock guardian dogs that keep all our animals safe including chickens and ducks. Of course this means the dogs have to have access to the birds, meaning wing clipping would be appropriate for free rangers. Our chicken coop is predator proof, 'cept maybe a bear if one had the notion. It has a cement floor, 2 windows with both 1x2 welded wire & hardcloth 1/2x1/2 wire. The entrance exterior door (for inclement weather) is solid wood, the interior entrance door (for nice weather) is wood frame, with cross-braces and hardwire 1/2x1/2 wire. This wire has been inplace for at least 15 years probably much more. There is evidence something has tried to get in, but has not succeeded as it is stapled well, and the cross braces on each corner & across the center keep it from being pushed in. Works extremely well. Your A-frame sounds wonderful, given a proper floor, but I think I would opt for a design that would utilize the sidewalls better as the bottom corners would be unuseable on an A-Frame unless it was on a high base. Just a thought. Brendasue

Chicken coop bedding material make good fuel for boiler. We design and supply mini boilers + Steam turbine Generators ( 1KW to 50KW). But these are not for backyard coops with 3-10 birds. You are having a professional coop, then you clear the bedding daily. Burn it in boiler to produce steam. The steam is used to drive the turbine to generate electricity. the steam exhaust from turbine is diverted to radiators in winter to heat the space and then return to boiler to produce steam. Power generation capacity depends on the bedding material available on daily basis. So you get power, heat the house and also get hot water from the coop bedding material which anyway you will burn to ash. Why not burn it to get power? Contact mizunbiogas@ymail.com to know more. Best wishes, Mo

I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no chikens miss kitchen, but I do know the internet is a vast and wonderful wasteland of info about everything.... Here is a link that might be useful: For your viewing pleasure