Sky high lumber prices = thinking outside the box.

[domari]

Sounds like you put some thought into your chicken tractor. I commend you for being frugal. My fear for you is that a dog or dogs could have that chicken wire and hardware cloth torn apart in just a few minutes. I know because for my chicken tractor, I used heavier fencing and covered it in chicken wire. The chicken wire ended up with gaping holes after my dog tried to get my chickens. The dogs have since learned they can't get through the fencing. I feel like the chickens are well protected from cyotes, dogs, 'coons and other predators. Try to find a way to make it stronger.
You'll be glad you did.
(Didn't mean to post band picture, but couldn't figure out how to remove it)

I live in a wooded area with a lot of raccoons, coyotes, hawks, etc. My son lives on the same road, last year he had raccoons break in through the roof of his coop. They pulled back part of the metal roof somehow, got in and slaughtered 5 of his hens.
His chickens free range all over his yard during the day without any problems. There are hawks, but the chickens have lots of places to run and hide. He's never lost any to the hawks. His pen for the younger chickens is just regular chain link fencing, chickens are in the coop at night.
I'm worried that if I use chicken wire for a pen, the raccoons would be in there fast and easy.
Our dogs don't bother the chickens, but we have a lot of coyotes around at night. Chickens are in the coop at night.

 

[DSill]

Looks good for now, but does it rain where you live? We HAVE to have a covered run in SW Washington. That would be pure mud here!!

 

[katelk55]

We recently got chickens and needed to build a chicken coop and run. Thankfully we had a TON of reclaimed wood from tearing down a shed on our property. We used all of that for the coop. The only thing wood wise we bought for the coop was 2 sheets of plywood siding that was about $80. We needed a cheaper option for our run since lumber prices are crazy right now! We will eventually upgrade to a bigger, nicer run when/if lumber prices ever drop. We still have some finishing touches to do on the coop but I wanted to share with those who needs cheaper option for a run what we did.

For the run we used 5 (6.5ft tpost at $4.50 a piece) and chicken wire. All in all we spent around $60 for the entire run which, not including the coop, is 10ftx4ft. We dug around the run and buried the wire about 6 inches to a foot. We secured the chicken wire to the tpost. We placed a piece of chicken wire on top and secured with plastic tie wraps. We will be placing pavers around the outside parameter in the coming week. Again this is a temporary options for us until lumber prices drop. It’s not the prettiest thing out there but all in all we have under $200 in the entire run and coop! Our girls love it and we are pleased.

We left the top open and the floor bare so that nature can take its course. It’s in an area that is covered densely by trees so they have plenty of shade. We hope this will be successful for us.

I hope you don't have raccoons, we have really big ones and they would have no problem getting into your run. They are the smartest little demons I have ever seen.

We recently got chickens and needed to build a chicken coop and run. Thankfully we had a TON of reclaimed wood from tearing down a shed on our property. We used all of that for the coop. The only thing wood wise we bought for the coop was 2 sheets of plywood siding that was about $80. We needed a cheaper option for our run since lumber prices are crazy right now! We will eventually upgrade to a bigger, nicer run when/if lumber prices ever drop. We still have some finishing touches to do on the coop but I wanted to share with those who needs cheaper option for a run what we did.

For the run we used 5 (6.5ft tpost at $4.50 a piece) and chicken wire. All in all we spent around $60 for the entire run which, not including the coop, is 10ftx4ft. We dug around the run and buried the wire about 6 inches to a foot. We secured the chicken wire to the tpost. We placed a piece of chicken wire on top and secured with plastic tie wraps. We will be placing pavers around the outside parameter in the coming week. Again this is a temporary options for us until lumber prices drop. It’s not the prettiest thing out there but all in all we have under $200 in the entire run and coop! Our girls love it and we are pleased.

We left the top open and the floor bare so that nature can take its course. It’s in an area that is covered densely by trees so they have plenty of shade. We hope this will be successful for us.

 

[sarahconnor]

We recently got chickens and needed to build a chicken coop and run. Thankfully we had a TON of reclaimed wood from tearing down a shed on our property. We used all of that for the coop. The only thing wood wise we bought for the coop was 2 sheets of plywood siding that was about $80. We needed a cheaper option for our run since lumber prices are crazy right now! We will eventually upgrade to a bigger, nicer run when/if lumber prices ever drop. We still have some finishing touches to do on the coop but I wanted to share with those who needs cheaper option for a run what we did.

For the run we used 5 (6.5ft tpost at $4.50 a piece) and chicken wire. All in all we spent around $60 for the entire run which, not including the coop, is 10ftx4ft. We dug around the run and buried the wire about 6 inches to a foot. We secured the chicken wire to the tpost. We placed a piece of chicken wire on top and secured with plastic tie wraps. We will be placing pavers around the outside parameter in the coming week. Again this is a temporary options for us until lumber prices drop. It’s not the prettiest thing out there but all in all we have under $200 in the entire run and coop! Our girls love it and we are pleased.

We left the top open and the floor bare so that nature can take its course. It’s in an area that is covered densely by trees so they have plenty of shade. We hope this will be successful for us.

Very nice work!!

 

[sarahconnor]

That chicken wire won't work well with predators. It's designed to keep birds in, not keep animals out

I had a small breach in our chain link that you could barely put your fist through and raccoons SQUEEZED through and got several hens, I now use wire to make sure there are zero openings....I do not like those animals. They are crafty.

 

[sarahconnor]

We had to think outside the box as well. We ended up making a large hoop coop because it doesn't use as much wood. We used as much scrap as we could, and are saving every bit of the old coop for future projects.....I told my hubby that I was finally starting to appreciate his hoarding ways. Lol I used to give him a hard time about picking up things off the side of the road, etc... but its been a blessing during this weird time of EVERYTHING being expensive.

Every man picks things up from the road but he uses all that stuff! It’s pretty great and he likes doing that. So it’s all good.

 

[Member 482121]

The price of everything is going up. It's called inflation. The U.S. government is giving away and/or spending trillions of dollars it does not have. I don't see any difference between what it does and what forgers do: print money that isn't backed up by anything. Add to that the recent increase in fuel prices and our renewed dependence on foreign oil (after we had become independent from it during the previous administration) and you'll figure out that the price of lumber, that requires energy to be harvested and transformed from trees into beams, boards, sheets, etc. and then transported from the mills to the dealers and to the retailers (and lumber weighs a lot, and requires a lot of fuel to be transported) and you'll figure out that the price of lumber will continue to go up. Also, as new federal policies are adopted, many forests that could have used some thinning out will be off-limits to any harvesting of trees, and this will reduce the supply while the demand increases.

When I built two of the three chicken houses I have, I was told by a friend that there was a lumber mill that gave away the outer surfaces of various types of trees that were being sawn off the logs to square them. These discarded boards, flat on one side and round on the other side still covered with bark were piled up on a lawn outside the mill and available to whoever wanted them. With the same friend. we went to that mill and found out where the cypress board were. We cut them in pieces that would be manageable, piled them up in the back of my F 150 and made several trips from the mil to my home. The only plywood sheets I had to buy were for the roof of the chicken houses, and then the roof was covered with more of those boards. The sides were built with the cypress boards, with the bark on the outside, overlapping like roof tiles, so that the rain wound not penetrate. I live in Alabama, so airtight chicken houses are not a necessity. On the contrary, air flow from the gaps between the boards is essential in summer, and those two houses are many degrees cooler than the outside temperature. In winter it never gets really cold, but if it rarely does get below freezing turn on heat lamps in these houses.
Cypress wood does not rot, and if you could find a friendly lumbermill owner that gives away or sells at low price these discarded outer boards (non suitable for much, because if you burn them they release toxic fumes) you'll be able to build chicken houses for much less than by buying treated plywood. As an added bonus, my two chicken houses look like log homes, of the rough kind that were built by gold miners in the Yukon. Incidentally, those boards can make excellent deer blinds, too, as they seem to repel insects and larvae. If I were to build deer and turkey blinds with them, I would follow a different pattern and fit the boards together vertically, rather than horizontally, so that the blinds would look more natural--like the trees that surround it.

 

[DuckyDonna]

I know in america you have far bigger predators for which this wire is insufficient but does anyone know about foxes? They are not very strong, it's the only pest I have and like the OP pointed out hardware cloth is twice as expensive as this cheap rabbit fencing.

I can squeeze a hand through a hole on the rabbit fencing but unles the fox started chewing through the wire I don't think they'd have the force to break it so does anyone know if a fox specifically would consider chewing through the wire?

Raccoons can also rip it apart like it's butter.

 

[DuckyDonna]

The price of everything is going up. It's called inflation. The U.S. government is giving away and/or spending trillions of dollars it does not have. I don't see any difference between what it does and what forgers do: print money that isn't backed up by anything. Add to that the recent increase in fuel prices and our renewed dependence on foreign oil (after we had become independent from it during the previous administration) and you'll figure out that the price of lumber, that requires energy to be harvested and transformed from trees into beams, boards, sheets, etc. and then transported from the mills to the dealers and to the retailers (and lumber weighs a lot, and requires a lot of fuel to be transported) and you'll figure out that the price of lumber will continue to go up. Also, as new federal policies are adopted, many forests that could have used some thinning out will be off-limits to any harvesting of trees, and this will reduce the supply while the demand increases.

When I built two of the three chicken houses I have, I was told by a friend that there was a lumber mill that gave away the outer surfaces of various types of trees that were being sawn off the logs to square them. These discarded boards, flat on one side and round on the other side still covered with bark were piled up on a lawn outside the mill and available to whoever wanted them. With the same friend. we went to that mill and found out where the cypress board were. We cut them in pieces that would be manageable, piled them up in the back of my F 150 and made several trips from the mil to my home. The only plywood sheets I had to buy were for the roof of the chicken houses, and then the roof was covered with more of those boards. The sides were built with the cypress boards, with the bark on the outside, overlapping like roof tiles, so that the rain wound not penetrate. I live in Alabama, so airtight chicken houses are not a necessity. On the contrary, air flow from the gaps between the boards is essential in summer, and those two houses are many degrees cooler than the outside temperature. In winter it never gets really cold, but if it rarely does get below freezing turn on heat lamps in these houses.
Cypress wood does not rot, and if you could find a friendly lumbermill owner that gives away or sells at low price these discarded outer boards (non suitable for much, because if you burn them they release toxic fumes) you'll be able to build chicken houses for much less than by buying treated plywood. As an added bonus, my two chicken houses look like log homes, of the rough kind that were built by gold miners in the Yukon. Incidentally, those boards can make excellent deer blinds, too, as they seem to repel insects and larvae. If I were to build deer and turkey blinds with them, I would follow a different pattern and fit the boards together vertically, rather than horizontally, so that the blinds would look more natural--like the trees that surround it.

Awsome posts on all counts!

 

[Big bird / little bird]

We recently got chickens and needed to build a chicken coop and run. Thankfully we had a TON of reclaimed wood from tearing down a shed on our property. We used all of that for the coop. The only thing wood wise we bought for the coop was 2 sheets of plywood siding that was about $80. We needed a cheaper option for our run since lumber prices are crazy right now! We will eventually upgrade to a bigger, nicer run when/if lumber prices ever drop. We still have some finishing touches to do on the coop but I wanted to share with those who needs cheaper option for a run what we did.

For the run we used 5 (6.5ft tpost at $4.50 a piece) and chicken wire. All in all we spent around $60 for the entire run which, not including the coop, is 10ftx4ft. We dug around the run and buried the wire about 6 inches to a foot. We secured the chicken wire to the tpost. We placed a piece of chicken wire on top and secured with plastic tie wraps. We will be placing pavers around the outside parameter in the coming week. Again this is a temporary options for us until lumber prices drop. It’s not the prettiest thing out there but all in all we have under $200 in the entire run and coop! Our girls love it and we are pleased.

We left the top open and the floor bare so that nature can take its course. It’s in an area that is covered densely by trees so they have plenty of shade. We hope this will be successful for us.

I recommend never using chicken wire because predators rip right through it in seconds. Hardware cloth with screws and washers or cage clips is the way to go