ChickenLand Coop

NCLady · Apr 22, 2018

My farmhand has been hard at work this week building my 8 chicks their new home.

He has been calling it "ChickenLand" so I'm sticking with the name. It's about 1200sf total so lots of room to roam around. We have lots of Hawks so are covering it with welded wire. Still not sure what I am doing to make the bottom dig proof. Usually use electric around the bottom of the fence so will probably just use a line offset a few inches around the bottom.

Hopefully we will wrap it up soon and they can move in. They are in my studio now and really starting to have quite the odor!

HoopyFrood · Apr 22, 2018

NCLady said:
My farmhand has been hard at work this week building my 8 chicks their new home.

He has been calling it "ChickenLand" so I'm sticking with the name. It's about 1200sf total so lots of room to roam around. We have lots of Hawks so are covering it with welded wire. Still not sure what I am doing to make the bottom dig proof. Usually use electric around the bottom of the fence so will probably just use a line offset a few inches around the bottom.

Hopefully we will wrap it up soon and they can move in. They are in my studio now and really starting to have quite the odor!

View attachment 1350713

A gorgeous setup! Very nicely done! Two thoughts...

To keep out diggers we just laid a 2 foot wide apron/skirt on the ground around the run out of 1/4" hardware cloth (that was also attached to the run fence). It's secured with landscaping staples and heavy rocks. We have had a stray dog snooping around the run but it has not yet thought it worth trying to dig.

For the welded wire roof to the run to keep out hawks... we used aviary netting. We just had our first hawk attack a few days ago. A red-shouldered hawk just moved in to the woods across the road. It took two dives testing the run's defenses; when it was convinced the net was a complete barrier it gave up.

I opted for that over welded wire because it was cheaper, easier to support as a roof, and we get a LOT of snow. What gauge of welded wire did you use? And do you get much snow? If not, no worries. If you do get a lot of snow and used a light gauge welded wire, you might want to keep a close eye on it throughout the winter. Also rusting (due to rain, dew, snow melt, etc) might be a concern over time.

Regardless, that is some nice work!

NCLady · Apr 22, 2018

It was the same guage we used around the pen. I am thinking probably 16 ga or thereabouts. We get maybe one or two snows a year, generally not more than a couple of inches at the time.

Everything in the run is from extra projects, I didn't have to actually buy anything. The large shelter was already there and the carpot, which is barely seen, with be used for their coop.

I may use the electric and welded wire apron just to be extra safe.

I'll update once everything is complete next week.