And now...the run....

[TerryH]

Now that I've seen your "before" picture of the fence you used to have there, I think putting in a chicken coop and run was an excellent use of that space!  What a great view to look at now!

I agree, working with HC and other wire is tedious.  Maybe I'll be able to use your fence stretcher idea when I (someday) get around to building my own run.

There were a couple of possibilities on the property but that spot just seemed right. I did make for quite the improvement in the view.

 

[TerryH]

Another looong work day on the run today. I so wanted to be done but it just wasn't to be even with one of the guys that works with me helping. We did get all the wire up. What a hassle the hardware cloth is!! I think I was bleeding from about 20 different places at one point. Obviously the end game is to be predator proof but I also wanted to lkeep out the wild birds. We always have a bazillion finches, barn swallows and house wrens along with all the others so that was one of the reasons we did the chicken wire above the HC and then covered it all with 2x4 welded wire. All the wire is attached with galvanized fencing staples and deck screws with stainless fender washers. I then covered all the edges and intersections with pressure treated fence pickets to dress it up a bit.

The back of the garden has rail road ties for edging and we removed those, the mulch and plastic and used the welded wire to form an apron held down with 6" landscape staples and then reversed the procedure with the ties and such. Considering that it's rained every day for 2 solid weeks here the muddy, wet and super slippery garden and ridiculously heavy ties were no fun to work with. So glad to have that part done!



Still need a little more mulch and such to be really done with this part. Feeling good about keeping the diggers at bay with this system though.



Also nice to see the doors out of my shop and in their proper place. Still need to make all the door stops and attach the springs.



On the still to do list is cover the intersections and edges of the wire on the back with the pressure treated wood and finish the WW aprons on the back and west end. Landscape timbers will also be placed around the rear and west. I'm disappointed to still not be done but we are really close now. I know the babies are gonna love being out in the run. We're going to let them out there tomorrow after we get home from apartment church. e

Few pics from today's work.

 

[aart]

Gorgeous!!

 

[TerryH]

Gorgeous!!

Thank you!! It's been quite an adventure. BTW...I have plenty on my list when I get done with this. I'm looking forward to going back to drag racing and the never ending house/yard/garden/landscaping list is always looming.

 

[Molpet]

very beautiful and chic ... better get caught up while you can... chicken math will strike again LOL

I wanted 6 hens and in October that is what I had...come the end of May I have 20 chickens and 6 Turkeys.. Just finished up a chicken hoop coop and now I am building a Turkey hoop coop..

 

[User395221]

It looks beautiful. That's a seriously good-looking run.

 

[TerryH]

very beautiful and chic ... better get caught up while you can... chicken math will strike again LOL

I wanted 6 hens and in October that is what I had...come the end of May I have 20 chickens and 6 Turkeys.. Just finished up a chicken hoop coop and now I am building a Turkey hoop coop.. 

Thanks!! I've really tried to build something functional and also attractive. So far our chicken math is all subtraction. Started with 12. 4 were cockerels. We're planning on adding back to 12 next year but we'll see how it goes with the 8. However, chicken math did strike on the coop and the run. lol... Those projects kinda got out of hand. e

 

[TerryH]

It looks beautiful.  That's a seriously good-looking run.  

Thanks!!

 

[TerryH]

Took some time this evening to get the edges and intersections of the wire covered with the fence pickets on the back of the run.





Here's a shot of the apron on the back. It's 24" of 1x2 welded wire pinned with 6" landscaping staples. I still need to do the apron on the west end and install the landscape timbers around the outside of the south and west. The end can be measured in hours now instead of months or weeks or days.



We did open the pop door but no one was very excited about making the leap. To no one's surprise the first out the door was the ever adventurous Laverne. She went down the ramp a couple of times but never ventured off the stump. I'm sure they'll love the run once they get over being terrified of it.



It was a sad day though. Pat went to his new home. :/ Edith the little BLRW pullet has never been away from him. She's out there now whining. Guess she'll be ok in a day or two.

 

[User395221]

was the ever adventurous Laverne.

I had the immediate mental image of your chicken doing the dance from the beginning of "Laverne and Shirley" LOL