cheap run out of PVC shelf!

[simplyscrambled]

I'm about as unhandy as they come. I needed a chicken run to house 8 meaties. I have no drill, no power tools, little in scrap. This is what I came up with!

I used the remains of a pvc shelf, the kind you buy at Home Depot for around $15. I only had to hand saw and cut some of the PVC to the right length, buy some connectors, zip ties and chicken wire. Tada!

The only predator I have to worry about is my dog

here in suburbia.

Just thought I'd share!

 

[easttxchick]

Nice job!

 

[LizzyJo]

There's more than your dog to worry about in suburbia! You got your raccoons, you got your possums, you got your giant rats. Don't get too relaxed.

 

[simplyscrambled]

I've had chickens for over 15 years here, and there's been an occasional coon, but that's it. But yes, I'll watch out for the 5 weeks they'll be in there before they're dinner.

 

[Imp]

Very Clever and Thrifty.

Imp

 

[k2chickens]

VERY!!! nice

 

[that_crazy_lady]

Sweet...simple and it works how could you do any better

 

[Eggs4Sale]

Quote:
It sounds like their biggest predator will be you!

 

[emvickrey]

I had an idea similar to that and couldn't get DH to understand what I was talking about. He is a carpenter and has been for over 30 years. If I was talking about wood, he would have understood. He does plumbing too but he couldn't understand what I was talking about. Thanks to your pic, he does now. What he builds is usually pretty heavy and I can't move a tractor around the yard. The last one he built is made out of heavy fencing wire. something someone would use on a farm for cattle and wood and chicken wire over it all. It's heavy but I can lift a side of it. lol

He makes things to last.

 

[gsim]

Great use of what you had. Cost-effective.

Do beware of coons tho. They can tear chicken wire apart quickly and are stronger and more agile than they look. Met a man recently who saw two do a tag-team act on his 8' wide run. Killed three birds before he could get to them. They took turns stampeding the birds from one sode to the other where the partner waited to grab one thru the wire. Tore their heads off and tried to pull the pieces thru the fence to eat. Grisly site. I used 2x4 welded wire and then put a 24" tall roll of chicken wire all around the perimeter inside. That way my birds cannot poke their heads out and the coon can't tear apart or get his hands thru to the birds. (Of course, I finished it all off with a fence charger and 4 courses of hot wire around the 6 ft tall pen.)

Met another man who trapped a coon and it tore his steel catch-and-release trap apart and escaped.