'Im building a new chicken run lol....

[stellas mommy]

So here is my setup summed up. I moved into a house with 8 1/2 acres and little did we know of the "problem" the property had. There were two large feral cat hoarders/owners on either side of the property. One with over a hundred feral cats they were feeding out of a 5 gal bucket and the other with over 50 they were feeding too. The problem was so out of control they were killing my chickens just for the pleasure of it. Anyways so the free ranging idea went out of the window quickly. There was a 10x10x8 chain link dog run with a cement floor that was covered attached to a dog house so I put them in there for the time being and build them a covered run off of that so they would have some room to run besides just the cement part. We contacted the department of wildlife and farm and they gave us permission to eliminate the cat problem if they were killing livestock (yes the cats fell under that because they were feral) My husband got used to the chickens being pinned up constantly and doesn't want them out of it anymore. Anyways so the small area I made for the run just seemed too little so while my husband went on vacation I worked on a bigger better run attached to the already built run... I'm sure I'll be called crazy for it but I'm using a unused horse corral, all in all it took over 4 hours to get the corral gates from the back side of the property and put it up where I wanted it to be and set up (because he took the truck and I had to pick them up by hand). And over 8 hours to put up the 60 inch tall chicken wire and zip tie it to the corral. I am almost finished and wanted to take pics last night but by the time I got into the house it was almost 1am lol. Time flies when your working on chicken runs I guess. So as of right now everything is set up where it needs to be, I just need to finish the gate, and get some 3/4 minus gravel that I had laying around and put it at the bottom of the corral on top of the extra wire that was too long to fit. I'll just insure my chickens safety even more. And I just have to limit how long I let the chickens eat the grass in the corral because I don't want them to eat it all bare. Any advice on that or how to keep them from pecking it bare? I have 26 hens and 2 roosters.

Here are some pictures of it put up, excuse the mess I made. It all still needs to be cleared out of all the junk and tires and then were good to go. All in all for the materials I had to buy to do this only cost me 120 bucks. Since the corral was just sitting around collecting dust and rust I figured why not! What do you think? Am I nuts for even doing this?

 

[Gargoyle]

Looks good. The chicken wire wouldn't keep raccoons out, but it will keep the cats out, and it gives your chicks a big yard in which to play

We also started by converting a chain link fenced concrete pad dog run into out initial run (it's 20' x 8'). We covered it, secured it, and now we've expanded to an area with dirt floor. The dog run made for a good solid starting point..

 

[old biddie50]

That looks wonderful for the chickies I'm wondering though if the cats might be able to climb that.? Time will tell I guess. I have been free ranging my girls in the evening while I can sit out an watch them. My barn cats were very interested in them while we were building the run but since I sit with them they have been ignoring them. And a couple of the hens have taken to chasing the cats! They go to bed by 8:30 and will only go earlier as the sun sets earlier. Don't like them digging up my flower beds though. Trying to figure a way around that. Any suggestions?

 

[Gargoyle]

Don't like them digging up my flower beds though. Trying to figure a way around that. Any suggestions?

What do you mean "your" flower beds. The chickens know those are their flower beds.

Solution might be to plant some separate flower beds that are just for the chickens, and put chicken wire around "your" flowers.

 

[BButterfly]

Another thing you may want to add to the outside of the fence is 3 strands of electric. This solves our problem with any animal! We even bought a solar charger! Saves on money down the line!!
Hope all goes well,
BButterfly

 

[kauffmann]

good idea

 

[stellas mommy]

That looks wonderful for the chickies I'm wondering though if the cats might be able to climb that.? Time will tell I guess. I have been free ranging my girls in the evening while I can sit out an watch them. My barn cats were very interested in them while we were building the run but since I sit with them they have been ignoring them. And a couple of the hens have taken to chasing the cats! They go to bed by 8:30 and will only go earlier as the sun sets earlier. Don't like them digging up my flower beds though. Trying to figure a way around that. Any suggestions?

Well what were still doing is we have a few live catch cage that we have either chicken, or canned wet catfood in and they go in there and get caught and we take them into either the farel cat society or we take them to get put down. I had a kitten though that I kept and named spud, she was from a feral mama we got her blood tested and she is positive for feline lukimia and feline hurpies. Poor thing, so you can bet she was either born with it or caught it from the feral cats around here. So all in all the department of wildlife is more then happy to help eliminate the problem around here because they have gotten bold enough to hurt animals and humans. So I havent seen a wild cat around here for maybe a month or so, so thats why I started the project. Im sure the coons can get in and out of there no problem so thats why I left up the existing chicken run thats covered and everything head to toe secured. So that I can secure them properly from other animals and control how much grass they eat and how long their in there for I dont want them to be on constant mud durring the winter time ( I live in Oregon so its pretty swampy around here at times)

Have you thought about building a fence around your entire flower bed? or maybe even netting would work, like I know theres netting that is very light and you throw over ponds to keep the debris and animals out. its like 7.99 at my feed store and thats for 20square ft of it.

 

[jackhorn01]

I enjoy seeing other people getting crafty with what they have to work with like I did. That was good use of that hold horse corral. I converted an old tin garage into my coop. On the grass note, you can pretty much kiss it good bye lol. Between them scratching and eating it like goats it won't stand a chance.

 

[stellas mommy]

Yeah thats what I figured. is there anything I can put down that they wont peck at?

 

[old biddie50]

I have kind of resigned myself to the mulch being thrown everywhere. I think in the spring I might mulch with river rock to see if that keeps them from digging so much. Right now they don't range too far from the coop and I think part of that is they aren't out too long. My daughter just lost her big rooster to the neighborhood fox. For once she was lucky to have hatched another rooster.