Building out our dream chicken / garden pen, but am lost (TX Hill Country area)

Newbie here!

My family and I have had our 6 hens for about a year now and just got 5 more to add to the flock. Because of this, we now have to build out a new home for the girls. We were both racking our brains trying to find the best solution and then it came to us...in an issue of Mother Earth News.

We're ready to take the plunge in to gardening, and saw this:



This was *PERFECT* and exactly what we needed. We have a guy who can build out the coolest hen house. I have no idea how to do the rest though, so I am open to suggestions.

I'd love to hire someone to do this for me so it's not a situation where I'm winging it and getting things wrong. Who would do something like this? It's a 32'x32' pen with 3'x2' tunnels...would I be laughed at calling someone? I'm somewhat handy, but have never done a thing with welded wire or fencing. Our soil is very rocky, so I don't even think t-posts are an option.

We're running out of time (with our new hens, they want outside *bad*) and need to get something done. Do I just take the plunge and try it myself?

Thanks!

Hi pbwalker and welcome!

I'm new myself, and you've had chickens longer than I have, but that looks like a pretty cool idea. Would you also let the chickens loose in the garden area after you've harvested the gardens to help with turning the soil and fertilizing?

sn0wwhite said:

Hi pbwalker and welcome!

I'm new myself, and you've had chickens longer than I have, but that looks like a pretty cool idea. Would you also let the chickens loose in the garden area after you've harvested the gardens to help with turning the soil and fertilizing?

Click to expand...

Thanks! I see your from MN. I am a former Duluth resident with family in the New Ulm area. I'm in TX now (11 years) and miss MN quite a bit to this day!

That is the exact plan. The pen / hen house we have now, while good, doesn't really give us the opportunity to use any of the manure. Our goal is to have a bit of a "one-stop-shop" where, once harvested, the chickens can have free roam of the raised beds and leftover garden trimmings. They, in-turn, pay us back with rich soil for the following season's garden.

Fingers crossed ( ) we are able to get enough from our chickens and garden to lessen the grocery bill, so we're not ingesting any *more* processed foods.

I completely "get" that... I'm brand new to chickens and expanded my garden this year for the same reason. I'm planning a compost heap with plans to put the chicken poo in the garden directly from October to February and then into the compost during the warm months. I don't have the space for your idea, but it looks great!

I pretty much only get to visit Galveston in Texas... My dad and step mom have a house there for when it's too cold here.

Gotta figure out how to deal with the posts, that's the hard part. Ask around locally how others may have coped with the oil and fence posts, or hire a fencing contractor with the equipment to deal with it.

The welded wire fence is not that hard to do if you have the right tools, I use a cut off wheel in 4" angle grinder to cut it if needed. Easy to clip to Tposts, or staple to wooden posts.

The picture is idyllic, but, not really realistic. Not much room for them to range, and you need to be able to get into the tunnel in case one gets stuck or sick or what ever. Here's an interesting movable 'chunnel' idea that might work for you.

or you could so something like this, and rotate the chicken yard/ garden beds each year or season or what ever

That's a good point about maybe needing to get into the run after one of the birds. Maybe instead of 3x2 runs, make them as high as the fence and if the outside fence were 5 or 6 feet, at worst you'd have to crouch to get in there.

All good points. I did a poor job of explaining the picture a bit (plus there's an explanation article below it that has been cropped out). Each of the tunnels will be covered by a section that can fold up so we can get to the chickens / manure. We're planning a 32' x 32', with each of the long runs having 4 x 8' sections that can fold up to open the tunnel. We'd then grab the waste that way, as well as let them roam in and graze the area once the garden had been harvested.

The lower roof on those side runs make a lot of sense then that way. Keep us posted if you find someone to build it for you or if you end up with a DIY project.

Just wanted to say that my husband was entranced by the same article. He was insisting that we re-do our entire backyard to include "chicken tunnels"! I love Mother Earth News so much!

pbwalker said:

All good points. I did a poor job of explaining the picture a bit (plus there's an explanation article below it that has been cropped out). Each of the tunnels will be covered by a section that can fold up so we can get to the chickens / manure. We're planning a 32' x 32', with each of the long runs having 4 x 8' sections that can fold up to open the tunnel. We'd then grab the waste that way, as well as let them roam in and graze the area once the garden had been harvested.

Click to expand...

Do you have a link to the article?