A run under my coop?

[aggiemae]

I will dig the hardware cloth in around the base to. As you can see by the pictures, there are many fruit trees in the garden, so I would love for them to out and about to keep the bugs down. I can see myself just taking the chance and just letting them out all day. Maybe :}

The wire arrives tomorrow, and if its a nice day I will finish cladding the roof with Feather Edge Boards.

Nice coop.

We let our hens free range soon as they are big enough for the hawks not to grab them. They will love the fruit and the bugs in your orchard.

At first I let the the chicks out under a (4x6) portable pen I built to protect them from hawks. Later I started to let them run free into the yard in the evening since I knew they would go into the coop at dusk. Now I let them out all day, though I did have to clip a wing on the two that fly.

Because I wanted to coop to be waist high I have a set up so that about 1/3 of the run is under the coop. Origionally it was going to be all the outside space but I added more covered run area, about 80 sq feet total so that the hens would have a mud free outside space in winter.

 

[JohnPeel]

I was knee deep in mud today working on the coop, the weather has been reall bad. It has made me think about maybe digging a drain at the back of the coop to take the water away from the run under the coop. When I build my tractor, it should give them more space, because it will just attach to the run, the chickens can climb in and use it where it is, or I can just wheel it away to pastures new.

 

[aggiemae]

A trench will work but gutters are easier. We have gutters (my procrastinating husband just installed the 2nd one in the pouring rain today) One drains into a 50 gal barrel we use for the garden the overflow and the other side drain to the dry parts of the yard under trees where I am trying to grow shrubs.

 

[JohnPeel]

My problem is so much the rain falling from the roof of the coop, but the hill and forest behind the coop. The run-off makes the ground really soft. I have thought of putting gutters on the roof as well though, and into a drum that can trickle feed the chooks. It wouldn't hurt, but I will wait until the toxins from the woods treatment have washed out a bit first.