Hack my run: advice please!

[violamama]

I am preparing to build our first run for our 14 pet chickens. They're generally a mix of big egg laying breeds. Their coop is the 10 x 10 shed in the right half of this picture. We plan to add an automatic door to the wall you see facing downhill toward the swing set.

I hope to have the run look "nice" because it's visible from our living room. I was thinking 4x4 posts with top and bottom sideways 2x4 rails. We've read here that hardware cloth is the way to go so that's our plan, and burying a skirt of it.

The space cleared here (still has piles of blackberry canes in it that we'll burn up) is about 15 x 25.

-Will it get stinky without a solid roof? (We live in NW Oregon so there are times of year where it rains every day for weeks.)

-Will I need to add a lot of litter outside?

-If I divide it in half lengthwise, and only let the ladies in one half per week (fence them out), will any vegetation survive? And would that help with any smell?

-What features of a run make it look nicest? Besides the pretty birds, of course.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I am preparing to build our first run for our 14 pet chickens. They're generally a mix of big egg laying breeds. Their coop is the 10 x 10 shed in the right half of this picture. We plan to add an automatic door to the wall you see facing downhill toward the swing set.

I hope to have the run look "nice" because it's visible from our living room. I was thinking 4x4 posts with top and bottom sideways 2x4 rails. We've read here that hardware cloth is the way to go so that's our plan, and burying a skirt of it.

The space cleared here (still has piles of blackberry canes in it that we'll burn up) is about 15 x 25.

-Will it get stinky without a solid roof?

-Will I need to add a lot of litter outside?

-If I divide it in half lengthwise, and only let the ladies in one half per week (fence them out), will any vegetation survive? And would that help with any smell?

-what features of a run make it look nicest? Besides the pretty birds, of course.

Outside uncovered runs do not smell like inside/covered ones because the rain washes a lot into the dirt----as long as your soil drains. I use 10 x 10 x6 ft tall dog kennels I pick up used---I feel they look good, for sure stronger than hardware cloth and if you can find some used ones----you can use them 10 to 15 years and get all your money back out of them----that's free. I have found a lot of used ones. Only takes minutes to put up one, minutes to add another one. Nothing is better in my opinion.

 

[violamama]

That does look nice and tidy. Thanks for the idea- I'll look around and see what's in our area. We had thought about a vinyl coated chain link run...