I finished building and predator-proofing (as much as possible--spent a small fortune in hardware cloth) an 8x8 run, and I moved my 6 week old girls and their temporary coop into the run last night. Boy, are they happy! The leghorns discovered that they can fly to the top of the coop and the RIRs discovered they can't--at least not yet. But they are happily scratching away, eating grass and bugs, taking dust baths--what a lovely sight! I'll start working on the permanent coop in August when my brother returns for a visit--he's the builder in the family. The temporary one is something I picked up at Country Max a couple of years ago when I was dreaming of having chickens but I hadn't read enough to realize it was totally unsuitable as a year-round dwelling. Plus it is too small for 6 full grown chickens!
