Build a Chunnel...

[aart]

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

 

[aart]

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.

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

 

[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/

 

[aart]

Not much here but a little more;

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

Oh cool...I followed their blog addy link from youtube but it was defunct?
Ha! That's clever, if a bit of folly...guess they don't have much trouble with predators, eh. Wonders if the tunnel held up long term....maybe the tunnel 'trained' them to go underground to get to new places instead of over the fence!?

 

[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.

 

[Cklass90]

Thanks so much I've only got chicks at the moment but they're growing so fast I need a chunnel from my coop to my run. Hubby has dismissed all ideas as too cheap and won't last but I think this one will pass! The father in law has a conduit bender hooray (standing in home depot with 2 lively small children while they bend it for me isn't ideal) and I've discovered home depot drop the price if you order more than 10 so i'm going to do that and then I can build another bit that's potentially moveable. Question: could I do this without the rebar for the moveable bit or does it really need the rebar for stability (I don't want the chickens knocking it over!)

 

[HennyPenny44]

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?

 

[aart]

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?

Most of them don't have 'floors'.

 

[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.

 

[Sueby]

Mine has a wire floor (it's just wire bent in a full circle zip tied), but it is just a tunnel to get them to another run, they aren't supposed to hang out & dig in the tunnel. But of course they do!

If I were to do it not as just a highway, but where they were supposed to be working & turning the soil, I would have bent it & stuck it in the ground without the floor for sure.