Chicken bald back

[hopingforchickens]

Hoping for a bit of advice. My 3 chooks currently live in a WIR that's 10' by 7'. I'm planning to move everything around in my garden and am considering putting the girls in a chicken run with extension which would run the whole way down one side of the garden, so would be approx 2' by 25'. I would put lots of perches, higher level walk ways and enrichment in the run but it would be a slightly smaller area. I do let the chickens free range as much as possible, but do you wonderfully knowledgeable people think that will give them enough space? Ideally I would love to have Omlet housing but it just wouldn't work in my garden - so please don't judge me on that!!!

[mullethunter]

I would say that's probably just enough for 3 full size girls. Especially if they're out and about a fair bit. The only problem I could foresee would be that it could be very difficult to clean / work in such a long, narrow run.

[sjp]

you'll need to have access doors along one side about every 4 ft or closer the length of your arms will determine that so you can comfortably clean the run out if it's a pain to clean out after a few cleans you'll start to hate it and that's not going to be any good for you or the hens

I've assumed your going 'high rise' with perches and platforms which will the add to the over all floor area any way as floor area doesn't need to be at ground level. consider making any perches and platforms easy to remove for cleaning through as that make your life easier as well

personally I'd really think hard about making the run wider 3 or 4 foot wide I've got one of each about 10 foot long the 3ft wide is just wide enough for me to work in with out it feeling confined the only thing I'd change is the height as I made them 4ft high at the eves and about 5ft 6 at the apex but I used a truss type construction for the roof for strength so I've effectively only 4ft head room

but if you can only go 2 ft wide but you can go high there's no reason why you can't put a 2nd floor in for part of the of the run but then you'll have to have side access doors for cleaning

[hopingforchickens]

Yes the plan I have at the minute would have a door every 2 to 3 feet. The 2' wide element is fixed if I put the run in that part of the garden (it would be determined by the lay out of a path). I would put lots of runs, walk ways and perches in to increase the run area and I have 2 bantams and one smallish full, not 3 full size - sorry should have mentioned that. My thoughts re cleaning is that the shallow depth of the run would make it easier in some ways as I wouldn't have as far to go in, if you see what I mean!!! Not entirely sure how easy it would be to catch the little darlings though!