Keeping chickens home

I've been working on the wife to let me have chickens.  She is concerned that they will either fly away or be taken by a raptor.  

My backyard is surrounded by a cedar fence six feet high all around it.  I'm going to be putting a chicken coop in on the backside of a out building, it will be blocked from the wind on two sides from the fence and the building.  I live in a residential area in Central Indiana, zone 6.  The wife and I don't see many raptors flying around.  Occasionally a hawk.  We don't have any possums, skunks, weasels, bobcats or anything bigger.  We do have mice and sometimes a rat and a couple of fat squirrels.  But I've been keeping them at bay for the most part.

We don't have chickens, yet, but I'm doing all the research, so i can with confidence  tell my wife how and what I'm going to do.  

I've watched people on youtube and a few friends, with chickens, have then inside a 4 foot fence and they seem to stay within that area.  I don't want to chase down any hens that fly the coop, into a neighbors yard.  So my biggest question is, WILL they fly outside of the backyard?  I'm 70 years old, and I can't run anymore.  Sometimes I can barely walk.  In my past I've raised rabbits and pigs.  So I've been around farm animals a lot.  (Also was a field slaughter-man for a small butcher many years ago, so nothing will make me gag.)

I live in the city, and I know I can have up to 5 chickens and no roosters.  My backyard is like I said, surrounded by a six foot high fence.  My backyard isn't very big,  Maybe altogether, 80x50 feet (with a garage and the out building in that area).  I'm thinking about making the chicken house about either 4' x 4' or 2' x 8'. What would be a good recommendation for 5 hens?    I've looked at many designs for coops and have a pretty good idea how to build one.  (I do have the skills, one is a saw and the other is a drill.  lol )  
I do a lot of gardening, and grow a lot of stuff from raised beds.

So, I think I've said enough.  If you have any questions, please ask.  Oh and this is my first forum posting here, woohoo.  

Great to have you!

I would normally say the 6' fence should keep them in and if you have any fliers, clip their wings. If you don't want to take the chance, you can go ahead and clip all of them when you get them.

My chicken reference is "The small scale poultry flock" by Ussery. If memory serves, he put monofilament fishing line on top of his fences in a Criss cross fashion with colorful ribbons ties to some and that deterred the raptors. He also covers wing clipping in the book.

Welcome to Permies!

I think your fence will be plenty high for your needs in relation to chickens. I would steer you towards larger, bigger bodied, breeds as I know my smaller hens are more flighty and might try to perch up on a fence given the chance.

Welcome to the forums.

Hi Jan,
Welcome to permies!

Just keep in mind that even experienced chicken keepers with awesome coops still lose chickens sometimes. Don't be too hard on yourself if you do lose some at some point. Even though you have not seen many predators, keep in mind that chickens will attract things. You have some good ideas about running fishing line across the top. I also like building a coop up off the ground to give the chickens someplace to hide if there is a winged predator.

I like the method of clipping wings so I don't have to put a top on the pen.

One thing I would mention, especially because you are in the city... the chicken food will often attract rats. Make sure you keep the food in a metal container sealed well. And when you feed the chickens, I do not recommend a large feeder that has food whenever they want. This is a good way to attract rats. I used to just give them their ration for the day and no more. Other people take the food inside at night. Please don;t leave it available all night.

Lastly, if you are not going to have a movable coop where the manure is spread around... make a coop that is easy to clean. Make sure you can reach all the corners and have an easy way to scoop out the bedding.

The best chicken advice I received over a decade ago was "chickens die all the time." Best and most helpful. And those roosters especially died and were delicious!!!

Edited to say: And YES ours always found a way out. Someone even wrote a super cute kids book about the chickens and how they always appear where they are not wanted! Albeit we have a gaggle of kids and they are very generous in giving the chickens backyard city free range time. HA!

Welcome Jan - lots of good and helpful folk here.  Our chickens liked to roost in the tree in their pen, in spite of having luxurious accommodations available.  Also, what is the snake situation in suburban Indiana - the mice/rats attracted to the chicken feed may also conjure up a snake or two.   The eggs alone are worth keeping a couple of chickens.
If green feed got to be in short supply, we sprouted wheat/barley/oats and doled it out a square at a time (it's the same as the wheat grass for smoothies that are sold in the juice bars!) Hope you get your chickens

Thank you for all the advice on keeping chickens.  One breed of chicken that I'm interested in are Red Star Chickens.  Supposedly they have one of the largest eggs.  But what I haven't found regarding them, to get larger eggs, does that require more feed?  I'm sure it does.  So the question is, is it cost effective to go big or go bigger?

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/red_star.html#:~:text=The%20Red%20Star%20(also%20called,it%27s%20called%20the%20Red%20Star.

My wife and I go through about 5 eggs per day, sometimes less.  Being on a KETO diet, eggs are a major part of the menu.  

One of my wife's concern is, what happens when one of the hens dies or becomes sick?  I said we would have fried chicken that evening.  She doesn't think she could eat one of our home raised chickens.  When I was raising my children, I had rabbits.  First meal, and the kids wondered why all the chickens had four legs.  I'm not sure I can pull that off on my wife, and tell her that it's not the chicken we had but a two legged rabbit. lol  

I look forward to all the advice and tips from everyone.  

Since your yard's enclosed, five hens should be perfect. Just watch their droppings, that's the first sign of worms or gut issues. I mix Roostys Dewormer into their feed daily; the garlic keeps the smell down, and the flaxseed seems to make the yolks a lot darker

something to remember is that you won’t always get an egg per chicken per day. they stop laying to molt (and will likely all at once if they are the same breed and age), and even during normal times when every chickens’ laying is ‘on’, individuals will take a day off when their last egg was later in the day. if you really want to be getting 5 eggs a day, (also what my family tends to eat, plus baking), you’ll probably want more than 5 birds.