Keeping Chickens Without Free Ranging

Great info, well written. Thanks for sharing - from Tilli in the Texas Hill Country.

interesting ideas, love the swing! - could add that to my 'pallet palace'; let me explain!...

I have a (free) 'pallet palace' in may fenced-in run, just three pallets leaning together and secured with extra strength zip ties...

(I added additional zip ties made of stainless steel for safety/ strength- go get these from Ha-rb-or Freight for $5) the third pallet leans against the open side to give some extra security - found one of my ISAs roosting on top of it the other night... I have a big sunbrella secured to it so they have a real 'vacation home' too - they are just layers, but really they are family now...
I also just added the shade cover, in the back left- gives the ladies an extra large covered area to shelter from our (currently) 100degree + weather in NC!)
Hope this idea gives others the inspiration to build their own 'pallet palace' - the pallets are free, just spend $5 on sturdy super long zip ties or wire..!
(sunbrella optional )
(the eagle eyed will spot the 'mister' on top of the coop.. keeps them cooler and worth th $20 from Am-a-zon !)

Getting my coop ready (again) had a few things on the list. But this was still an awesome article, very informative, thank you

Really well-written and informative article thank you. I am waiting for a friend to build me a walk-in coop & run, as currently the destruction of my back lawn & amount of poop all over the place to scrape up is getting a bit much. I want them to be happy though, so it will need to be bigger than I'd planned.

Love all the thoughtful ideas mentioned in this article!!

Great article with wonderful description of ideas for small coops and runs. I could see myself doing the tasks needed. Good job.

Great ideas for us who can have free range. Thank you.

Thanks! Love this informative article!

I am a new chicken mom and have 4 girls that are 1 1/2 years old. While I live on 5 acres of undeveloped land, we are on family land of 172 acres in rural America. That being said, we have every type of preditor you can think of. So free ranging is just not an option for me.

That being said, I bought large 6 X 6 X 5 coop that sits off the ground and bought an extra 8 X 14 run that attaches it as a kit. All in it was abour $2300.00, so not too bad. This summer has been brutal here in GA with the heat. My coop /run is in the shade half the day (evening)but it is still super hot. I have taken measure to try to keep them cool, with water, several fans, frozen food and fruits, watering doent the run, Etc. The coop is next to our home. We have a large 48 foot covered deck that sits about 6 ft off the ground, so you can walk under it. The access to go under our house is in this area. I clean my run daily, so we really don't have any smell. Sowe have spent this week hardwiring the whole area under the deck, adding another 400 sq ft for them to roam and forage and connected it to the exisitng run. I learned that I can open the access door going under our house and cool air just poors out. So we are almost done. I need to make a wire screen to cover the door so they can't get under the house, but I am putting a fan there to blow out even more cool air for my girls. We are close to being done opening this area for them. I can't wait to see how they love it. Happy chickening.

Great ideas - and if I may, people should apply some of these things to their brooders. Baby chicks need stuff to play with and places to explore. It's so sad to me to see big brooders with nothing for the chicks to do! We always put in logs and sticks. Hay is a great idea too.

Enjoyed reading about your ideas for chickens without free ranging. I enjoy my 5 girls. They are always intertainting me.

This article was very helpful in giving me ideas on how to keep my ladies happy and healthy this year! I will definitely be utilizing several of the suggestions in this article. I love to sit with the girls now while they are in our garage in a large wire pen and I was kind of bummed out about how I was going to keep our friendship going once they moved to the big coop/run. I guess I never thought about just taking a chair out and sitting in the pen with them. Also lots of great ideas on things to help keep them stimulated and happy. I love it!

This is a very interesting article, written from experience. I have tried putting a mirror in the chicken coup and it certainly entertains them. I agree that spending time with the chickens is very important both for the chickens and for me. They make me laugh, they are so funny. We talk to each other as well. Love my four chickens

I loved this article! I already do some of the things listed. I have had exotic pet birds for years, and I do a lot of the same things for my chickens.

Great ideas!!!!

Great ideas shared!

Some great ideas, thanks.

Easy and enjoyable to read and understand, plus reminds us of the things we can do to occupy our feathered friends. Thank you.

I like these ideas and may incorporate some but you don’t mention chicken tractors at all. Mine gets moved once a week so they have new forage, plus it keeps them safe in a high predator area.

Great suggestions for how to keep chickens busy when free-ranging isn't practical - we only free range under supervision because of an abundance of local predators (especially the aerial ones) and have to think about new ways to offer enrichment often!