I'll be raising Buckeye layers at the neighbor's

[2naSalit]

1. Sounds like a good deal...

To have a small cooperative like that. It provides for several families.

Have you considered a light electric fencing set up to keep predators out?

Out here, in Montana, people who have coops and such are finding they need electric fencing to keep bears and other creatures out. When I was a bear safety tech one of my props for public outreach events was a portable/packable electric fence that ran on a D cell battery like the one in your smoke detector, last a couple days. That was more than five years ago so I'm sure there are improvements. My former landlady has a system of portable electric fencing for her horses that is also very lightweight, plastic posts that you can pull up and move with wiring that is more like a strip of webbing or heavy ribbon. I think that was electrified by a small solar panel.

Anyway, those might be tools to consider for the coops' protection, especially from bears and anything that would break in and eat your chickens.

Good luck with that, it sounds worth the effort in many ways.