My chicken run is an L shaped yard around two sides of their coop, covered by mesh overhand to keep out predators, with a but larger area in front. It's pretty secure, but I wish now that I'd made it better. This summer I might enlarge it for them.
If you raise chicks inside with a heat lamp, as we did, be prepared for a lot of gross dry skin chicken dandruff coating everything as they grow and make feathers. We found out the hard way. We had the cage in our bedroom. Yeah. Really romantic. Musical and aromatic, too.
They might prefer it warmer, but I've found that so far when I leave one full water feeder int eh coop with them at night when I tuck them in and shut them up, it doesn't freeze like the outside ones do. Of course, I give them warm fresh water every day, regardless.
Just trying to figure out how to make the new member page, it says to click on the link below, but durned if I can find it. We have a half dozen hens and one rooster left after the most recent deprivations.