Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Need to raise some chickens and need help.

Long story short, I need to have some livestock on the property to qualify for a lower homeowners insurance rate.

I don't need to build a coop because there is one on the side of the barn. All I need to do is some renovations to it. That coop is 6' wide by 20' long. It's up off the ground, and has electric in it. I took down the pen that was attached to it when I bought the place, but need one now.

My sister wants to raise about 50 meat birds, but I need to have some here all 'year long, so I was thinking of getting a breed for laying and also that would deal with the cold weather that we have. Maybe 1/2 dz or so. I read that a coop needs to have 2 sq. ft per bird so I *think* the coop is big enough for the amount of birds, but nothing was said about the size of the pen.

I have waterers and feeders, also have an electric fence controller to put around the outside of the pen to help keep predators away.

BUT, I have no idea how large I need to make the outside pen. Any suggestions on fencing/netting? I was thinking about using 1" chickenwire for the sides (72" tall) and fabric poultry/gamebird netting for the top. Gotta have a door because I can't access the pen from the coop unless I want to crawl thru an 18" x 18" opening. That opening does have a flip down door that can be secured.

Any help would be appreciated. I'd don't want to let them free range.