Starting New, Larger Pen (Almost finished! Progress Pics ADDED)

[justusnak]

Wow Cyn, looks great! What a good idea to reverse the pen...no more mud/leaf slides! LOL That pen will be hugh! I bet they wont even know they are in a pen. Maybe you can just put a few poles positioned across the pen, and hang CD's on them? I like the idea of the spruce...fast growers!!

 

[chickenannie]

They are going to be very happy birds!

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks, Deb. I think they'll be more than happy in the much larger space. I realized that I dont think we can hotwire this fence, but no matter, wire turned outward and covered with heavy rocks or buried will fix that. We'll figure out some hawk deterrents of some sort. We have a medium size satellite dish that isn't being used about 2' across and solid. We could make a framework and sit it on top like a little gazebo, right in the middle of the pen. That way, some could run underneath it faster than they could get all the way up the hill from the bottom to underneath the coop.

 

[FrontPorchIndiana]

Your chickens are going to love having all that room!

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
Now thats a good idea I hadn't thought about, and a friend of mine just asked me the other day if I could use his old dish, now I think I'll borrow your idea and make use of his dish.

 

[speckledhen]

Now, I'll be known as the inventor of the Chicken Gazebo, LOL. Actually, I've seen some of those on various sites so I cant take credit for the idea. It's a good one, though.
At least with a pen this size, they wont feel penned up. And maybe I can have some grass back for them to eat when I do decide to let them roam from time to time....if I can afford the darn grass seed! Who has the best prices on Creeping Red Fescue around here, I wonder? The feedstore in Murphy has it by the pound, but it comes out to about $90/50 lb bag. Well, it's too early to think about that. Have to make more gates. Seems we're always making gates!

 

[CarriBrown]

I love that picture! They look like they're ready to come stampeding out.

Your property looks so gorgeous!

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks for the compliment on the place, Carri. It is nice with all the hardwoods we have. And they do stampede! They pace back and forth, wanting out. Gypsy is the worst-if she cant get out of the pen, she cant go into Zane's area to lay her egg in the nest she made beside her man.
We also have what we call a separation pen adjacent to the main pen. It's covered and where we put Zane to get sun and be safe. We'll be tearing that down and building another one somewhere, not sure about that just yet.

 

[hcammack]

My hens do the same thing they are addicted to free ranging. Today I put the chicks out for the first time and they really loved it they ran all around and the two blue Ameraucana went at it they are kinda taking on the little roo protector position that I would want if they were going to stay. They separate into two groups the poor blue guy is off by himself and the splash guy is guarding his 6 little girls I want to see what happens with them when I introduce the little flock to the big one tomorrow. this new coop sounds great I have been thinking about making a more permanant run for the girls while I am gone.

Henry

 

[hcammack]

I guess this is a good place for this question how do you deal with mixing the poop and shavings up under neath the shelf roost you built that was designed from my coop? I have been having trouble mixing it up. I guess it may just have to become part of my daily routine.