Before you do anything else build a fence! No, don't get chickens before you have a safe and secure place to put them. Pens are not enough. Raccoons can reach through a wire pen and kill chickens in less time than it takes you read this sentence. Dogs will run around the outside the chicken's pen until your birds are dead or brain-damaged for life. Or they'll push a pen over. Build a fence!
An effective fence doesn't have to be 10 feet of chain link with the bottom 6 inches set in concrete (unless you're worried about chicken thieves. In that case, a good dog that eats chicken thieves but doesn't eat chickens is needed). Probably the best is a woven or welded wire fence with two strands of electric wire - one at the bottom and one at the top. The one at the bottom should be on the outside of the fence 4 to 5 inches above the ground low enough to shock most varmints trying to climb under or through the fence and high enough to weed-eat under without hitting it with the trimmer. The top wire also on the outside of the fence should be placed so a varmint climbing over the fence gets shocked. Make sure you ground the wire fence so the varmint gets a strong shock.
I have also effectively fenced using just four strands of electric wires placed pretty close together toward the bottom. I have seen this fence turn back a full-grown Rottweiler. Electric fences require maintenance and constant testing. If you keep them clean of weeds and grass, well grounded with a copper rod, and use a strong charger, they are economical and pretty fast to build and expand as you add more chickens and need more space. I prefer poly-wire (six strands of stainless steel woven with polyethylene strands): strong, flexible, and easily spliced. Build you fence bigger than you think you'll need. The more space you have, the healthier your birds will be and more flexible the space will be when you start using portable pens and tiecords.
Remember that the fence you build may be the most important investment you make. It is the barrier between your expensive broodfowl and their progeny and the outside world that is hungry for an easy chicken dinner.
The next step is to build your broodpens (if you plan on breeding and raising your own) or flypens (if you plan on just buying fowl and fighting them). Once again, this is a critical step that must be done well so you don't waste time, money, and lose good fowl.
Before building pens, you should realize that strong winds will blow pens over unless they're securely anchored or weighed down. When pens blow over, roosters get loose and quickly find another rooster and start fighting. You can lose many fowl this way, so be aware of this potential problem and take precautions, especially if you live in a windy area.
You can build broodpens to be permanently located in one spot, or portable. The advantage of stationary pens is you can build one large building, partition it into sections (broodpens) and you'll end up with a building that can be wired for lights and is resistant to wind. From a construction perspective, it's fast and you can save money on materials. All the birds are conveniently located so it helps as you feed, water, pick up eggs, etc. The biggest disadvantage of permanent pens is that the fowl cannot access fresh ground and green grass. Permanent pens require that you clean them out at least once a year, turn the ground, and lime it. I suggest that you put your broodfowl in portable pens under shade trees in the summer while you are cleaning the stationary broodpens. You should also spray the building with an insecticide that will kill fowl mites, as they can live in the cracks and crevices in the building and feed on your fowl at night while they are on the roost. If you can seal the building, commercial insecticidal fumigants work well for this purpose. You should clean the building out very well before spraying with chemicals or disinfectants. Organic matter (dirt and other debris) often neutralizes these chemicals and they become ineffective.
Portable pens are probably the healthiest way to manage your broodfowl. In portable pens, the birds can be moved to fresh ground every few days and are able to snag a few insects and graze green grass. However, these pens much more labor intensive, and are susceptible to being blown over by strong winds. During rainy periods, the hens will track mud into the nest and the eggs will likely get dirty, which lowers hatchability.
I have found that a minimum of 5-7 square feet of floor space is needed per adult bird. I usually recommend single mating (a rooster and one hen) so you can identify the best individuals in the broodpen and focus the breeding program around these birds. A pen measuring 4 feet long and 4 feet wide and 4 feet high is sufficient for a cock and hen, but build the biggest broodpens you can afford.
There are many creative ways to single mate hens with certain roosters. I have one friend who fenced an area and tied his brood hens out with tie cords and barrels. He trimmed the cock's wings so he couldn't fly out, then turned him loose with the hens. The hens laid their eggs in the barrels, so he knew exactly what he was hatching. This method saved him from having to move the cock from pen to pen every few days to a different hen.
Portable pens should be strong yet lightweight a difficult combination to design and build. I have made nice 5' x 4' pens using treated 2 x 4's for the base and a four foot arch from side to side with 1x 2 inch mesh welded wire or v-mesh wire. I cut two pieces of welded wire for the ends. If you use really stiff, heavy gauge wire, you won't need any bracing on the ends. However, if you use the 2x4 inch mesh wire, it doesn't have the strength the support the roof and sides without bracing on both ends and across the peak. Attach a wooden frame on one end for your door and cut the wire out, then cut out a new piece of wire slightly larger than the frame for the door. You can hinge it with wire and fencing staples. An arched roof needs roll roofing or a heavy duty UV-resistant fabric covering, and it should extend completely to the base on each side, to provide protection from sun, wind, and weather. Commercial poultry houses use this type of fabric for their side curtains. Other materials will work, but may need more maintenance. A framed, rectangular and sloped roof is most easily covered with sheet metal. Remember that whatever type of pen you build, you'll need at least two sides for protection against the weather. In most places in the USA, it is best to have the open side of your pens toward the east, as we rarely get severe weather from this direction. Provide shade on the southern side in the summer, and protection from cold from the north in the winter.
Broodpens need good nest boxes. A good nest is one that is big enough for the hen to move around comfortably. A minimum of 9 x 9 inches is needed for a game hen. A threshold is needed in the front to keep the eggs from rolling out. You'll want to put straw in the nest, so the threshold must be tall enough to keep both the straw and the eggs inside. A nest also needs a roof overhead to keep everything dry. I have used milk crates and five gallon buckets and everything else imaginable, but I still prefer a wooden box. You should place the nest where you can get the eggs easily and to check a hen's progress when she's hatching chicks.
One of the most interesting things about our sport is the many different ways we do everything from breeding, pen building, feeding, and the list goes on. The above advice is based on my experiences and is intended to serve as a guideline for a beginner to get started in the right direction. Good luck!
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