This post is all about our chicken runs. It’s where all the cool kids hang out!
Unless you have dogs that are not interested in chickens in any way (this does not describe our dogs at all) or don’t have any animals at all, it is a good idea to have a place for your chickens to be outside without the threat of animals. That’s where the “run” comes in! Since we can’t allow our chickas to freely walk around the yard, we have built two runs that still allow them to be free range and give them protection from air predators and ground predators and the dogs. While I would like to trust our dogs with the chickens, I don’t. Jake would allow his inner wolf come out and just go eat a chicken, Ri would stalk them and see if she could catch one just to catch one and Abby would be like Lenny. She would just want to love them and play with them….
The first run we built was meant to be a perfect square, but humans built it using a jack hammer and such, so not so much. It is 16×16 and is made with 4×4 posts and woven wire fence for the sides (which extends on the ground about 6 inches or so) and the top. We started by putting bird netting on the top as a type of roof, but after talking to the person we bought the initial brood from, we changed it to the woven wire fence to prevent the hawks and possibly raccoons from coming in (we had 9 hawks circling the fun within 10 minutes of putting the chickens in). It has no solid roof and we initially used a big blue tarp for shade, which of course is not ideal. The tarp caught the rain and created an undesirable effect as it would allow water to drip in our initial feeders (you will remember these feeders from my post regarding the feeders and the waterers. If you have been lazy and didn’t read it, shame on you. Go read it. Well, read this first and then go read it). It initially had lots and lots of beautiful grass in it too. We didn’t build it high enough to be able to stand up in it without bumping our head, but initial builds are always the draft, right? We also added chicken wire around the bottom 3 feet of the sides. Geez, so much fencing and wire and stuff, right? Again, all about the happiness, well, actually the life, of the chicken. With the extension of the wire on the sides, it prevents them from digging out and anything from digging in and believe me they dig. A lot. And the dogs like to dig to try to get something yummy that might be on the ground that the chickens haven’t eaten yet. The chicken wire around the bottom three feet is so they don’t stick their pretty little heads out of the fencing and get them bitten off. Now, please understand, chickens are just not smart. Thus, if given any opening they will stick their heads out to try to get grass that is outside the run. But, they can be trained. We have a ramp that goes right into the door into the coop. Once they figure out how to get in, they pretty much know how to do it after a couple of evenings. We did have to “teach” them how to do this around dusk for a couple of evenings by picking them up and shoving them through the door. You have to sometimes shove them into the coop because one or two sit at the door and prevent others from coming in. It can turn into a regular 5:00 rush hour with all the kids lining up on the ramp trying to get in the door! All of their food and water and roosting places were outside in the run and that’s where we throw the scratch and fun stuff like heads of lettuce to keep them occupied. Since March we have added a container with sand in it for them to take dust baths. They love sitting in it and throwing sand all over themselves while also eating the sand. We initially poured a bag of sand in a pile on the ground and they just pooped in it and ate it (the sand, not the poop). Who doesn’t love to eat sand? Now, with the container they can bathe and have a meal at the same time. Waste not, want not, right? Happy chickens! They will also take to the corners where there is a build up of grass clippings to bed down and hang out when there is shade there.
The chickens are able to go under the house too which has the fencing along each side of it. It is cool there and since they ate all of the grass under there as well, it is nice and dirty and dusty for them. They spend a lot of time in both winter and summer under the house as it provides shade and also gives them an area if it is colder to snuggle up together without having to go inside the coop.
Run #2: This run came as the “improvement run”. We redesigned the initial plan and built it to make it easier on us. We were able to dig the holes for the posts with a post hole digger attached to the tractor. It made it a lot easier to make it square. The second run is 18×18 and slopes, so the area by the coop is tall enough for us to stand up without hitting the noggin. It makes it easier to get in and deal with food and water and such. This run has a plastic roof on a portion of it and open on the rest, with the same posts and fencing and chicken wire as the other one, lots of roosting poles, a big old stump and their food and water. We had seeded the new run in the fall hoping to get more grass. We got a bit in March and they successfully decimated it in a short amount of time. But, that is what it’s for! We put down straw for them which they love and that keeps it pretty well dry, at least until this past snowpocolypse when it turned into a wet mucky mess! Since we kept all of the chickens in the “new” run once it got cold, they were all outside all day even during the coldest days. Because we had snow, ice, snow, ice, rain, repeat over several weeks, the run was just nasty!!! We mucked it out in the Spring and put all that goodness into our compost pile which will be used this fall in the garden. Waste not, want not, right? Once we mucked out the run we tried an experiment that failed. I mean failed miserably. We thought, why not put down some grass seed, cover it with peat moss and straw and let the grass grow in all its gloriousness? Except chickens like to scratch the ground. They like to forage for cool stuff to eat under the layers of other stuff you put down. That’s where the worms and bugs are. So, they did exactly what they know how and love to do naturally and scratched the straw until they found the peat moss and then scratched the peat moss to find delicious little seeds! So, no grass grew. Haven’t we learned? Yes. No. more. grass.seed. We now keep all of their food and water in the “new” run and throw them scratch in there too along with our food remains, including but not limited to, over ripe bananas, banana peels, cucumber peels, carrot ends, fruit rinds. You get the idea. The old run is where they get treats…grass clippings, broccoli stalks and leaves, big pecking blocks and their container of sand.
When it was time to introduce the new young-uns last December into the flock, we put down a bunch of new straw in the new run and put the little ones in the old run. The straw kept the older ones busy, distracted actually, so they didn’t rush over to get to the newbies. It really worked well. You don’t want to just throw new chickens in with older ones…they aren’t very nice to each other and will try to establish the pecking order very quickly and harshly and they are simply big bullies. We blocked the older ones from coming into the old run, but they could see the new chicks for a couple of hours and then we opened up the old run. The older ones could come over as they wished (really, when they finally realized there were new birds in the old run) and since they were coming over to a different side than normal with new birds, it was like they were coming into a new territory with chickens in it and didn’t realize they were still the top chickens because these guys were new. Like I said, chickens aren’t exactly smart. Once everyone got along we closed up the old run and kept everyone in the new run over winter. We opened up the old run in March and have kept both sides open ever since with access to both sides in and out. We waited to open the coop door to the old run until it got warmer since the old run is on the north side of the coop and the wind is pretty brutal over winter. We also put a board over the window in the old run to keep out the wind. We put some hay bales along the west side of the fencing under the house and the new run for a wind barrier and then this Spring we used those for the run and for the garden around tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and melon plants to keep the moisture in the soil.
Here are some pictures of the “old” or first run:
Here are pictures of the fencing on the ground:
And pictures of the “new” or second run:
Oh and we also changed the door on the new run. You can the door on the first run is outside of the frame of the door and the door on the new run is inside the frame of the door. It’s easier to close and lock this way. Simple changes can make all the difference!
In case you were wondering, the bees are doing great and the garden has gone crazy! The dogs are great and the chickens seem to like their humble abode. We are getting between 18-22 eggs per day! Happy chickens!
