Sometimes it takes the perspective of another person to make things come together. Designing and updating the run has been the bane of my existence lately. I got a bunch of field fencing, but not quite enough to reach our run. I had wanted to have the run as well as an area for limited free ranging (as in anywhere except the neighbors houses). That's what I wanted the field fencing for. By not reaching where I wanted it to go, I was at a loss. To complicate things I have two coops as well as an outdoor broody house. I couldn't figure out how to give them all access and still be able to open it up during the dead of winter with 4'+ snow.
My dad said "why not let them just go free range whenever they want. My first thought was "that's preposterous!" But then I though, why not? Before the neighbor visits I let them out first thing in the morning and locked them in at night. I am going to move the covered hoop run so all coops access it directly and just fence the whole thing into the yard. If the girls want to stay covered they can go in the hoop or under the coops, otherwise they have access to the whole yard. As an added bonus, opening the back of the hoop gives them a more direct route to safety in the event of hawks instead of all flocking to the tiny door.
My dad said "why not let them just go free range whenever they want. My first thought was "that's preposterous!" But then I though, why not? Before the neighbor visits I let them out first thing in the morning and locked them in at night. I am going to move the covered hoop run so all coops access it directly and just fence the whole thing into the yard. If the girls want to stay covered they can go in the hoop or under the coops, otherwise they have access to the whole yard. As an added bonus, opening the back of the hoop gives them a more direct route to safety in the event of hawks instead of all flocking to the tiny door.
