Attaching run to coop

[GardenChickens]

At the moment our six week old chickens spend most of their daytime in an outside inclosure. It is still quite early to be thinking about this, but when they start laying, where will they lay their eggs? Their coop is separate from the inclosure... We will most likely have to build a large run to put the coop in and where they can also run around but it will be scratched free of any grass very quickly I assume. What have some of you done about this?
Thank you in advance

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

They need to be able to get back to their coop to lay eggs. You can make your coop mobile or put several pens around the coop and move them from pasture to pasture but this requires a path to the pasture.

In the past when I had a small run, I would just dump grass clippings from the lawn mower in there and they would eat them.

Make sure all grass clippings are extremely short to prevent impacted crop.

There is nothing wrong with a run that is bare of any grass. It is just what happens when they are not given a huge area to roam. You can still "free range" them - having the ability to close them up is valuable.

 

[Blooie]

At the moment our six week old chickens spend most of their daytime in an outside inclosure. It is still quite early to be thinking about this, but when they start laying, where will they lay their eggs? Their coop is separate from the inclosure... We will most likely have to build a large run to put the coop in and where they can also run around but it will be scratched free of any grass very quickly I assume. What have some of you done about this?
Thank you in advance

We used metal fence posts pounded into the ground and arched cattle panels between them. Made a very nice run - good sized, withstands high Wyoming winds (excess of 60 mph at times> no issues with snow load, and tall enough to walk into. We used 3 cattle panels initially, then added another panel last week to make it bigger. You could do something like that and put your coop right inside if that's your plan, or you could build the run next to the existing coop with a "tunnel" for them to get from one to the other.

As far as how we handled the grass within the run, we just left it and started deep litter in both the run and the coop, and we haven't regretted it. Whatever you decide to do, they do need some kind of protection from the elements, predators, and a secure place to lay their eggs. Combining a coop with a run is ideal. Mine free range when I'm home, and it's nice to have an optional place for them to scratch around and get some fresh air and sunshine when I'm not.

 

[GardenChickens]

Okay, thank you for your help. It is a good idea to put glass clippings in their run! I didn't think about that

 

[GardenChickens]

Thanks for your reply, yeah I think the best idea is for us to put the coop in a big run. Unfortunately we cannot free range them unless someone is outside because we had a very sad and unfortunate event involving a marten and the death or our little chicken (this happened in the short period of time that we were not outside) We now are extremely careful about when they can free range...