Crun? Roop? For unconventional coops, where does coop end and run begin?

Mother of Chaos

Originally ChaosMom
Premium Feather Member
Feb 2, 2025
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Western NC - city+mountains
TL/DR: has anyone just opened up their coop into a locked, protected run, and managed to sleep at night?

We have a Nestera coop and love it. It is absolutely fabulous for many things, but this does not include the ventilation needed for safety and comfort in latitudes lower than in the UK, which pretty much means all the US except for Alaska. (Our pullets are perfectly fine with the size, and frequently pack together at night, per the pattern of chicken doots on the floor.)

We’ve scrambled up some tarp shade, which is working well. But I’d also like to construct an outdoor roost area for daytime and possibly nighttime use in hot weather. I’d probably wrap it on two sides with vertical bamboo/reed “fencing” for a sense of containment and a bit of a sun- and windbreak (see pic of one type below.) The Nestera would still be there as a place to sleep at night.

My brain keeps getting stuck on predator proofing. This area is completely enclosed within a locked HWC-wrapped 8x15 run, including ceiling and aprons (not floor.) There is no sign of anything having attempted to get in over the last 3+ months. If something DID get in the run, and if it could then get in the coop, the chickens would be trapped and doomed. But if chickens were roosting at night on this future roost and something got in, they could fly around and raise holy hell, waking us up.

But I just can’t get past the thought of an unlocked coop.

Has anyone done this to some degree? Essentially deconstructing your coop by removing one or more walls, but within a strong, locked run.

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TL/DR: has anyone just opened up their coop into a locked, protected run, and managed to sleep at night?

We have a Nestera coop and love it. It is absolutely fabulous for many things, but this does not include the ventilation needed for safety and comfort in latitudes lower than in the UK, which pretty much means all the US except for Alaska. (Our pullets are perfectly fine with the size, and frequently pack together at night, per the pattern of chicken doots on the floor.)

We’ve scrambled up some tarp shade, which is working well. But I’d also like to construct an outdoor roost area for daytime and possibly nighttime use in hot weather. I’d probably wrap it on two sides with vertical bamboo/reed “fencing” for a sense of containment and a bit of a sun- and windbreak (see pic of one type below.) The Nestera would still be there as a place to sleep at night.

My brain keeps getting stuck on predator proofing. This area is completely enclosed within a locked HWC-wrapped 8x15 run, including ceiling and aprons (not floor.) There is no sign of anything having attempted to get in over the last 3+ months. If something DID get in the run, and if it could then get in the coop, the chickens would be trapped and doomed. But if chickens were roosting at night on this future roost and something got in, they could fly around and raise holy hell, waking us up.

But I just can’t get past the thought of an unlocked coop.

Has anyone done this to some degree? Essentially deconstructing your coop by removing one or more walls, but within a strong, locked run.

View attachment 4153490

I’ve never had chickens, but I’ve heard about “open air” coops from scrolling around here, maybe that could be something to look into? It’s essentially a coop with one or two “open” sides that are HC!
 
I’ve never had chickens, but I’ve heard about “open air” coops from scrolling around here, maybe that could be something to look into? It’s essentially a coop with one or two “open” sides that are HC!
I was thinking that the open sides on these were actually covered with HWC. So open to the sun and air, but not “stroll on in” open. @Ted Brown

I’m thinking of just open, no HWC. I don’t want to construct a door and wall and try to work around them when cleaning.
 
TL/DR: has anyone just opened up their coop into a locked, protected run, and managed to sleep at night?

We have a Nestera coop and love it. It is absolutely fabulous for many things, but this does not include the ventilation needed for safety and comfort in latitudes lower than in the UK, which pretty much means all the US except for Alaska. (Our pullets are perfectly fine with the size, and frequently pack together at night, per the pattern of chicken doots on the floor.)

We’ve scrambled up some tarp shade, which is working well. But I’d also like to construct an outdoor roost area for daytime and possibly nighttime use in hot weather. I’d probably wrap it on two sides with vertical bamboo/reed “fencing” for a sense of containment and a bit of a sun- and windbreak (see pic of one type below.) The Nestera would still be there as a place to sleep at night.

My brain keeps getting stuck on predator proofing. This area is completely enclosed within a locked HWC-wrapped 8x15 run, including ceiling and aprons (not floor.) There is no sign of anything having attempted to get in over the last 3+ months. If something DID get in the run, and if it could then get in the coop, the chickens would be trapped and doomed. But if chickens were roosting at night on this future roost and something got in, they could fly around and raise holy hell, waking us up.

But I just can’t get past the thought of an unlocked coop.

Has anyone done this to some degree? Essentially deconstructing your coop by removing one or more walls, but within a strong, locked run.

View attachment 4153490
Our school has one, there isn't even a door on the port between the run and coop! It's completely built with hardware cloth and solid roof, so extremely predator proof. Works pretty well, no predation except humans sometimes trying to steal them.
 
I have two runs, with the coop built inbetween them. One run is secured with 1/2" hardware cloth top to bottom, and the coop is wide open on that side.

The other run is for day use only and it keeps the chickens in, but a motivated predator could get in. There's a manually operated sliding door I close when it's time for the chickens to be locked up for the night. I've had no problems yet with either run.

The chickens slept in the secure run at night until I mounted roost bars in the coop.

IMG_5295.JPG IMG_5296.JPG IMG_5297.JPG IMG_5530.JPG IMG_5572.JPG
 

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