Ideas for run clutter with a small run?

[charlotte-and-the-bees]

I have a big open area but not fully secure, so the girls are only out there when I’m home and can lightly keep an eye out. Their run is about 12x5 and looking for some ideas for hiding spots for our new pullets.

 

[3KillerBs]

You can probably lean a pallet against the wall somewhere.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Lean a pallet, just make sure no dead ends where a bird cannot get away. I would also put up a bunch of roosts at different heights, stack up since there is so little floor space.

 

[Boise-girls]

I don't know if this will help, but I had a bit of an epiphany regarding my hens' pen today. Normally, they're free to come and go from the pen and connected coop to the "chicken yard" all day long, so I haven't put a lot of thought into how the one's configured. However, I was going to be gone from 5 to 10 pm tonight, so locked them in the pen before I left. They were pissed! Even though I threw in some sow bugs to distract them.

As I looked around the pen, I saw that while there was a fair amount of clutter, it wasn't very useful clutter. The only things that really get used are the roosts and the substrate - lots of fluffy stuff for scratching and pecking. By contrast, there are several "rooms" in the chicken yard that keep them busy and separated all day long - an A-frame tractor repurposed as a chicken tunnel; a mound of Virginia creeper on an old compost bin: an old willow surrounded by lemon balm; a stump room (three stumps, a couple chairs, shade cloth and straw); and other shade-cloth-covered areas with things like a large dirt-filled planter, a sand bath, a small table, a mound of dry leaves, etc.

I won't be able to duplicate that in their 8x16 pen, obviously, but I'm going to see if I can come up with ideas for mini-rooms in there, too. Definitely some stumps, a pallet or plywood on cinder blocks, another dirt-filled flowerpot, etc.

 

[RojoMarz]

add a chair, tree stump, upside down flower pot, pallets, old ladder, whatever you have laying around...

Here's a couple threads, maybe more ideas:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/#post-21588571

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-my-run-cluttered-enough.1427536/#post-23503458