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Em Sh

Run design help - cube mk2 and WiR

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Hello all,

I have a question about runs that gets complicated so I have drawn a picture to simplify!

I have an eglu cube with many run 1m extensions. After a Fox attack we want to stop semi free ranging as before, and keep them closed in run at all times... but with 7 remaining hens, I need to add more run on or it feels mean. I want to have a 3x2 walk in run (high) but it will only just fit. The cube run would have to attach in the middle of the 3 side. All other sides are blocked by fences and hedges. I can’t move the cube up or down, due to trees the other end stopping pulling the tray out the back. Can I attach the cube in the middle and the door immediately to one side? Or would I have to go for 2x2 and fit the door at the back?

The red scribbles are trees by the cube if it’s unclear. The rest of the red is fence/hedge. 

thanks!775AE7D1-523B-4AF3-A4EF-8916A0693FB2.thumb.jpeg.f5b521b14e29c0289f1bb2f914cf0dec.jpeg

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Third option might be, to remove a metre run (or even two) and slide the WIR towards the Cube. You can always attach the separate pieces of Cube run an a different side of the WIR. You still have the end panel of the run, but would need another connector kit. This is what my dad is planning. Makes for a more accessible Cube run, from the WIR, instead of a very long low run.

Much less pretty drawing, but this is what I mean.

8578F6C2-A23E-459C-B7DA-81C22DCC822C.jpeg

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Omlet say you can’t join a Cube run to a WIR which is only 2m wide and I think that’s because the Cube run actually needs more width than one of the panels (blue bit) on the WIR - it overlaps (I know because mine does it). So I think what you’d have to do would be to push the overlap back into the bit you’ve labelled 2x3 to allow you to fit the door on the same side the Cube run joins to (red but). You could leave off a run panel (green bit) or maybe sort of use one of the joining panels for that but as Patricia says with lots of cable ties I don’t think that would be a problem. I sketched what I mean but it’s a bit confusing!

9E52A9B1-3FC2-4273-A4DF-60A677C233A5.jpeg

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Just to let you know I am reading in awe. My mind is blown, the endless possibilities I hadn’t thought of. I have very poor visual imagination. I keep taking my ten year old out there with the tape measure to try to work out which will work and which is best!

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I’ve had another thought about this.  Have you thought about putting the cube IN the WIR?  If you did that, you would have room to add another cube run extension where otherwise the cube would sit.  Admittedly, you would end up with a smaller door into the run, but it would give them run space and fit your awkward shaped space. 

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Well I did it guys! Thank you so much for your input. Insanely it hadn’t occurred to me to rotate it so the 3m was long not wide, which gave me space to put the door as the playhouse blocking one side is only 2m long! I was going to remove 1m and put it on the side but I was working in uneven rock solid clay soil on a sideways slope, and got so frustrated trying to dig out the skirt that I just ripped a young tree out instead 😱 It looks great though and the hens seem to like it! 👍

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Here it is! Ignore the purple towel.. I threw it over when it got hot to give them extra shade and half blew off yesterday. 

Incidentally, how many hens do you think would be ok to keep in there? We are down to 6 now, from 9 who were half free ranged. The children have asked for one more, possibly a bantam but I’m unsure as I want to keep them confined.

They seem very happy in there now with the walk in bit added on. There are two trees inside the walk in run although I cut them right back to build it, they will regrow a bit. 

90C00052-4479-49A8-B283-1F5DD221E96D.jpeg

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