coop and run set in vegetable garden

[LMHallock]

My coop and run are in a fenced in area in middle of my vegetable garden (which is also fenced in). The girls are locked in the coop at night but spend the days in their run area and have supervised free range in the garden and an occasional field trip to other parts of the yard.

The coop is a kit from Urban coop, there is a door on the back side of the coop that opens into a run area (built out of used dog crate panel I picked up at the thrift store). My compost bin is in the middle of run and grazing boxes are on either side of the run right next to the dog crate panels. The cover between the coop and compost bin is hinged so I can prop up for easy access and it has a removeable heavy plastic cover for shade and rain/snow protection.

The coop is placed on 1x1 stepping stone floor (to protect from digging creatures) and flooring material is sand.

My 3 Buff Orpington girls get supervised free range time to clean-up between the planter boxes. Boxes are surrounded with plastic garden mesh and that is enough to stop them from getting in. They can peck thru to get a few leaves. They don't try to fly over as there are alot of goodies around.

 

[jeria]

What a pretty space!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Very nice set up and seems well thought out - my run is similar to yours, just sized down, with raised beds in the run and the coop inside the run as well. I like how you have your compost set up in the middle, I hadn't thought about doing that.

 

[LMHallock]

Very nice set up and seems well thought out - my run is similar to yours, just sized down, with raised beds in the run and the coop inside the run as well. I like how you have your compost set up in the middle, I hadn't thought about doing that.

The girls love digging thru the compost and a couple of times a year I pull out a mound into a cooling compost area (that they aren't allowed into), then use it in my garden boxes.