Best thing in your run -- besides the chickens, of course!

[BlackHackle]

I did that once to distract him from fighting with my other one through the fence and it worked until he totaled it! LOL

 

[thewatsonfarm]

Just curious, what plants do you have in mind for them? I love that idea, would like to do that with my own coop

I'm going to put in a large piece of sod with a frame over it to keep it from getting destroyed. Also planting a grapevine and a climbing rose for them. I haven't decided on the rest.

I do like the mirror idea! And I've been collecting interesting branches to do something with them.

My girls used to get to free-range all day, but we now have a hawk problem, so they're losing their freedom. That's why I want to make this run really nice & also entertaining.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm going to put in a large piece of sod with a frame over it to keep it from getting destroyed.

Don't use commercially grown sod as it is usually is full of fertilizers and other chemicals. You can seed grass and grow it in a frame, that way you can control what's added into the soil and what's not.

 

[PouleChick]

Watching with interest. My day run isn't fully sorted yet - it's just a pen but they are only out in the day and locked up at night and we don't have many predators here. Eventually they will have a fort knox run attached to the coop then the day runs then the free range in the garden. I currently have a hazel bush (they grow pretty quickly and are great for shelter and shade) - I think in the States you call them Filberts?TThere is also a leant up pallet, an interesting branch, an old TV back which is huge and provides shade and dry when it is raining (except currently occupied by a broody!). I'd say the Hazel bush is the favorite, they dust bathe under it, get under it for the shade and generally hang out and they don't seem to attempt to eat it at all!

 

[SueT]

That's hilarious. Never do that with a rooster in there, he will actually fight with it and smash it...no fooling!

Our rooster is obsessed with his reflection in the side of the truck whenever he gets to free range....he attacked it at first, but now he just puzzles over it....

 

[jthornton]

I started out with 2' x 4' grass boxes but now make them 1' x 4' to keep the HC from sagging.



I'm also experimenting with sprouting wheat in the run then letting them have at it... but still working out the details.

JT

 

[oceansunset73]

That's hilarious. Never do that with a rooster in there, he will actually fight with it and smash it...no fooling!

Haha. Never thought about that with a rooster, but your right I can just see that happening.

 

[BlackHackle]

Our rooster is obsessed with his reflection in the side of the truck whenever he gets to free range....he attacked it at first, but now he just puzzles over it....
View attachment 1416413

I know. It's shocking how dumb roosters can get. I was completely shocked when mine attacked the mirror. I just shook my head and said, "I should have known!"

 

[PouleChick]

Our rooster is obsessed with his reflection in the side of the truck whenever he gets to free range....he attacked it at first, but now he just puzzles over it....

that is soooo funny!

 

[JurassicChicken]

I have several stumps, a perch, and a mirror. My girls will literally spend hours a day looking at themselves.

I like the idea of a mirror. I must try that. I have some fairly large branches that I rearrange from time to time to give the girls some different perch views. My chicken run is in an old dog lot, complete with an old dog house. I pitched a few shovel fulls of dirt into the dog house, so they now have a dry place to have a dust bath whatever the weather. During the torrential rains we had last week they ran from their coop to the doghouse. All five of them stood inside in the dry watching the rain while taking turns dirt bathing.