My eco solution to rat problems

[chelsea]

ooh and i love the frilly edging around the top! very swish.

[surferdog]

That is brilliant - love the sign

[Laura & CTB]

That's lovely Tessa

[ruth1]

This is our new walk in run, had to get a joiner to build me the frame (my DIY doesnt run that far) and then we did the rest, really pleased with it.

 

I removed a shed and laid paving for it to sit on and left all my established plants in place so it looks like its always been there.

 

[Ain't Nobody Here]

That looks fantastic, Ruth . You're right, it does look like it's always been there (although it's lovely and shiny and new looking!)

[Bohochic]

Ruth that's an amazing looking run...if I had the room, and the view and the cube...I would have one just like that!

 

I bet you are over the moon with it! Lovely colour too.

[Jules.]

what size is it?

[ruth1]

Its 6x12ft, the good thing about the cube is it doesnt take up any ground space because they can get under it.

[chelsea]

me being a massive football fan...do i spy a football pitch beyond your fence?!!

[Jules.]

I would have loved my run to be 12 by 6 but there just wasn't quite enough room down the garden to do so- I want my cube to be outside of the run, so my run will be 6 by 9. Still plenty big enough for 4 chooks or 5 or 6

[ruth1]

its the local rugby pitch Chelsea. The borders love their rugby.

 

My run started being 6x6 and was the old dog run which is now housing all my soft fruit.Then i decided that wouldnt be big enough to house all the multi coloured egg layers i liked and the long awaited orp.

So we took down the shed that had had the old run attached and built the new one ( OH muttering i thought you said these chickens wouldnt cost much)

So 3 weeks in im looking at the other run and thinking mmm some banties next year? ( sshh dont tell OH yet)

[bokbokbok]

Am continuing to watch this thread for inspiration but I have more or less got a decided amount of space for my run. The good thing is, by using a little bit of dead space on the vegetable patch I can now have the shed outside the run - which will be a complete 8feet by 10feet with plenty of height to it so I cam put in plenty of bales, logs or branches for them to jump on.

 

How many chickens would be comfortable in there? I started off thinking 3 but am now hoping for more - will listen to your guiding hand!

[ruth1]

I think you need to allow 1sq foot per chicken as a minimum, please dont ask me to do any more math than that though.

[Jules.]

I thought it was 1 sq metre?

[ruth1]

Sorry I meant meter, should read things before submitting

[Jules.]

No worries

[bokbokbok]

So does that mean (in theory) I can have 6 chickens? I'm not too hot on the maths side of life!

[Bohochic]

In theory you could have 5.5 chickens hehe, I'd go for 5 to be on the safe side

[bokbokbok]

Hahahhaha - thanks! My maths wasn't too bad then - I rounded up, not down

[WitchHazel]

Andy, the 1sq metre is the space if you are moving your run around. If you have a fixed run then you need to almost double the space - unless of course your Girls get plenty of free ranging time.

 

My fixed Run is about 6 foot by 12 foot. My breeder told me I could get 3 hens in there, 4 would be a bit of a squeeze for a fixed run. In fact, I have almost 2 sq m extra, because I have the Cube and run on the outside, so I'm happy to have four hens in there. I also have wide perches around half the wall space for extra room for them.

[NClaire]

Here are my runs - they are both homemade, and I'm afraid don't use eglus or cubes.

 

Mark 1 - originally built for 3 hens;

 

 

 

But 1 hen died very quickly, was ill when we bought it so had to replace with 2 new hens (didn't want to introduce 1), and the run would have been way too small, so we extended it!

 

 

We also put it on slabs - our first plan had been to have it on grass with a mesh floor (we have a LOT of foxes), but they much preferred being on the slabs.

 

Thoughts on our first try - we got one or two design issues a bit wrong - in the house the roost gets in the way for cleaning, and the low bit of the run is too low, both for cleaning and I think also the chickens prefer the higher roof area of the extension. Also, the roof would be better if it were slanted and had a cover, as they either get very wet, or water pools on the tarpaulin.

 

This year we have built a second run, as one of the 4 chickens in this run needed separating. We had to do it quicly this time, so bought a cheapish wooden house (£189), and then built the run onto it (<£100), so total cost is about £280.

 

 

 

 

With a temporary barrier and a bench to play on!

 

 

This run is a LOT easier to clean, as the roof is hinged, and when it lifts up and the door is open, you can walk straight in. The only disadvantage is that the house doesn't have an external nest box, but we will add this at some point. They do like the extra height, and this has meant we can put the kids' bench in for them to hop on and off. The barrier is just there while we introduce the two young chickens to the older Goldline.

 

I also think that both of these runs are ok for 3 chickens, but the first one was a squeeze for 4, and probably why Dopey ended up being bullied. Having taken her out, the other 3 have a lot more space. When we designed the first one we got all the dimensions from existing commercial arks, and my conclusion was that the manufacturers give 'number of chickens suitable' for the houses, and not the runs, and in fact the run is the more crucial bit. Our houses/runs are both 12'x3' (of which 3' is the house), and I wouldn't like to see them in anything smaller. Ideally I would add some width - I think probably 5' or 6' is optimum for a small garden.

[mrsm_jones]

Excellent work there NClaire! You've obviously got someone handy about! Gorgeous children and chickens too! Like the colour of the blue house and run! Mind if I nick it for my new walk-in run?? (Arriving this weekend!)

[NClaire]

Thank you! Yes, my dh is very good at DIY! The blue is a Cuprional Heritage Shade, which are safe for pets, and really lovely paint - the green is another of the same range.

[Poplars]

Hi, I couldn't help noticing that a lot of these runs have lots of chickens in, and was wondering why no one elseseemstohave bullying problems...

 

Our chickens (three of them) have a fairly large area of mud with bark chips (not much left now though) and an eglu run. Yet we have just had some very nasty bullying going on... (see post in chicken clinic for more details, any advice gratefully recieved)

 

Is this because the chickens in these runs are allowed to free range more than ours (once a week) or that they are just nice chickens! Or is is because they have more stimulation, if the last one does anyone have any ideas?

 

I just read through that and it sounds like I am being quite mean, not at all intentional, I am merely curious and think that all the runs here are amazing and wish I had the time to build one!

 

Thanks

 

Eve

[HENthusiastic]

NCLaire - where did you get that children's bench from? It looks so cute in there. I would love to get one for my chooks to sit on. Especially as they love sitting on our bench in the garden when they are out freeranging.