Coop Design

[Christie25]

Hello! I wanted to see if anyone had pictures of their coop / run with a similar design I have in my head. My husband and I are building my chickens a new coop with a covered run but I want to add a "free ranging area" that is covered by netting for day time when I am home and can watch them (A door will connect my covered run and the "free range area"). We don't want to sink poles and we're thinking about doing metal T posts with netting and fencing for protection. Unfortunately my chickens can't free range but I want a little extra space. It doesn't need to be tall either, just something for the chickens to peck around in. Pictures would be extremely helpful!!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You could try looking through the coop article section. Lots of great builds there,

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/

 

[Cammo77]

Hello! I wanted to see if anyone had pictures of their coop / run with a similar design I have in my head. My husband and I are building my chickens a new coop with a covered run but I want to add a "free ranging area" that is covered by netting for day time when I am home and can watch them (A door will connect my covered run and the "free range area"). We don't want to sink poles and we're thinking about doing metal T posts with netting and fencing for protection. Unfortunately my chickens can't free range but I want a little extra space. It doesn't need to be tall either, just something for the chickens to peck around in. Pictures would be extremely helpful!!

When we first got our chickens my wife was extremely hesitant to let them out as they were ex-cage layers and we weren't sure how savvy they'd be with aerial predators. We bought some cheap plastic construction fencing/barricading with some push in posts. It was ugly but did the job. We would change their "run" every few days so they didn't dig up the same spots too much. Looking back now I would of spent a bit more money and bought proper poultry netting and decent posts.

 

[Christie25]

When we first got our chickens my wife was extremely hesitant to let them out as they were ex-cage layers and we weren't sure how savvy they'd be with aerial predators. We bought some cheap plastic construction fencing/barricading with some push in posts. It was ugly but did the job. We would change their "run" every few days so they didn't dig up the same spots too much. Looking back now I would of spent a bit more money and bought proper poultry netting and decent posts.

Okay awesome, thank you! That is what I am thinking of doing (something more permanent with metal posts) but same concept! Glad to hear it worked out for you guys!

 

[Penpal]

I would use portable electric fencing. By that, I mean I do use portable electric fencing. This way, I can move the fence from place to place: rotational grazing. This keeps one area from getting torn up. Right now, I have it encircling their "coop". I can still move it around while keeping the coop inside the fencing.