Looking for ideas and/or pics...

[FellowshipFarm]

I want to build a new chicken compound. Right now, I'm using two 10x10x6' dog kennels and another 16x16x8' run that I built for my birds. Each pen gets to come out and free range for a few days, then they get put up and the next pen gets to come out. I have decided that I want to focus on three specific breeds, and breed them. I want to build new homes for them. I've got a plot of ground probably 40x60'. My first thought was to build three runs with coops at the back, parallel to each other, all under the same roof. Has anybody done this and have pictures I can see? Or do you have another idea? I would love to be able to pick up eggs around back without having to go into the runs.

 

[yyz0yyz0]

I got some kennel panels from someone who used to breed dogs, they had 4 dog runs that all ran parallel to each other out from garage and they shared internal fencing. Each dog run had a doggy door into the garage from the individual run. I assume that inside the garage was also partitioned off to keep the dogs separate once they were inside.

I thought this would be a good way to have chickens and keep breeds all separate.

I would go with one long coop building with dividers between the sections on the inside. The runs would all be parallel to each other with shared dividing walls. Since the dividing walls/fencing would just keep birds separated, it could be made out of chicken wire with no predator risk. All the exterior run panels/fencing would need to me much stronger than chicken wire but this would save money vs having separate individual runs that need all sides secure.

The coop itself becomes one secure side of the runs and you only need to build the other three sides secure with much simpler dividers between the runs.

 

[FellowshipFarm]

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, so I'm not way out in left field. All of my birds drink from water nipple things, so what about running one large water system, with a good-sized pipe run across the front of the coop, inside the run, with nipples in each run. That way I only have to fill one barrel, or have a rainwater system or something.