Thanks so much for responding, we are new to this and have been researching on this site for months and came up with a design that both works for us and takes care of most of our issues. We have already learned a bunch from the first go at it. A friend gave us 5 chicks and they all ended up being roosters so I am glad we bought 6 hens from the local feed store over time. Wasn't as traumatic for the kiddos, and they all became pretty tame over time. I have them trained to scratch. Some days I only let them out of the run for a few hours to free range and I yell "Chook, Chook" and they come running to get their scratch in the run and I lock them up so I can go back to work. Super cute....