Creating a run, help please.

If you have an external mounted nesting box a 4x4 chicken coop will easily and happily support 6 large fowl birds. I'm a fan of the Purina chicken hutch design. I've a variation of it in 4x7 mounted on runners so I can pull it about.

http://www.mansfieldfeed.com/news-updates/build-your-own-chicken-coop-2014-02-3056

Lower on page in above link is a tumbnail of plans you can click to enlarge. The corners and floor plan are ingenious really-change the timber to 2x3's and use 2x2 for the plywood floor rest. I don't worry about the ladder as birds do well with two roost at same low height. I put mine about 14-16 inches above planned bedding level. You'll find the coop does not need to be 4 feet tall, the plywood dimensions can easily be shortened by 1 foot. I also used 3/8" plytanium sheathing for nest box and sides. Made lighter and have grooves every 4 inches for detail.

Problem with this design is the nest box is too high. High nests birds want to roost in in lieu of actual roosts. It also plans for 3 nests which is rediculus- 2 nests for amount of birds this coop can support. That means the door can be moved to side and a two nest external box put beside it. If planning on 4 inches of bedding (pine chips) then make all openings 6 inches from floor. The frame work for nest box can be made from 2x2's also.

I've got weasels in my area and also wanted a lighter coop to move about. For the roof I used 2x2's to screw to and covered entire thing with hardwire cloth. Then screwed metal roof on direct to 2x2's so the high hats acted as vents and no weasel could climb in. Anywho, think light and it will become moveable. If you use 2x4's everywhere and 1/2" for walls and a timber roof with plywood you ain't going to move it. All that is not needed structurally anyway. You can make the roof all acrylic roofing too. It's cheap enough in short lengths at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Here's a link to my last coop build for some ideas:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1036728/my-4x7-weasel-proof-moveable-coop-for-about-300



Huge fan of electric poultry netting. Seriously, you should do it. With little snow in coastal WA you could use pos/neg poultry netting right through winter. If you have chicks to raise then raise them up in a small caged area, It could even be made of your free chicken wire and 2x2x8 sticks of lumber and the electric set up around that to keep out predators. once large enough they are ready for the electric pen alone that can be moved about with the coop (if you make it light enough) to fresh grazing every few weeks. I'd think a 50' net with electric hotgate would be enough for as few birds as your thinking. I've got the space here so have 164' net and love it. Birds go in when 3-4 months old so are large enough to deter birds of prey. Obviously there will be areal attack at some point but first year was success. Hawks abound where I live, plenty of field mice to keep them happy so they don't need to risk injury by attacking another large bird.

In reading this thread the only thing I think you may want to consider is you are renting. That means that you may need to move the hen house with you if you make life changes like buying a place etc.

With that said the advice I will give is to make it so that if you do need to get it through a gate you can. I personally had several small coops and sadly had to demolish them instead of being able to sell them when I went BIG.
I have established large shrubs that prevent taking part of the chain link fence down to move a coop through. The gate was the only option and did NOT work for the small coops.
I am going to add a couple pics of what I could and could NOT move through the gates. It may give you ideas on how to make your coop.


This is the front of the 4x4 coop. It did NOT fit through the gate and weighed so much it took 4 large men to move it into place once I built it.

This is a 4x6 coop that lol I built inside a large run for some chicks to grow in. Also NOT able to get it out of the yard at all. To heavy and WAY to big to lift or shove more than a couple inches.

This is the back of the small 4x4 coop. I include it so you can see the clean out door. I really liked this little coop. The feed dish was one for bunnies and hung on the inside of the clean out door. Super handy to have it there.

This is how I did a roof on another small coops run. This coop was able to be moved. I built it with the intention of being able to break it down for moving it. It was 4x8 including run. The run was 2 foot tall with a sliding lid. The coop itself was built much like the 4x4 coop with the exception of materials used. I used siding on this one while the one I could not break down had 3/4 inch ply as the walls. I put it together with screws making sure the walls were removable by building them then screwing them to the base.

How you make it will determine if you can move it. I sold this little one to some folks that wanted a small chicken tractor.
I am not sure I have other pics of it. If you want details I can try and help you out.

I have 7 right now. still enough space but I don't think that I could add any more.

Bridebeliever said:

On the top of your run you can run fishing wire back and forth in a zig zag and then hang things (like CDs) from it so the Hawks see they don't have a clear flight area to get at them.

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I got a chook house and run which I removed from the previous owners' place. The run was covered on all sides with aviary mesh (I'm not sure if that's the same thing as hardware cloth) and the "roof" was just supported by zigzagged aviary wire from the support posts on the sides of the run. the smaller-grade wire mesh isn't heavy, you don't need any great support for it.
Quote: I've just got a new house and it was moved from the previous owners' place. They had used screws in the construction instead of nails, and it could be broken down into panels/bits by unscrewing. I had a carpenter pull it to bits and reassemble it at my place. It might be more expensive to use screws, but if you will want to move it, steer clear of nails and use removable hardware. Design it as panels (ie a long wall into 2 "bits, not just one enormous wall), use removable hardware, and you should be able to move even quite a big house.

21hens-incharge said:

In reading this thread the only thing I think you may want to consider is you are renting. That means that you may need to move the hen house with you if you make life changes like buying a place etc. With that said the advice I will give is to make it so that if you do need to get it through a gate you can. I personally had several small coops and sadly had to demolish them instead of being able to sell them when I went BIG. I have established large shrubs that prevent taking part of the chain link fence down to move a coop through. The gate was the only option and did NOT work for the small coops. I am going to add a couple pics of what I could and could NOT move through the gates. It may give you ideas on how to make your coop. This is the front of the 4x4 coop. It did NOT fit through the gate and weighed so much it took 4 large men to move it into place once I built it. This is a 4x6 coop that lol I built inside a large run for some chicks to grow in. Also NOT able to get it out of the yard at all. To heavy and WAY to big to lift or shove more than a couple inches. This is the back of the small 4x4 coop. I include it so you can see the clean out door. I really liked this little coop. The feed dish was one for bunnies and hung on the inside of the clean out door. Super handy to have it there. This is how I did a roof on another small coops run. This coop was able to be moved. I built it with the intention of being able to break it down for moving it. It was 4x8 including run. The run was 2 foot tall with a sliding lid. The coop itself was built much like the 4x4 coop with the exception of materials used. I used siding on this one while the one I could not break down had 3/4 inch ply as the walls. I put it together with screws making sure the walls were removable by building them then screwing them to the base. How you make it will determine if you can move it. I sold this little one to some folks that wanted a small chicken tractor. I am not sure I have other pics of it. If you want details I can try and help you out.

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Thank you for your thoughtful response. We do have chainlink at our rental and were able to take a small portion of the fence down when we moved our kids play structure into the yard. Im going with the 4x4 and the simple run as opposed to the Garden Coop specifically so that I can move it. The Garden Coop is 6x10 and the coop and run are connected using a frame of 2x4s so it would definitely not be as moveable.

potato chip said:

I got a chook house and run which I removed from the previous owners' place. The run was covered on all sides with aviary mesh (I'm not sure if that's the same thing as hardware cloth) and the "roof" was just supported by zigzagged aviary wire from the support posts on the sides of the run. the smaller-grade wire mesh isn't heavy, you don't need any great support for it.

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No. Hardware cloth is woven wire mesh. Comes in sizes by number or by fraction of inch to say size of open square in weave or how many to an inch, also varying gauge of wire. It's very expensive if used for any sizable area and typically reserved for small openings on coop to keep out weasels. Aviary netting would be like what is put on cherry trees to keep birds from eating the fruit.

Egghead_Jr said:

No. Hardware cloth is woven wire mesh.

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Aviary mesh is also wire mesh. Like this. http://www.bunnings.com.au/whites-wires-90cm-x-25-x-12-x-1-2mm-x-10m-medium-aviary-mesh_p3040083 I thought that what you call "hardware cloth" is what we call wire mesh or aviary mesh (it's aviary mesh when the squares are little, you can have bigger squares, and you can buy it in different gauge wire, so it's flexible or quite firm depending on the gauge of the wire it's constructed from), I've always been confused by the use of the word "cloth", but I'd thought I'd figured out that your 'cloth' is our 'mesh'.

We can also have fly mesh which is so fine that insects can't get through it. That can be made out of polyester, or aluminium or you can get really tough "pet mesh" which animals can't easily wreck by clawing on it.

The stuff you use to keep birds off we call 'bird netting'.