Welcome to The Ridgestead! We are excited for you to follow us along our homesteading journey as we take on new tasks on our mini farm and include our little ones! For our channel we are going to be vlogging everyday life along with instructional videos on what we do for our animals & garden. Everyday is a learning experience for us so we hope you take something from this and we can learn from you also so please comment and give any insight you might have! Thanks for watching!
Stainless steel zip ties are well worth the extra cost, you can fold the ribbon over before cutting it (a specific tool exists) to ensure it doesn't pull back through. It uses a ball to wedge the ribbon into a locked position instead of a standard plastic clicky tab. There is a tool to unlock them, but you can use anything that fits the gap well enough to push the ball back.
You should! We haven’t had to replace or put new batteries in since we installed. Plus this has a timer on it so we can leave it on for as little or long as we need then it shuts off.
Well you could do corn in a container and have beans planted next to it for sure! You wouldn't have to plant the squash then as a cover crop to choke out the grass and feed the other plants! Guess you would be doing 2 sisters.
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I would agree but so far it works! No problems with predators getting into the coop or even trying to get in. It’s when the chickens wonder to the other part of the property we have problems unfortunately….
Definitely won’t last as long as green treated. But when using the compost in the bottom of the run you cant use green treated due to leaching. Cheap fix once they rot out or break!
Hey! We are out of Wisconsin so its not deathly hot in the summer but at that making of this video we didnt get an auto door just yet. But as of right now we still dont have a locking door on the inside coop door. No animal has tried to break into our run and we actually found out that the chickens were being hunted on a different part of our property by a fox. With the coop and run under a camera also we have been predator free by our animals for about 10 months. Now for the other side of our property....not so much.....
If you don't cut off this zip ties...... Just kidding you do you. Oh they do have zip tie pliers that pulls the zip ties tight and clips off the tail ends. Great video
There is enough gap around the door to let weasels, minks, possums and coons easy access. Most animals can squeeze there bodies through any place they can get their head through.
I did a 2 feet deep concrete base for 6m x 3m house and then concrete blocks above and fixed the cage on this - filled in any gaps with cement and sealed the door gaps with wood. Do it right first and no issues - piece of mind is a good one for you and the girls
Very nice! So far so good on our end though. Our predator problem is outside the coop near the woods. So we haven’t had any break in attempts just yet.
What if some creative critter decides go just climb up past the fencing and tear through that flimsy, less than useless chicken wire? Should use hardware cloth!
Chicken wire isn't useless. Pioneers and farmers used chicken wire for livestock for a couple centuries, and chickens aren't extinct. :D Problem areas need to be double wired. We have bears. Not even hardware cloth helps. So I give them two exits out of everything and a sky highway under the arches so they don't get cornered and have more defense than just being grabbed. They figure it out exploring the new coop changes. :)
@@dandeleona4760 I would definitely agree. Also comes down to what predators you have. After finding out our main predator has been foxes this has been more than enough reinforcement to keep the foxes out. Now if the bears started poking their head around here in SE WI that are becoming more prevalent or racoons were getting in then we would really wire this run up!
Nice first attempt at framing. Even if the 4x4 may be pressure treated it’s not a great idea to lay it on the dirt. Soil-bourne fungus eventually will destroy it. Lifting the structure onto six pyramid blocks will help solve this situation. Make sure you anchor it to the blocks.
It looks really good. I keep goats - we're in Ireland so the ground is much wetter! For us, having a floor we can clean is really important, as goats poo and wee a LOT!
Might be too small for a horse. The inside base is probably comparable to a horse stall but the roof comes down too far in the rear where it probably won’t be able to stand up inside the whole enclosure. But I also am not sure what size horses need for a barn! Raise the ceiling a bit and then sure? Haha
Chicken wire keeps chickens in, doesn't keep predators out. The newly added fencing is larger opening and is so short, remember that raccoons are climbers and grabbers ... when one reaches through your openings it will eat your chicken piece by piece...a horrible death. This is just raccoons, so many other predators. Please add at least 19 gauge welded hardware cloth to your entire structure... it is predator proof!
Yup. We have used hardware cloth on our chicken tractor. But since we have more of a fox problem I’m more worried about them getting under than over. So we will definitely have to redo it all In hardware cloth if raccoons become a problem but so far we are lucky.
It may not have been the fox that initially killed it. Set that trail cam up where the rooster roams. If I was a hungry fix and I smelled the carcass I might come get it. Guilt by association only but after the kill.
So we thought possibly the same thing till we caught the fox in the act this past fall and winter. Came right up to the back deck and Cluck Norris sounded the alarm. We had two close calls.
The Guinea are a strange bird. You want to feed the at dusk and in there coop. I use a bell as a diner call or a call of your own. Because once out of coop the may not return. The key is time. They need to know that the coop is there safe zone. When letting them out I would put up a run area that they cannot get out of. You are looking at some time to build in them where they will be safe. Also the do not like going into a dark area so a light in side there coop so the can see it's safe. Matt
Strange is an understatement. We call them african turkeys since we have a large turkey flock that roams the area we see so many similarities. Since this was actually last year keeping them in their coop/run for that extended period of time worked well and they roosted in there every evening till they realized they could cross over to other properties and they would come back here and there.
@@SucessScript at the time with Covid prices it was up there. Think Atleast 750 plus. Wasn’t a budget build that’s for sure…. Could have been cheaper if I didn’t do pressure treated and a fancy door but I wanted it to last. Also wanted the sturdiness because we have some crazy winds and a wooded lot with branches falling.
