Coop with two open runs

[Jaxon4141]

One more thing. You don't have to have a bottom in the coop. When it comes time to move the chickens I just start moving the run units and the chicken come out and tend to follow me around. When I have several of the units together I just pick up one of the boss chickens, take her to the new setup, put her in and then just sit there and wait for the rest of them to come on over. It's the funnest part of moving. If you raise them from chicks and feed them by hand a lot, they pretty much go where you go.

 

[snoggle]

I pictured them resting on top of the raised beds, so they wouldn't need to be any taller. Would that work?

I was picturing the uncovered tunnels being 4'x8' - do you think that would still be too heavy if they were made with PVC and hardware cloth? I figured I could make the covered "coop" area (that would rest on the ground next to the bed) separate so they could be detached from each other for moving purposes.

I could always make the tunnels half the length and use two per bed to make them lighter weight.

I don't know if this would change the design, but I do have a large traditional coop that I figured I'd have them return to at night. I kinda figured I'd only use the tunnels as needed for garden work during the day. Is this what you do with yours?

 

[Jaxon4141]

Sure. You would need to use 4' fencing and have your predator come down along the sides of your raised beds keeping your runs from being knock off your beds.. That should be easy. The units would be lighter, so they would be easier to move. You would have to figure out what the length of the arch pieces needs to be as it would be shorter than mine. My arch pieces are 7' long. I used 1/2 "hardware cloth to make little models of what I wanted. Then you can figure out the dimension from the model.
My coop is made just like my runs only larger. It is a 5'x5' unit that is 4 1/2' tall. If you go back and look at the pictures you will see it. My chicken live in my garden. They only move when I move everything. I don't see a problem with moving your chickens back and forth from run to coop. I like picking up my chickens up and they don't seem to mind, so you should be fine.