Covered or uncovered run?

[gumbita]

So I made the newbie mistake of not having the coop done in a timely manner and the birds needed to go outside, so I ordered a prefab one off amazon instead of building the one I originally wanted to. It is really hard to get under and clean it, but I'm going to just try to make due with what I have and I was considering taking off the little attached run and building a larger walk in one of 2x4s and hardware cloth over the coop house, because then it will be easier to clean and the birds will have more space. My questions are, one, does this sound like an ok idea, and two, I live in Houston, it tends to rain a lot, should I cover the run like in the original design I wanted (I was going to build the Garden Coop) or are they fine without a cover and they can run under the coop to get out of the rain, or does wet cover in the run cause problems for them? Thank you! I'll post a pick of what I have right now. (And I just have five 5-8 week chicks)

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Shade will be more important than getting out of the rain. The rain will help everything decompose faster. More than anything they need good shade in the summer, though.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

So I made the newbie mistake of not having the coop done in a timely manner and the birds needed to go outside, so I ordered a prefab one off amazon instead of building the one I originally wanted to. It is really hard to get under and clean it, but I'm going to just try to make due with what I have and I was considering taking off the little attached run and building a larger walk in one of 2x4s and hardware cloth over the coop house, because then it will be easier to clean and the birds will have more space. My questions are, one, does this sound like an ok idea, and two, I live in Houston, it tends to rain a lot, should I cover the run like in the original design I wanted (I was going to build the Garden Coop) or are they fine without a cover and they can run under the coop to get out of the rain, or does wet cover in the run cause problems for them? Thank you! I'll post a pick of what I have right now. (And I just have five 5-8 week chicks)

You should definitely cover the run. My birds spend very little time in the coop, only to sleep and lay eggs. If you don’t cover your rum, you will have a muddy slippery mess in the winter.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

So I made the newbie mistake of not having the coop done in a timely manner and the birds needed to go outside, so I ordered a prefab one off amazon instead of building the one I originally wanted to. It is really hard to get under and clean it, but I'm going to just try to make due with what I have and I was considering taking off the little attached run and building a larger walk in one of 2x4s and hardware cloth over the coop house, because then it will be easier to clean and the birds will have more space. My questions are, one, does this sound like an ok idea, and two, I live in Houston, it tends to rain a lot, should I cover the run like in the original design I wanted (I was going to build the Garden Coop) or are they fine without a cover and they can run under the coop to get out of the rain, or does wet cover in the run cause problems for them? Thank you! I'll post a pick of what I have right now. (And I just have five 5-8 week chicks)

How tall is that run? I can’t tell from the picture. What are the dimensions of that run? Looks to me like you could take the top off that run and add pieces of 2 x 4‘s or 2x3’s, whatever they used on that so it will match, that are about 2 foot long and put 2 foot wide Hardware cloth there and then just reattach the existing roof and put some plastic paneling on top of that.The hardware store sells all kind of metal connectors for that purpose.

 

[gumbita]

I did put it underneath trees, so it gets some sun for about two hours in the morning on the front side but the back has shade and the whole thing for the rest of the day thankfully.

The run is only about 4 ft tall and the whole thing is roughly 7' x 5' (a bit more than that because there's space under the egg box as well.) I already knew I'd have a problem cleaning it once it was assembled, but I needed something fast. I thought maybe if I just took off all the run parts and hardware cloth and then built basically a box of 2x4s and hardware cloth around the whole thing with a door and a plastic roof it would work better. But the coop itself is actually a pain to clean and Im thinking maybe I should just forget it, and build the one I originally wanted to build (see picture) because this one is almost making me want to give up the chickens. I've spent a good part of the day screwing with the coop and chickens for the past couple of days and now one of the chicks cut her foot on the ladder and bled everywhere so I had to take care of that too. I loved them and had less issues when they were in a brooder in my living room for 8 weeks!

 

[gumbita]

Here's the one I had the plans to build:

 

[rosemarythyme]

Build the coop you want, and use the one you have in the meantime (assuming there's room). It'll buy you some extra time and then you can reuse the prefab as an isolation set up.

As far as covering the run, obviously if you build the one you want that'll be covered. Otherwise the chickens can manage rain by themselves and covering the run would mostly be for predator protection and shade.

 

[gumbita]

That may not be a bad idea to have an extra one for isolation if necessary. I'm kind of leaning that direction. I feel I'd just enjoy my birds more if it wasn't so hard to do simple things like cleaning the coop!

 

[danceswithronin]

That may not be a bad idea to have an extra one for isolation if necessary. I'm kind of leaning that direction. I feel I'd just enjoy my birds more if it wasn't so hard to do simple things like cleaning the coop!

I bought one of those prefab coops last summer, and I'm currently designing a walk-in 8x8ft coop to build by hand over the next few weeks because the prefab is such a pain in the *** to clean and work around. It's gonna be much more expensive, and tedious because I'm having to measure and design everything custom, but I think the quality of life improvement will be worth it, and I'll end up spending a LOT more time with the girls. Plus by building a custom coop I'll get exactly what features I want in it.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I feel I'd just enjoy my birds more if it wasn't so hard to do simple things like cleaning the coop!

Yeah having to bend over, or contort yourself into weird positions just to feed or clean or access your birds isn't enjoyable, period. You'll be amazed at how less of a "chore" it is when you can do something as simple as stand upright!