Build a Chunnel...

[bigmrg74]

Grrrrr... Just had two client no shows, and thus I'm looking at ways to be a bad influence on the Boss's wife. She wants to be a farmer with a garden, goats, and chickens. Boss has been kinda negative about that idea, and kinda throws shade my way about being her enabler.

Kinda thinking with their yard and schedule here, the best set up for them to be to have a coop inside of a large run, and maybe set up a couple of chunnels just for different places to go to, hang out in, access grass or go around the garden.

 

[squadleader]

What a super idea!

I'm pretty committed to free ranging, but only time and predators will tell for sure, so I'm keeping this in mind if l ever need an easy way to connect an additional cheap (ala Joel Salinger) chicken tractor, to my main heavy duty (opposite of Joel Salinger) chicken tractor!

I move my heavy tractor once a week, and that's fine, since they free range every day, and only sleep and lay in my tractor, but if predator pressure ever became too much, I could build a cheap companion tractor like Joel's, to be beside my heavy tractor, connected with an easy to remove tunnel like this, doubling or more, my grazing space.

Since my heavy tractor is predator proof, I'd run any chickens in the cheap tractor back to the heavy tractor each night. However, I would bet the chickens would go back on their own because the roosts are in the heavy tractor.

There's one little thing that comes to my mind after being jogged by this great idea.

What if instead of cutting the hardware cloth in the short four foot direction, you cut the total length you needed off a 50 foot roll of four foot wide, half inch hardware cloth, then rolled it into a circle, in the short four foot direction, the total length you wanted, then use heavy zip ties applied from the outside of this tunnel you've made, every foot or so.

The basic difference is laying out say a 25 length of four foot wide hardware cloth, maybe start at each end, rolling it and keeping it square (easy to see, since its a grid), then working your way toward the center, kind of like rolling a cigarette, if the paper were the wire. That leaves the seam running whatever the length of the tunnel is.

I've had plenty of practice at this little skill, put a sharp kink in the end of the zip tie, push it into the hardware cloth, then lift the zip tie back up, bringing the end of the fish hooked shaped zip tie, up through an adjacent cell of the hardware cloth, grab that end and zip it down.

You could drive a wooden stake or a piece of rebar every ten feet or so, on either side of the tunnel, to keep it from rolling. Although, after attaching it to whatever you're connecting together at either end, depending on the length, perhaps even that wouldn't be necessary.

I'm thinking that would be easier, and make the hardware cloth go further, than making overlap connections every four feet. It would also offer the benefit that the long seam down the length of the tunnel, would have the smooth edges of the uncut hardware cloth. That'll save you the trouble of cutting all those exposed edges at each four foot joint as you had before. Besides that, let's face it, even if you cut the edges flush, you'll still be left with a sharp edge where you cut off the wire.

I also don't think you'd even need to bother keeping the long seam at the top of the tunnel, since it has a smooth edge, and also its pushing outwards, I think the chickens could walk on the seam, if it happened to be on the bottom, no problem.

Just an additional note I found out the hard way. Home Depot has a four foot wide, 25 foot long roll of half inch hardware cloth for $58. I found the same width roll, but TWICE the length, at 50 feet, at AgriSupply for $57. Between covering my entire tractor in hardware cloth, and it's anti-dig mats being covered in it, and covers for big plastic bins to transport the chickens, I used at least four, maybe even five, 50 foot rolls.

How great is that, twice the same wire, for a dollar less!

Here's a link to the AgriSupply web page with the 50 foot, half inch hardware cloth.

http://www.agrisupply.com/in-hardware-cloth-ft-roll-in-x-in-grid/p/32410/

 

[lynnehd]

Great idea, @squadleader . Looks like the OP did this between the buildings. You could even sort of flatten the part that comes into contact with the ground so it is more stable and easy to walk on.
I currently use a very crude tunnel between the coop/run to an outer day time only run under a tree. I'm thinking, in this case, of upgrading, using 4 foot PVC framed sections to I can lift one part up for access with a wheelbarrow, etc. In my case, it does not need to be predator proof (except perhaps hawks during the day), it's mainly just needed to direct the chickens back and forth. Opal, my NN Turken, is demonstrating. They love it!

 

[bigmrg74]

What are you thinking of using the tunnel for?

Kinda thinking about doing the chunnel idea around the garden, if nothing more than to give the girls a chance to snag bug that are trying to get at the veggies. During the warmer months my coop is a tractor and I move it around the yard some to let them get fresh grass and keep the poop from piling up too much in one spot. for fencing around the coop I use 5 foot wide plastic netting that I move around via some PVC stands and pin down the edges with landscaping pins. Kinda thinking that I could do that as well with a Chunnel affect. Just might have to get creative with connecting it with the main pen when I move that around.

 

[Beer can]

That vid is great....too bad there's no more info on the rest of this system.

I actually couldn't find the vid on youtube at first. Had to search BYC for where I saw it, was a link, then I found it on youtube.

Not much here but a little more;

http://www.siblify.com/blog/birds_in_a_hole/

 

[bigmrg74]

Could you just move and park the tractor close along the garden fence?

I could, but it can get tight with the movable pen around the coop as well. I'm thinking that with a chunnel addition, it would allow the girls a chance to pick off bugs that might be coming to the garden. Plus just give them another spot to hang out at.

 

[bigmrg74]

I have a question about constructing chunnels...Are they supposed to have a wire floor? Because I haven't seen images with a bare floor. Wouldn't the wire on the bottom defeat the purpose which is for the birds to turn over the soil and look for insects? I have some welded wire and hardware cloth and just wanted to build the chunnel with these items minus the floor. Is this a good idea?

The wire floor would mostly be so that they couldn't dig out underneath it, or that something else couldn't dig into the chunnel area to access your chickens. That would be what you would want to keep in mind there with that.

 

[mojohand]

Very cool. This is how I want to route my chickens to my bee yard. Great pictures. Thanks.

 

[sharondoright]

Awesome materials. I have large chicken space... total about 1300 sqft for 12 birds, plus free range much of the time. Your tube is just what I want to do around my fence for more variety And then stop free ranging

 

[tlatham72]

Awesome materials. I have large chicken space... total about 1300 sqft for 12 birds, plus free range much of the time. Your tube is just what I want to do around my fence for more variety And then stop free ranging

Wow! 1300sq ft sounds like a dream. My 4 will only have about 100sq ft total other than when I let them supervised "free-range" in a space a little bigger a few hours each week. My back yard, though, will have a 900ft fenced perimeter. You gave me another great idea. Perhaps I will also eventually add a chunnel around that perimeter like you plan to do.

And it would keep the 2 pet goats I hope to have and my dogs off the fence. Win win!