by Pajarita » Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:48 am
I don't like cages either but an enclosure built to protect from predators is a kind of cage that I could live with - it is how the downstairs birds live. And, as a matter of fact, that's the kind of chicken coop I plan to have back home -meaning, one with a roof over it- because that is the kind that everybody has there and I never thought of doing anything different. The chickens back home do come out during the day when people are around to monitor the situation but, once sunset starts, in they go for their dinner and roosting -at least, that's the way my grandparents used to do it. My cats NEVER EVER EVER EVER go out and, although my dogs do go out on their own, they do it for minutes at a time and within a fenced-in backyard so everybody is pretty safe. I am a maniac when it comes to safety and insist on the right infrastructure from day one: I have a chain with a combination lock on the gate so the dogs cannot push it open, boards around the ground perimeter of the backyard so the dogs cannot dig under the fence, strong lights that illuminate the entire backyard and motion-sensor ones on the driveway so I can always see where they are when they go out at night, buffer zones in both doors to the house, etc. I try my best not to leave anything up to chance...