I have no idea...

[Jen4]

Ok, pretty new here, dont have any chickens....Yet. Looks like I'm getting a old doghouse from freecycle (havent seen it yet, still waiting for the lady to get back to me) but I plan on turning it into a small chicken coop. Now heres my question I'm going to make alittle run for it too. I'm doing this on my own and have no clue what to do. Do I use chicken wire? Do you get that at the hardware store? Also how much should I tell them I need, dont want to look stupid when I go in there....it doesnt have to be big. I'm going to have a better coop and run in the spring. I am going to let the chickens free range when they are old enough, I'm home all day. Sorry if I sound like I dont know what I'm talking about.....I've never built anything in my whole life and I'm not good with numbers...lol I dont even know if I'm good with a hammer. But I'm going to find out

Maybe by then Dh will start to feel sorry for me and help?

 

[Chicabee19]

Welcome!

I'm pretty new myself. My chickens will arrive at Thanksgiving so our rehomed shed coop needs to be up by then!

The best thing to do is browse the coop discussion board and look at pictures of coops and runs. Like the rest of us, you'll probably come up with a lot of different ideas and plans.

Learning all this stuff is part of the fun!

 

[Jen4]

Chicabee19 wrote:

The best thing to do is browse the coop discussion board and look at pictures of coops and runs. Like the rest of us, you'll probably come up with a lot of different ideas and plans.

Yep thats what I've been doing.....you could be on here for days and not even realize it. lol I've got some many ideas shooting through my head, its spinning.

 

[Chicabee19]

that happened to me too when I first got here. I was sick so was able to spend hours every day reading posts.

what happens is usually something falls in your lap that's different from what's in your head and you just go with the flow.

Walk around the outside perimeter of your planned run area with a tape measure - that will be the length of chicken wire you'll need.

Most people use welded wire panels and chicken wire layered together to predator-proof the run (see here: img/smilies/smile.png" alt="smile" />">http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=19380&cat_id=19)

 

[SSO202]

If you are not going to big for the run then I would make it all out of hardware cloth ( it is a type of fencing in the same category of chicken wire). It offers the most protection from all types of predators. Don't worry about asking questions...you know the old saying the only dumb question is the one not asked!!! Your local hardware store can you help you alot. You should make the run on even measurements with the wire you buy to minimize the cuts. Good Luck!

 

[Jen4]

Thanks guys...

 

[Cetawin]

Welcome! When your dog house arrives, look at it carefully for the size and keep that in mind when you order chicks. Depending on whether you get standards or bantams will also play into the size of your run.

 

[coffeelady3]

Hardware cloth comes in 2, 3 and 4 foot wide rolls. I attached a small run to a dog house for my 2 girls. I made it 4x3x2. I made it 2 feet tall so that I could use the 3 foot wide roll that would cover the 2 feet with a foot or so left over for a skirt around the bottom. By having my dimensions figured out already I could figure out that I would need about 15 feet of the 3 foot wide hardware cloth to cover the darned thing. (I ended up getting 20, better to have too much then too little!)

This is what I ended up with.

 

[Jen4]

coffeelady3 - Looks good.