Building run, Any suggestions?

[capecodpeeps]

here is the run i am building, this is what i have so far, any input would be great!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I caution the use of short runs as I assume you'll be covering it. It gets old real quick when you need to grab a bird or two. The bumps and scratches from stepping in to add feed or change water is no joy either. Covered runs should be 6ft. A slope to less than head height is OK but anything you have to walk hunched over or crawl in is unacceptable to me anymore.

When building think of what would be good for chickens but also keep in mind how you can access them. Huge door on coop for cleaning and access to birds when roosting and a run you can get into easy are a must. I just built a coop and have the stilts 32" as catching a bird under shorter stilted coops is a pain both mentally and on occasions physically.

 

[Cacique500]

I would seriously consider making it tall enough to walk in - and as Egghead Jr said you will also want to cover it to keep it dry. I had a small coop/run for two years and to clean it was a giant pain (literally). Two sections were covered which was nice, the third was not - the third section got wet, stayed wet, smelled, attracted flies, etc. It was a hands and knees event since the run height was about 30" tall and 4 feet deep.

How many chickens? 10 sq ft per chicken in the run.

The hardware cloth is good, but you may want to consider making an apron on the outside (or dig down) instead of lining the bottom of the run. They're going to want to scratch down to it and I would be concerned with foot/nail injuries.

Are you going to put anything in the run on the ground like shavings or sand?

 

[Folly's place]

x3 on everything mentioned already! Mary

 

[capecodpeeps]

Thanks for the input! We have 3 chickens and the run is 10x4! Also we are going to put like a foot of dirt/grass leaves on top of the mesh as well as covering the mesh with landscaping cloth before filling? Any thoughts?

 

[capecodpeeps]

Also putting one door at end of run and a couple diy windows on side and bottom of run under the coop

 

[Cacique500]

Thanks for the input! We have 3 chickens and the run is 10x4! Also we are going to put like a foot of dirt/grass leaves on top of the mesh as well as covering the mesh with landscaping cloth before filling? Any thoughts?

Might help with the dirt...but when ours take a dust bath we refer to it as "digging a hole to china" - they can dig pretty deep!

 

[MumsHens]

This looks good to me and very similar to the one I purchased for my Mums hens. The only thing we found is that it got cleared of any greenery very quickly and is a bit muddy already. We have put hen fencing around it to give a much bigger area for them to scratch about in and are now thinking of covering the inner run and putting wood shavings down on the floor of it for the winter. Ours is on soil.

 

[Sonya9]

Are you saving the corner behind the run for some special purpose? Why not run avian netting from the fence to the hen house and just fence in the whole corner?

As far as the chickens are concerned the more room the better.

 

[capecodpeeps]

Thanks for the ideas