Unsecure chicken perches

[j00lz_12366]

Hi

A friend of my partner is making our WIR and as we are having to pay out for labour costs-cheap rates but I wouldnt expect him to do it for free I am trying to cut costs elsewhere-without scrimping on the quality or safety of the run.

 

The run will be approx 11.5 feet x 8 feet and 6.5 feet tall with a sloping roof down to 5.5 feet, it will at one end be attached to the end of the kitchen and at the other to the garden wall. One long side will be alongside the fence which is approx 5 ft tall. So in essence it will only have one truly 'open' side. All four sides will have chicken wire for safety though-what size would be a good one for the 'open' side and would you go for something a little bit larger for the sides that are right up to a wall?

We are also having a corrugated plastic roof with gutter at the end which will go into a butt, I am assuming we should just look out at the usual b&q, wickes and ebay for these items?

I have started gathering accessories such as bungee cords with clip ends and a nice strong plastic scoop for the food as and when I see them on offer or v cheap (saw a scoop in pets at home for £4.99, another petshop was £1.89 and £stretchers was £1.29, so i grabbed it!)

I have also placed posts on Freecycle for various things and tried for some things that were offered...am I missing anything? I dont want to just be wandering round being excited about getting our new additiong and have missed something completely..

I forgot to say, I am ordering my at the end of March beginning of April to hopefully house some ex batts just before Easter!

 

Thanks for reading!

[chicken bark]

Sounds wonderful. I think people use galvanised weldmesh rather than wire. The finer the mesh the more 'predators' it keeps out (including vermin). However I'd probably go for inch square.

 

I'd also consider getting a cheap table to put the eglu on. This will free up floor space in the run and also provide somewhere even more sheltered for feeders etc.

 

What is on the floor?

 

You are right to shop about some places are a real rip off.

[j00lz_12366]

Thanks for the reply!!

 

We are planning on having the eglu on a table with a ladder to increase the usable floorspace and also adding some other ramps etc to make more interest and more usable space for them.

The floor is actually concrete so we will be putting chippings down-and also making sure that the run has a 'skirting' to it to minimise the amount that will inevitably be kicked out.

We are considering buying a flatpack run and making additions to it-roofing and the kickboard etc so the actual siting of it and these extra's will be what we pay the labour for as when we have looked into it properly we would end up paying a huge amount for the materials and then have labour on top of that, I am hoping by buying a flatpack our chap can add the extras to make it exactly right for us...here's hoping!