Possible chicken run - former garden area.

[Away2me]

Excuse my mess! This area is 10' x10'. We are thinking of removing the dirt and setting up our run area in that space. The wall is about 5' 6". We would only make it as tall as the wall. (Plenty tall for this short person and young kids)

Our first thought is to keep the railroad ties in place. The gate can open outwards and we can step into the run. I can place a small shelving type coop inside. We are in a very hot climate so I hate to get too elaborate of a coop. I rather the hens have more yard space.

We are very limited on how many hens we can keep, 4-6 max. ( I think I'm only allowed 4).

Any thoughts or suggestions? Should we just frame out the area and use hardware mesh?

 

[sunflour]

Looks like a great place for chickens to play. If the railroad ties could be left in place, I would. I like your idea of framing around what you already have. If you don't have to move the dirt, I would leave it for the chickens…great dirt bath area. Also, if the plants/weeds there are chicken safe, I would leave them as well. 4 will get rid of those in one day.

Good luck with the project, would like to see a pic when you finish.

 

[Ridgerunner]

In many ways that looks great. It should work really well for 4 hens.

Are you planning on putting a top on that? I think you should. Chickens like to perch and can jump/fly really well. That 5’-6” wall will be easy for them to get up on. Since that wall top looks solid, they will almost certainly want to perch up there. Once they get up there, they may hop down on either side. Unless you put a top of some type on it, I fear you will have escaping chickens. It doesn’t have to be a solid wall. Some type of plastic mesh will work to keep chickens in.

Another option is to raise the walls using welded wire or some type of wire mesh that will stand up so the top does not look solid. If it doesn’t look solid on top they don’t see a good place to land.

 

[Away2me]

Thanks for the replies.
We actually found a coop/yard and modified it to work with our space. The garden will actually be a garden again and be fenced to keep the chickens out.

The new to us coop has to new windows and new ventilation holes. We get very warm here! The tin roof will get attached soon and the yard will be attached to the coop at that point. The new paint job spiffed it up quite a bit.

This is how it looked when we bought it.


This is it in it's new home. Nearly finished.



The girls will have the run of the side yard and most of the backyard when we are home. So they'll have lots of backyard "Free Ranging". Our chicks arrive next month. We have other 4Hers who are going to swap breeds with us one everything is out of the brooder. Should be a really fun project for our family. I think I'm more excited than my boys. It's been 30+ years since I've had chickens!