Run question - secure & small or large & open?

[lizm1221]

We are on year 2 of our chicken raising adventure. We started out with 5 girls - they had a 100 square foot secure run that is 6 feet tall - hardware cloth buried 18 inches down and on bottom 2 ft of run, and 1 in poultry wire on top 4 ft and "roof"of run. So totally safe. This year we ended up getting 4 more babies (they are 3 months old now) and then one of our hens went broody so we got some eggs for her to sit on....she hatched out 4 last week, we are only going to keep 1 of them, but that means 10 chickens! Their 100 square foot run is way too cramped at this point with 5 full grown hens, 4 three month old chicks and the 4 newborns running around!

So long story short, we are trying to decide the best way to enlarge. We are trying to decide between:

OPTION 1: build another 100 square foot run next to the old one (same as the old one with buried hardware cloth and totally enclosed), taking the wire down between so it would be one big 200 square foot run

OPTION 2: get a roll of cattle wire type fencing and make a 600 square foot area for them to roam. It would have an open top and not have buried wire - just a fenced in area for them to free range. They would have access to this area most of the day, most every day. We would connect this to the current secure run with a pop door that we could securely close off if we were going away for the weekend or something

so what would you do?

 

[lizm1221]

I forgot to add, we don't have too many predators around here - I would be most concerned about loose house cats (which I don't see too many of). We do have hawks, but in the open area, about half of it is pretty thick brush so they could hide in there)

 

[cknkids]

Well your 100 sq ft run gives each 10 sq ft which is consider enough by many. Our three have a 70 sq ft run which is generally open to an approximately 1000+ sq ft fenced yard, so who am I to talk. It has trees so not too worried about hawks and I don't think a house cat would be interested in a full sized chicken. Our lead hen peck one of our cats (12 yr old) right on the nose, when she got too close when I was feeding the hens sunflower seeds.

So your option 2 is what we've been doing, and it's worked well for the last year. I know they're more at risk but they love roaming. They had the complete run of our back yard till we got tired of the landmines on the grass. If you go with option 1 consider leaving the dividing fence and putting a few pass through in, It might give you more flexibility down the line. We've been thinking of getting a few more and I know we'll have to keep them separated for a while. Though I love the idea of letting a broody hen sit on some eggs but then we're faced with re-homing and roos again. Good luck.

 

[lizm1221]

Well your 100 sq ft run gives each 10 sq ft which is consider enough by many. Our three have a 70 sq ft run which is generally open to an approximately 1000+ sq ft fenced yard, so who am I to talk. It has trees so not too worried about hawks and I don't think a house cat would be interested in a full sized chicken. Our lead hen peck one of our cats (12 yr old) right on the nose, when she got too close when I was feeding the hens sunflower seeds.

So your option 2 is what we've been doing, and it's worked well for the last year. I know they're more at risk but they love roaming. They had the complete run of our back yard till we got tired of the landmines on the grass. If you go with option 1 consider leaving the dividing fence and putting a few pass through in, It might give you more flexibility down the line. We've been thinking of getting a few more and I know we'll have to keep them separated for a while. Though I love the idea of letting a broody hen sit on some eggs but then we're faced with re-homing and roos again. Good luck.

thanks for the reply. We didn't get any roos we ordered fertilized eggs through the mail