Ideas for a Gorgeous Chicken Run?

Aunt LoLo

In the Brooder
7 Years
Jul 17, 2012
18
1
26
Guys, HALP. I can't keep my chickens out of the garden, the greenbelt, OR my neighbor's yard. Over the past 3 years, we have lost girls to henpecking, bobcats, and neighborhood dogs. I need to keep my girls safely enclosed...and it has to look NICE. Their run is right outside the window of my studio where I work all afternoon, and we live in a nice neighborhood in close quarters with our neighbors.

Hit me - how do I make a good looking run that keeps the chooks in and the bad guys out...that doesn't look like a chain-link dog kennel with a tarp over the top. Thanks!!
 
Here's a cute flower box idea:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/05/diy-chicken-coop-flower-box.html

Hardware cloth looks nicer than chain link, in my opinion. You could build a rock wall around part/all of it! Natural rock, laid brick, maybe even something like cinder block planters: http://theverybesttop10.com/2013/01/18/cinder-block-planters/

Mulch around it and plant some ornamental grasses? Make a small rock path at the entrance? Maybe with some refuge searching, you could do a cute tin roof instead of a tarp for your cover? Treat it like landscaping a front lawn or porch! Wind chimes, outdoor vases, any ornaments that might catch your eye. Fun stuff for the chickens, too! Put a swing in there, paint an old tire and use it to make a dust pit, put a painted perch for them all to fuss over. You could put tin signage on the fence or coop. Bead curtains might be a possibility?

idk that's all I got
 
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Ok I was fixing to start a thead for some of these ideas glad I found this one. So I have the old water tub I'm trying to deside what to do with it. It's pretty deep so I was thinking maybe lay it on it's side like this. We just finished the pen so I'm trying to landscape it and the area around it. What ideas come to mind please.
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Ok I was fixing to start a thead for some of these ideas glad I found this one. So I have the old water tub I'm trying to deside what to do with it. It's pretty deep so I was thinking maybe lay it on it's side like this. We just finished the pen so I'm trying to landscape it and the area around it. What ideas come to mind please.
Is it water tight? You could turn it in to a pond! I wouldn't do fish in it, since that raises the maintenance massively and ups cost each year as well, but you could grow ornamental water plants in there like lilies, floating plants and papyrus (or dwarf papyrus instead) and if you were willing to run electricity to it, you could put a little fountain in there to agitate the surface for skeeter control and add to the beauty. I'd do a little research on container ponds and pondscaping.

Or just paint over it and make it in to a planter! You could weather the paint, stencil in the name of your coop even, fill it up with the dirt of your choice and plant it with something nice. If you did colorful blooms, I'd paint it the color on the opposite side of the color wheel from the flowers to give it nice contrast.

If it turned upright is too tall for your liking, you could use it as part of a wall, and use some stacked rocks or cinder blocks to stagger the height until it comes down to ground level. You could also plant shorter plants around it to sort of cut the visual of it in half.
 
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These are all fantastic! I definitely want to do some landscaping in front of the run...potted plants, maybe a wreath?
 
A wreath would be really cool! Made out of branches it could even look like a big cartoon bird's nest. You could put blown out eggs in it!

Also in case anyone looking in would like to do something REALLY cool but pretty artistic: http://www.stencilrevolution.com/tutorials/how-to-make-moss-graffiti/ imagine that on the side of your coop, on a wall around the run, or hung up on a wooden sign! Here's some more moss graffiti articles:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Moss-Graffiti/
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Moss-Graffiti-1/
 
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