Thank you for putting together a lot of ideas for enrichment of the flock. I think there's a lot of ideas that I can use in redesigning our coop and run right now. I definitely will be doing the tire dust bath, swing and outdoor perches/roosts.
As another idea, I am also going to try to have beds or pots of herbs in the warmer months covered with hardware cloth about two inches above the dirt so that the herbs can grow through for the chickens to forage on but the chickens will not be able to completely eat the plant or dig up it's roots so it can keep growing back.
I would proceed with caution on some things like old pumpkins and CDs. Salmonella is something that should be a real concern, and a jack-o-lantern left out for days or even weeks could be harboring such an illness. As for CDs, I've broken a CD before by accident, and it can leave some sharp edges. A good wind can smash a hanging CD into a branch, wall, or fence and leave sharp edges laying in the run.
I like it a lot. It's very well thought out. I am stealing the idea of obstacles in the run - I have pushed everything into corners to keep the run wide open, but it makes sense to have feeders, waters, dust baths and other things act as obstacles to provide coverage when somebody steps out of the pecking order. I like the creative touches to the coop. We are building a new coop by converted a portion of our shed to a coop. This has inspired me to have some fun with it.
For some reason I thought I had my run layout in this article too - fixed now!
Even though I no longer need the obstacles for integration purposes the chickens seem to like having some clutter in the run. Not only does it continue to provide hiding spots for lower ranked birds but I find that the chickens just seem to like having things to explore around.
I am just hatching quail right now, but I will have to give this a try. Interesting that you fried them whole. I would have thought I would need to spatchcock or halve them.
I like it a lot. I'm curious about the wire. Is it 1/2" or 1/4". It looks like 1/2", would is I would consider too large for the floor of a quail coop. In my area (IL) winter, wind, rain, and hot summers are all concerns. You do offer cover from sun and precipitation, but somewhere to stay warm and dry in the nastiest rain and snow is a necessity in my case. I have designed enclosed quail coops (large bird houses really) within my quail cages.
I do like the sliding door. That's a nice feature. It certainly does save money. I think I spent nearly $40 on hinges and locks for just 1 cage (3 openins so I can access across the entire front including the coop section.
I'm in Illinois. We get some nasty winter weather. I try to block the wind for chickens and give them somewhere safe to rest at night, but I am anti-heating the coop. To be honest we haven't even added a light source in the coop so there is not even heat coming from a bulb. The coop is relatively small, 4x8x4ft for 7 chickens. One 4x4ft wall is made of construction mesh. It faces north and there's a fence just 5ft in front of it, so there's little wind that comes through there. Wind here tends to come from the west or south, occasionally the east if the jet stream pushes up further north, but rarely does wind come from the north. My hens all roost about 2ft of the floor and they do just fine through the night so far. I may put plastic over the construction mesh wall in January/February if the weather gets to nasty, but I feel that keeping them out of the wind and dry is the most important.
I am awaiting my egg delivery right now. We have 50 TX A&M White and 50 Jumbo Brown that are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I was thinking about adding a fan to my incubator - you have convinced me to do just that to avoid hot and cold spots. I do not have vents except for two small slots about 1/2"-3/4" long. However, maintaining humidity has been tough already so not certain I want more ventilation. My biggest problem right now is adequate brooding space. I have a large Rubbermaid trough that I am converting to a brooder, but the "quail math" doesn't add up. It will be good for 3 weeks, and then I'm worried since you mention they need 1 square foot per bird at 3 weeks. I was thinking 1 square foot per bird after brooding when I put them in my quail hutches.
You certainly have encouraged me to do some thinking. At least the incubator is ready for the eggs and that buys me about 2.5 weeks until hatch day to get the brooder situation worked out.
This is very similar to grazing cattle in different enclosed pastures. Ranchers have been using rotation for many years. Applying it to chickens makes sense. The portable run seems just as labor intensive as the tractors; however, I like the idea of segmented runs. It would be difficult for me to do this though because it requires a lot of space. We live in 1/3 acre in a suburban community and our hens are kept in a U-shaped run behind and along the sides of our greenhouse. While the run over 40' in total length and 5ft wide, I think it would be difficult and cost intensive to divide the run in segments and control the chickens access to each segment. Also, enough segments are needed to allow time for the "pasture" to recover after grazing. I'd say at least 5 segments are needed - 1 active grazing area and 4 recovering pastures with a weekly rotation of the chickens. This is because I know my 5 hens (soon to be 7) are able to devour all plant matter in their run in about 1 week and it takes about 4 weeks for plants to reestablish themselves. For my case, that would mean five 5'x8' runs. I feel like 5 hens (let alone additional the two chicks we are growing out right now) need more space than 5'x8' even if they do get fresh ground every week.
Even though I no longer need the obstacles for integration purposes the chickens seem to like having some clutter in the run. Not only does it continue to provide hiding spots for lower ranked birds but I find that the chickens just seem to like having things to explore around.