Need some help drafting a run, Please :)

[WRVgirl]

Just caught a HAWK sitting on top of my chicken coop, calling his buddies over for lunch

I've got 10 English Orpington babies and I would be crushed if something happened to any of them.

Problem is, I SUCK at carpentry and building fences. My last attempt was a $300 fence that fell down before my chickens figured out how to fly over it.

Can anyone share advice on how to make it sturdy, and cheap, and possibly portable? I would like to make it sort of like a chicken tractor that I can move around so I keep some grass alive in the yard.

Has anyone done this and have plans that they can share with me?

Any advice on how to acquire cheap materials or build something sturdy, yet portable would be most greatly appreciated!!!

 

[goldfinches]

Can you post a pic of your coop? (That is, if you want it attached to your coop.)

My tractor is just 4x4x2 corner posts with 2x4's tying them together, making sort of a box. I covered it with hardwire cloth.

 

[WRVgirl]

Right now, I have 2 small coops, I'm trying to talk my husband into letting me convert the old shed into a coop and then trying to attach a run to the shed.

My problem is, the big coop that none of my chickens will use, came with a run but there was no way to close the coop door at night without moving the 8' run or climbing in to close it. If I have the shed, I can attach the run to the dog door side and use the human door to enter and exit.

I'll grab some pictures of the shed and get them up here soon.

 

[WRVgirl]

Well, I think I fixed the problem for now...I have two small coops, both came with runs but I only assembled one of them because the other coop has the free ranging hens living in it....


So I just assembled the second run and attached it to the first one.

The chicks seem much happier already, they're all out exploring and nobody is pecking at one another, I guess it was pretty cramped in there. Poor babies!

 

[WRVgirl]

Oops. forgot to add the pictures!

 

[perchie.girl]

Just caught a HAWK sitting on top of my chicken coop, calling his buddies over for lunch

I've got 10 English Orpington babies and I would be crushed if something happened to any of them.

Problem is, I SUCK at carpentry and building fences. My last attempt was a $300 fence that fell down before my chickens figured out how to fly over it.

Can anyone share advice on how to make it sturdy, and cheap, and possibly portable? I would like to make it sort of like a chicken tractor that I can move around so I keep some grass alive in the yard.

Has anyone done this and have plans that they can share with me?

Any advice on how to acquire cheap materials or build something sturdy, yet portable would be most greatly appreciated!!!

Dog kennel panels come six foot by six foot and are made of chain-link They clamp together with kennel clamps which only takes a wrench and a steady pair of hands. you can string them together to make a run about six by twelve pretty inexpensively. The beauty of them is you can add to them as you go so you don't have a huge expense right off. A roof over the whole thing can consist of a tarp or just bird netting. They can be moved but they are heavy. Chain link cant protect against Raccoon's grabbing a leg or a head through the wire so any where the chickens will roost for the night should be reinforced by Hardware cloth.

If you aren't handy a simple tractor would be easy to make out of PVC pipe covered in chicken wire. There are a couple of examples in the coops pages. For cutting PVC I suggest getting Cutters just for the job. They act like scissors and don't leave a mess. They run about nine bucks at Home Depot.

You can erect the whole thing around the coop you have but from the looks of your existing coop it will not be large enough for ten Birds. Nor secure enough. Ten full sized hens will need 40square feet of coop space if you go with the 4 square feet per bird rule. I have just a little more than that in a six by six space and they do OK not perfect but thats going to change to six by twelve pretty soon.

If it were me I would choose a sacrificial part of the yard and build something perminant that a person can go in standing to collect eggs and clean. Dig in predator proof wire below ground to protect against digging predators. Here three sides is about all we need but often times people get one of those Little Tykes play houses to convert to a coop. You can find them on Craigs list.

 

[WRVgirl]

Dog kennel panels come six foot by six foot and are made of chain-link They clamp together with kennel clamps which only takes a wrench and a steady pair of hands. you can string them together to make a run about six by twelve pretty inexpensively. The beauty of them is you can add to them as you go so you don't have a huge expense right off. A roof over the whole thing can consist of a tarp or just bird netting. They can be moved but they are heavy. Chain link cant protect against Raccoon's grabbing a leg or a head through the wire so any where the chickens will roost for the night should be reinforced by Hardware cloth.

If you aren't handy a simple tractor would be easy to make out of PVC pipe covered in chicken wire. There are a couple of examples in the coops pages. For cutting PVC I suggest getting Cutters just for the job. They act like scissors and don't leave a mess. They run about nine bucks at Home Depot.

You can erect the whole thing around the coop you have but from the looks of your existing coop it will not be large enough for ten Birds. Nor secure enough. Ten full sized hens will need 40square feet of coop space if you go with the 4 square feet per bird rule. I have just a little more than that in a six by six space and they do OK not perfect but thats going to change to six by twelve pretty soon.

If it were me I would choose a sacrificial part of the yard and build something perminant that a person can go in standing to collect eggs and clean. Dig in predator proof wire below ground to protect against digging predators. Here three sides is about all we need but often times people get one of those Little Tykes play houses to convert to a coop. You can find them on Craigs list.

Thank you.

The coop that they're in now is just a baby coop so they can be acclimated to outdoor living. We have two other coops and I'm getting ready to turn the shed into a massive coop

Great information though, thank you so much!!!