My garden! Noooooo!

[GD91]

Long story short... its spring! And I have been FORCED to pen my chickens. Because of aggression or predators or escapees? No.

Its because during the winter my garden looked like.... well, just mud. Not a green blade in sight. It was all grass & weeds in December when we moved in. A WEEK later it was a muddy desert.

Then spring arrived & it was a dry desert. I looked out of the window & could have believed I was living in one of the hottest areas of Texas when the sun shone. Tumbleweeds blowing about would not have looked out of place. I'm not, I'm in the UK.
And sitting in the middle of this desert that was bare of even the most troublesome weeds were 5 fat, glossy chickens happily dustbathing in the dust that was once a green lawn.



My poor landlords visits were"no comment" about it but I knew I shouldn't let the poor man suffer thinking his garden was being destroyed by a mad chicken lady. So I constructed a pen & chucked all the chickens in it.

10 days later the garden area is almost completely green again!
My plants & seedling are also now safe from these feathered mowing machines.


Any ideas on toys for my birds to help boredom in a pen?

I've given them some huge branches, a wire dogcrate tipped on its side & full of hay & hidden treats to play in (very popular) &an old rabbit hutch to sit in / on.

I also want them to be able to get in & out at dawn - dusk, but there's no roof on the pen & we have foxes locally, although our garden is guarded by our black tom cat who has an outdoor bed so they don't stray in here.

I was thinking a gap high up at the top of the coop & a ladder going up..... our birds wings are clipped.

Anyone got any good ideas?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

If you make a gap in your coop that is open at night, rats, weasels, raccoons, owls, hawks, etc. could squeeze through and kill your chickens.

You would need to make the pen secure from predators too (very tricky but could be done)- with buried wire (or a wire apron) and a wire top. Only 1/2 inch hardware cloth will keep out rats and weasels.

 

[GD91]

If you make a gap in your coop that is open at night, rats, weasels, raccoons, owls, hawks, etc. could squeeze through and kill your chickens.

You would need to make the pen secure from predators too (very tricky but could be done)- with buried wire (or a wire apron) and a wire top. Only 1/2 inch hardware cloth will keep out rats and weasels.

We have only got foxes & mice here & the odd rat.... Nothing else survives in this town because some people persecute the wildlife!

That was my thought exactly. This coop & run is temporary. We are working on a bigger coop & secure fort knox run. But I want an extra coop (from my understandings of chicken mathematics, I'm going to need it.)

So, I was hoping to do up the temporary coop & pen to house temporary chickens....