Building the ideal chicken run

Becketts quacks said:

I love your post and especially your ideas about recycling the inside areas. However, I have ducks, and I have a great idea for their "pond" (on a raised area with a ramp up to it and a plug at the bottom), but also need plan for building a fence. I want to use wood poles and probably the plastic poultry fencing. I have dogs that watch out for the ducks so nothing gets in. They are secured in my back yard with an underground fence. One of the dogs is a jack russell, and he can hear a snake crawling through the grass, a shrew in it's tunnel. I have no rodents, opossum, snakes or fox because of him.
I currently have a 50' x 25' area fenced in around the front of two 10' x10' x6' kennels to allow the ducks some area for exercise, and foraging. It is with metal fence posts I got from my brother and poultry wire. What I would like to do is build a nice duck yard, that is divided to allow for one to rejuvenate while they are foraging living in the other, and I love the idea of maybe relocating them down by the blackberry bushes so they can get some of the fruit. I have ideas for a green leafy garden for them this year. My idea, based on what I've seen in the area, is a wood fence with poultry plastic fence, and a gate! I'm not a carpenter, but I can certainly follow directions, and I live near a Lowe's. Does anyone have a link to a plan for building this type of fence?

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ARose4Heaven said:

Security is an issue well addressed, but MY problem is making the run dry. Every run I've ever had turned into amid bog every rainy day. How do u combat that?

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rosemarythyme said:

Assuming you don't have drainage issues/standing water issues, look into deep litter. It doesn't make the run dry so much as allow for drainage while providing a drier mat on top for the chickens. Over time, it should help improve the soil quality underneath it so even if the occasional puddle does form, it shouldn't be as muddy and should absorb into the ground more readily.

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ARose4Heaven said:

In the past, (in Iowa) I found that deep litter tends to become slippery when wet. Would pea gravel work in a run, the way it does on kids playgrounds?

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rosemarythyme said:

What materials were you using that it was slippery? Chunky wood chips should be the main material IMO, especially for drainage. If there's too many dried leaves or fresh cut grass thrown it, they can get slippery. I only add more leafy/grassy materials when the existing stuff is fairly well broken down.

I haven't tried sand or gravel, however I have gravel outside the run. I don't let the chickens hang out on it because I'm concerned that eventually enough poop would work its way between the rocks to start forming a wet, stinky layer.

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Chirpy said:

Here's a picture of part of our run (it's not finished in this picture but gives you an idea):

It's a lot like Wynette's except that we buried our 1" chicken wire almost 18" into the ground. We also used cement with our 4x4 posts and spaced them 8 and 1/2 feet apart. Our run is six feet high so we can walk into it, I don't have it covered at this point as I have goats in with my chickens and the hawks have thus stayed away. (Not to mention the dogs and cats "guarding" the place.

I am making a separate run for my chicks that will be covered since hawks are far more likely to go for them than the adult hens and the goats won't be in with them.

I used 2x4 welded wire only because I can't afford hardware cloth. I did use hardware cloth over all windows into the coop.

This second picture shows what we did under our run gate: that will likely be your weakest link so this was our solution. It's worked great -the gate doesn't get caught on anything and nothing can dig under it as we poured the cement about 18" deep also.

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Chirpy said:

Here's a picture of part of our run (it's not finished in this picture but gives you an idea):

It's a lot like Wynette's except that we buried our 1" chicken wire almost 18" into the ground. We also used cement with our 4x4 posts and spaced them 8 and 1/2 feet apart. Our run is six feet high so we can walk into it, I don't have it covered at this point as I have goats in with my chickens and the hawks have thus stayed away. (Not to mention the dogs and cats "guarding" the place.

I am making a separate run for my chicks that will be covered since hawks are far more likely to go for them than the adult hens and the goats won't be in with them.

I used 2x4 welded wire only because I can't afford hardware cloth. I did use hardware cloth over all windows into the coop.

This second picture shows what we did under our run gate: that will likely be your weakest link so this was our solution. It's worked great -the gate doesn't get caught on anything and nothing can dig under it as we poured the cement about 18" deep also.

Click to expand...