Pictures of my brand new chicken tunnel!

[LOLchick]

Hi fellow chicken lovers. It all started with a picture I saw not to long ago....... so I want to share pictures of the tunnel I build for my 4 chickens. Even though they have a fairly big run with a little lemon tree inside, I thought they would enjoy being able to go to the back of the yard where there are big trees and shrubs to get some real shade and scratch around. It took me a day to build it and it's nothing fancy but they just love, love love it. At the moment it stops in the middle of the back yard. The plan is to later extend it to go all the way around to the other side of the house which I will enclose so they can do more of their chicken thing away from my flowers and vegetables. Thanks for taking a look!

 

[LOLchick]

It's not hard to do. And not too crazy expensive. I build ours with some help from my 15 year old daughter in 1 day. She helped to cut the pieces. The rest I did myself. I used the green vinyl covered wire 4 x 50 foot. The roll was $64. I think the ones that are not vinyl covered are cheaper but I knew DH was not gonna help so I thought it would be easier to work with. Also the green blend in a bit more. I cut it in 5 foot pieces. I put the self edges to the ground (so tunnel is 4 foot diameter.) I used the cut ends to connect 2 pieces together to form the tunnel. I had some old garden stakes and just bought one extra packet for around $2.50. I think it helps to take a bit of the boredom out of the chickens day if they can't free range. Hope this can help a bit with the persuasion. Good luck!

 

[MoonShadows]

Neat!

Mother Earth had an article a few months back...

Chickens in the Garden: Eggs, Meat, Chicken Manure Fertilizer and More
http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...re-fertilizer-zm0z13amzkon.aspx#axzz2cmrqrB2L

This fall, I plan to put in 4 - 4x8 raised vegetable garden beds behind my chicken run. I hope to build something similar to this Mother Earth design next spring for these gardens.

 

[LOLchick]

Thanks for all the input and comments. While it is a great idea, I can't take credit for that. It all started when I accidentally came across this picture on the web. IMy head started spinning and my eyes rolled around in their sockets with excitement. I just love the way these chickens race through that tunnel. Too funny. There must be some expectation of goodies on the other end. Mine does that too.




These are the 3 websites I mainly used to get info. One tells you exactly how they did it.

http://walkandnotfaint89.blogspot.com/2012/10/chicken-tunnel-chunnel.html

http://zucchinimom.blogspot.com/2012/06/introducing-our-chunnel-chicken-tunnel.html

http://homesteadredhead.com/2013/03/16/behold-a-chunnel/

To answer some questions......My tunnels are connected to an opening in the outside run, that is connected to the coop. That's actually how the whole thing started. I wanted the chickens to get to the other side of the house without me having to carry them one by one before work in my work outfit.

The opening is open all the time. They can come and go as they please. My run and tunnel is not predator proof as such. The coop part where they sleep at night is. I figured they used to free range out in the yard all day long so if there was something around that wanted to get them, they would have been gone by now. The main reason they can't free range anymore is because 2 of them started flying over the fence into the neighbors yard. She didn't mind, but my 2 other neighbors both have dogs, so for their own safety, (the chickens, not the dogs - though Daisy can probably kill anything with her stare

) they had to be fenced in. I still let the free range for some grass time from 5pm till bedtime.
I don't think you need a fence to make it secure. I can move it to run through the middle of the yard if I wanted to. (hmmm......there's an idea. Lots of grass.....). The tunnels are held down with a few stakes. Probably should put in a few more.
And no, they weren't cautious at all. They were watching me the whole time I was installing it. Had a piece of cardboard in front of the opening. When I took it away, they hopped right into the tunnel to explore. Here's part of the run and the 'hole in the wall".

 

[XtremeRooster]

Thank you for the ideas that is really nice. Those chickens must not spend much time in that run. Everywhere I have moved my run to in two weeks time they have every living piece of grass or weed removed to the dirt. Heck they are better lawnmowers than a pack of goats.

If I could figure out how to harness them like sled dogs I would not need a lawnmower or weedeater. LOL

 

[Krazzy]

right on, i bet yours hens love it. ive thought about doing something like this in our garden. i just dont have the details worked out yet.

 

[joannefiddler]

That's so clever!

Were they cautious about it at first? Please explain the materials and process you used.

 

[Shellz]

This is great! We'll be planning a garden & new coop next year. This would be fantastic to set up! Thanks for sharing this stuff LOLchick & MoonShadows!

 

[MoonShadows]

My pleasure. That's why I put the link...thought some people might like to incorporate this idea into their set up. LOLchick is the first one I've seen do this so far.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Hi!

I saw the garden bed chat, and thought I would share this one that I saw at a pet store recently.

http://garden-beds.com.au/raisedgardenbeds.html

Same idea, but they have a few beds with a movable coop, once the bed is set just pick it all up and move the coop to the next bed. Same concept, just includes a place for them to sleep and lay. This system could be replicated easily and cheaply.