Will dog kennel work as run?

[bbowen]

Tractor Supply is opening in my town on Saturday? They have a 10'x10'x6' dog kennel for $249.99. With my very limited carpentry skills this looks good to me.

I have 7 Barred Rocks and might add a couple of JGs down the road.

The coop building I hope to get is only eight feet wide so Id have to do something about the width.

I'd have to cut or remove some fencing for the pop door.

The other upside is that I need to get the girls out soon so this would be quicker

What do you guys think?

 

[The Chicken People]

Chicken wire about two feet up on all sides because coons will pull them through the fence and leave them headless!

 

[happyhensny]

Ewww.... Coons bad mental image. We have dog kennels as runs. Very strong, kept out 2 Great Danes and a Shepherd last summer. Found 2 kennels for $100 each on CL.

 

[DADDYS HENS]

i think that is not a bad size for a run for only 7 chickens. However I agree with "chicken obsessed" as far as applying chicken wire to the outside of the dog kennel. It comes in different hole sizes or you could use hardware cloth as well. raccoons,skunks,dogs or any other animal or wild animal could get into the kennel if you do not secure the wire on the kennel because chain link fencing has much bigger hole sizes.also you may want to consider some sort of wire border around this kennel to keep predictors from digging under and into the run.

 

[sephiroth]

Yes. It won't be protected from raptors, but should do fine. I wouldn't worry too much about the the 8ft coop. You could just make it one side of a pentagon. Those kennels don't have to be rectangles.

 

[greyhorsewoman]

Yes, kennel runs work great. But as mentioned, additional hardware cloth along the bottom and something along the bottom (like rock or concrete blocks) to prefer predators from digging under or pulling through. Also, it is easy to affix something along the top for aerial predator protection and additional shade, if necessary.

Here is how we used ours (pic was while still finishing construction). We used two 10ft panels along each side and built our own end panel with door. This gives our chicks a 20x10 foot run. We did not use a panel against the door, just used hardware cloth to close off the bottom of the coop.

And, yes, check your local sales ads or craigslist, this is a good time of year for folks to decide to get rid of no longer used dog kennel. I've bought several for much less than $250.00 in good condition.

 

[tgrlily]

We use dog kennel panels for some of the runs. I'm not sure why you need to cut fencing for the pop door. Just arrange your panels so they come off the coop... the run doesn't have to be square it could be a trapezoid coming off the coop like this: \\__/ ...... so no panel where the outside coop wall is, panels angled out from the coop & two 10 foot panels going across the end opposite the coop. I hope that makes sense because I can see it in my head...lol.

You will need to put chicken wire to reinforce the bottom of the fence panels... ours goes up 3 feet.

All of our kennel panels came from craigslist ads also. Average CL price for panels around here is between $100 & $150 for the size you described.


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[gsim]

Definitely use hardware cloth mesh around bottom. Coons have been known and witnessed doing a tag-team thing stampeding chooks from one side to another where they can be grabbed and decapitated. One man saw such a thing from his kitchen and they killed 3 before he could get out there. They can reach thru chicken wire. You can get cattle panels too and do the mesh over them. They are big and may save you money. Look into that. Chicken wire would be ok for top, but I would probably do cattle panels or 2 x 4 welded wire for overhead too.

I did 2 x 4 X 6 ft tall welded wire and set mine in cement all around at base. No dig-ins yet and been occupied since Aug 09. Also, do get a fence charger. I installed a Zareba brand 5-mile fence charger with 4 courses of hot wire all around.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

According to how your coop is made you may be able to use all four sides to make a bigger run and leave the coop as one additional side. Just wire underneath the coop if needed. Make sure to cover the top with strong wire to keep out predators but if you lock your kids up every night you don't have to worry about critters getting them so much. I worry more about predators digging under since my birds sleep in a little homemade dog house and I never close them up at night.
Dog kennels work great! I have 2 so far but only have 5 birds in each one but they also have their coops inside them. Takes up a good bit of room but they are on stilts so they have the room underneath.
The only photos I could find were recent with the snows so come later spring I will have the tarps down and the night coops more open to catch the cooling breezes.

 

[Wifezilla]

I turned a dog kennel in to a quail pen/green house. Since the quail only use the bottom 6", there is plenty of room for me to add plants