Huge Chicken Coop

[Ausdotte]

I can't take credit for any of it being my idea, my husband built it.

 

[Leighe]

View attachment 1099632 My hubby built a shed like frame with 2/4s and then We ran welded wire all around it and then chicken wire over the welded wire

Whoa....I like that frame too!!!!!!

 

[Leighe]

I just read every post up to here.
I and a friend covered a yard for a woman.
we used chicken wire over the whole thing.
It was 50 feet by 130 feet.
it was to keep her cats from getting out.

pepers didn't say where he is from.
but poultry netting, ground cover cloth etc are no good where it snows.
I built a 12 x 25 foot fly pen. I put chicken wire over the whole top.
the walls are 1 inch square 10 gage wire.
the walls are 8 feet tall.

I would not use wood rails to hold up the "roor" on a chicken yard. wood rots.
get some heavy wire and stretch it from post to post on the opposite side of the yard.
support it with a post wherever the wires cross. then just lay your chicken wire over it.
tie it down with wire. don't use plastic zip ties,
they will deteriorate from the sun.

make the outside posts plenty tall so that you can walk in the yard without having to duck.

there used to be a fencing, 6 feet tall called yard guard if I remember correctly.
at the bottom it had very tiny rectangular holes. and the rectangles got larger the higher it went. I think it topped out at 2 inch x 3 inch squares at the top.

for my present run, I have 4 feet of cyclone fence with 1 inch chicken wire attached to the bottom 2 feet of it.

I don't worry about preds, I have a pair of Maremma LGD. like in the picture..
we haven't lost a bird in the past 8 years since we got these dogs.
my chickens are free ranging and we do not lock the coop at night.

we have a river running half way around out porperty.
and we have all the preds except mt lions.
although I did see one about 4 miles from my house..

I've got !/2 Great Pyrenees 1/2 Komondor pups growing up to do that very thing. Protect everything inside the perimeter fence. We are slowly fencing in 6 acres so they will roam all night and find a shady spot to sleep in the day!

 

[malmohuset]

This is our run - built this spring. It is only 24x18 though.
Each 4x4 post is set 6 feet apart. The fence panels are made with 4 2x4s for the verticals and fence boards for the horizontals and 1/2 inch hardware cloth all the way up. Over the top I currently have chicken wire to keep birds out of the run. I am not worried about other predators because our dog is outside all day and the coop is pretty much secure from anything at night. I would like to run hardware cloth over the top instead of chicken wire, but it is pricey.
I only went 18' wide because I knew I could easily source 20' 2x4s for the beams up top. I used hardware cloth under the ground 2 feet out rather than down. What I like about this design is that should I want to expand it, I can remove any panel and go from there. But our girls are free ranging during the day so there probably is no point. I'm trying to train the dog to herd them in should he see a hawk or eagle... that's a whole other post.

This took a while to design, but the actual build was pretty straight forward. The fence posts were the hardest part. The panels just required a bit of effort with the hardware cloth. You can see on the panels at the back, I used more fence boards - but in the end I also covered these with wire. NOTHING bigger than 1/2" is getting in here without me opening the door - well... I suppose a raccoon might want to climb over top and shred the chicken wire but the dog won't be too pleased.

Anyway... I imagine you could just double the size of this thing and have some posts inside to support your roof/cover.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Why do you pity my chickens? I have no doubts that my chicken wire will protect them from everything but mountain lions and bears. It has already stood up to years of skunks, raccoons, bobcats, multiple dog attacks, and several coyotes and foxes.

So far you have been lucky. Luck is bound to run out eventually.

 

[Leighe]

Gosh....thank you everyone who has contributed to this post so far. So many great pics of runs and so many incredible ideas. Ya'll are genius's! @MrPepers I hope you have gotten some great ideas...cause I certainly have. Thank you so much for starting this thread.

 

[MrPepers]

So far you have been lucky. Luck is bound to run out eventually.

The same goes with hardware cloth. And, if that is your logic, then I pity your chickens.

 

[WalnutHill]

I isn't luck, it is simply installing the wire correctly. My chicken wire has stood up to many predators and never broke.

My coops are enclosed with welded wire and covered with chicken wire. Reasonably secure against the small varmints around here. My runs are enclosed with cyclone fence kennel panels. A straying Malamute tore apart the chain link and killed 26 birds. CHAIN LINK. A serious predator won't even lose speed with chicken wire.

 

[MrPepers]

My coops are enclosed with welded wire and covered with chicken wire. Reasonably secure against the small varmints around here. My runs are enclosed with cyclone fence kennel panels. A straying Malamute tore apart the chain link and killed 26 birds. CHAIN LINK. A serious predator won't even lose speed with chicken wire.

So what is a "serious" predator to you. Are dogs, coyotes, and bobcats not serious predators? How did a dog rip apart your chain link? Did it have proper tension, compression bars, and a bottom wire?

 

[MrPepers]

I'd suggest hardware cloth like everyone else. Your chicken wire may have worked for now and it's true that it is way cheaper (I was even planning on using it for my new run before this thread!), but if/when a predator breaks down your chicken wire and gets in, you'll just be losing your poor chickens, and your chicken wire. In the end, a waste of money on the wire, and (this feels so wrong for me to say! ) on your poor chickens since they could all be wiped out in minutes. They could be fine for 10 more years with chicken wire, but the second a predator really wants one of your chickens and your roo, guinea fowl, or you aren't there to alert you/chase off/kill the predator, you're going to at least lose a couple.

A raccoon can destroy chicken wire easily and kill your chickens

No wire (including hardware cloth) is completely predator proof. I have had many predators (including raccoons) that couldn't break through the chicken wire. I have had a great experience using chicken wire and it isn't just luck, chicken wire works. Hardware cloth is no different and a predator could still break through it.