We ran into some problems in the run...

[Garona]

After building my mega fantastic run complete with see through plastic roofing for the girls. We ran into a few problems one after the other. This is so that perhaps others do not make the same mistakes!

Considerations we made while building the run:

• 
  Roofing had to be see through because we want the girls to still enjoy the sunshine and the garden was off limits due to various plants they keep getting at and eating!
• We had to instal a roof in the first place because the rain water was pretty intense in the run.
• We used old shed wall panels to build the run so it didn't cost money. this allowed us to support the roof adequately.
• The existing fence it was built upon was not straight - this proved a problem for the gate, and we had to use a removable panel instead of a hinged gate.
• We dont have much space, so we created 3 different levels within the run to maximise space and emulate a a multi level jungle environment since they are originally jungle fowl we thought they would appreciate this and the security this provides anyway.

Issues that came up after completion:

• The chickens are strong. They bust the gate several times and it now has two seperate levers to hold it in place.
• One of my custom built hutches has a mezzanine. Our crazy chicken grumpy liked to sit on it... and catapult the egg down to the lower level, creating a mess. We had to "edge" the mezzanine to discourage this behaviour.
• The feeder was getting messy. It's a big 30kg feeder, so we hung it from a roofing beam, but it's now a bit of a pain to get around.
• The water issue wasn't fixed with just the roofing alone. So we added some guttering and diversions and put a large bin in the run to collect the water. During rainy days it quickly fills all the way up so it was sorely needed!
• The mud in the run is mainly compost now. This is good for our plants but the chickens have lost interest in foraging in it and we can't move the run somewhere else. Therefore i built an artificial dust bath using the bottom half of a cat travel box screwed down into the top of their main hutch (They have three but this one is in the sunniest spot of the run and they like to sit up here often) I filled it with chinchilla dust and diatom and they LOVE this. excellent idea for anyone who doesnt have much access to ground and reduces the need to diatom the flock yourself.
• They like leaves but often tread them into the chicken poo on the ground. We built a wire mesh pocket on one of the fence sides and now fill this with tougher leaves. They can pick at it and for the most part it doesnt fill the run with poo covered leaves keeping them clean and tidy.
• Rats. Oh Boy. Rats. Suddenly just as spring hit us we found rat holes in our ground in the run and food mysteriously dissapearing. It wasn't long before rat poo emerged and even rats caught in the act when we go to close the girls in for the night. We spent a long time trying to battle this one and fingers crossed we have it sorted now. Several things we did for this.
  1. We stopped feeding them fresh food in the afternoons/too close to evening, so fresh food would not be left in the run over night.
  2. I made sure garlic was in the main large drinker (aparantly a deterrant for rats and good for the chickens to boot).
  3. We raised the feeder higher but somehow it didnt matter - these rats were fine acrobats. So eventually we maneuvered the larger feeder on a string into the sub-run of the main hutch. It's a bit awkward but its now suspended IN a locked hutch and so far this seems to work.
  4. We dug the entire soil bed up, laid down wire netting all along the fence ensuring every bit of access was blocked and filled it back in again. We did this several times because we thought we had it all covered and they would find a new way around it however, it slowly made progress as we eliminated each and every entrance path. The fence was concetre at the bottom but unknown to us only an inch or two deep so they were just tunneling underneath it!
  5. All around the run and fence we added wire mesh, once they had realised they couldnt burrow underneath anymore they found holes in the wood and made large holes in it, or chewed through the thick plastic mesh of the gate. We overlaid this all with wire mesh and included any weak areas of the wood. So far so good.
  6. Our neighbours pitched in and fortified thier side of the fence where the rats were coming from to get into our run. We naturally bribed them to do so with eggs.
  7. Rat Traps. DID NOT WORK. Our rats were not going to be fooled by traps and poison was out of the question. During the night time we placed rat trps out while the chickens were safely enclosed out of harms way. But every morning they would be unsprung, or if sprung - empty. Eventually gave up on this even after trying peanut butter there was no result.

This is the girls getting a "day trip" to the allotment so they can have a bit more space and natural worm goodness.

This hutch was a quickie conversion form a rabbit hutch and has now since been replaced with the one with a mezzanine in it.


the run before it had a roof on it


the other side of the run with the main hutch in it before the dust bath, extra nest box and ladder to upper level was added.


I'm going to try get some better pictures of this complete run now ....

 

[Garona]

okay so FAR too many pictures to put all into one post so i made a gallery for them you can find here:

http://sustainablelife.spiderstudio.co.uk/gallery/where-our-chickens-live/

For those interested, we built everything except hutch 1 (main hutch) ourselves, Hutch 1 was given away to us for free SO the ENTIRE thing, (by entire i mean run, 3 hutches and roofing) was FREE with the exception of purchasing the plastic roof panels. Everything else, essentially all wood you can see was completely free mainly from skips.