BellePoule
Songster
I built a new run/fenced area today. It ended up being a lot easier than I thought it was going to be since I had my neice helping.
I had been letting the flock free range, but after six losses to the neighborhood dogs, I kept them locked up in their coop with limited supervised free ranging. The coop is large (12x15, an old lean to shed that has one wall open and covered in wire cloth), but still not big enough for 24/7 containment. The new run is about 600sqft - it's an odd shape. I wanted to get the chook created dustbath in it, and that is behind a clump of bushes that sits on the edge of the woods and a little of the grassy area that gets a lot more sun than the clearing between the coop and woods.
It's not the prettiest looking run, but it's fenced in and it'll keep the dogs out (they're all herding dogs and they haven't figured out that you can dig under fencing). We don't really have any other predators around - the coons have all been eaten - and the dogs keep the coyotes away. It's just welded wire, t-posts, and an existing gate that was inexplicably mounted on the back of the other shed that the coop lean to's on (does that make sense?).
Here's a pic from mid clean up. You can make out who I think is B'Elanna, my Partidge Rock that was supposed to be a Welsummer, and a turkey. The rest are in the woods that I included into the run.
I had been letting the flock free range, but after six losses to the neighborhood dogs, I kept them locked up in their coop with limited supervised free ranging. The coop is large (12x15, an old lean to shed that has one wall open and covered in wire cloth), but still not big enough for 24/7 containment. The new run is about 600sqft - it's an odd shape. I wanted to get the chook created dustbath in it, and that is behind a clump of bushes that sits on the edge of the woods and a little of the grassy area that gets a lot more sun than the clearing between the coop and woods.
It's not the prettiest looking run, but it's fenced in and it'll keep the dogs out (they're all herding dogs and they haven't figured out that you can dig under fencing). We don't really have any other predators around - the coons have all been eaten - and the dogs keep the coyotes away. It's just welded wire, t-posts, and an existing gate that was inexplicably mounted on the back of the other shed that the coop lean to's on (does that make sense?).
Here's a pic from mid clean up. You can make out who I think is B'Elanna, my Partidge Rock that was supposed to be a Welsummer, and a turkey. The rest are in the woods that I included into the run.