Moving coop a drag (har har)

[Fay]

The girls have settled well into their new home, the initial squabbling has died down and we're in it for the long run.

It's the coop/run that might need re-thinking. I have an 8ft long coop/run thingy with raised housing. The first time I tried to move it one of the door joints came apart!

I've strengthened it by screwing decking timbers along the length - great, but then I remebered that the door openes OUTward - arghh!!! So I took the door off and reversed the hinges. OK, but an bit confined inside now when the door is open.

OK, it moves much better now, I can drag it along for new grass each day BUT
1 - it's OK now, but it's going to be a real drag in winter
2 - my young children are going to be walking through pooey grass to the trampoline (I'd forgotten just HOW much they poo - and I really don't want to be doing a poopick every day)
3 - If I move them over the whole lawn, they're not going to be visible from my kitchen window a lot of the time.

So, I've been thinking about keeping the run in one place. They will be let out of the run for periods, but they'd be in it for most of the day. I have some spare patio pavers, which I could dig into the lawn, but then I'd need to do something about the floor of their run. And I REALLY don't want to do a daily poopick

What do you folks suggest?

Fay

[stace]

Mine have always been in a static run, its right at the bottom under a tree so has shelter from wind/sun!

They have the bottom part of the garden to themselfs as we have a fence= gate across so they cant get up to the top by the house, they only free range for about an hour morn/night at all other times they are inside, they love to come out but they also know when the corn tin is in sight it time to go back inside they now know the routine try keeping to it they will soon learn!

I like you didnt want Poo all over the place and if you have children its best for now to keep the coop in one place, at least then you will have most of the garden clear, as they do like to dig things up About the floor run lots use paving slabs then put other things down on top mine is just a dirt run its very dry now and they have a dust bath in it i also use shaving/easibed and poo pick that everyday after collecting eggs

HTH

Stace

[slh-1959]

Hi Fay, wow that sounds like hard work. I've only been keeping chickens a couple of months so I'm no expert, my coop is 6x6x6 foot and my run is about 15x6 foot approx. It dosent move obviously, but I clear the poop up b4 work in the morning and then again at night. Grass is going fast but I've hung a couple of cd's at head hight to occupy them when theyre not scratting around plus another string which I attach half a cabbage two once or twice a week. If none of these work they've always got the nose of my daft jack russell Scrappy through the wire to keep them occupied.

Regards Steve

[velvetmoonchild1]

Mine have a static run of 7x9 abouts which is where their coop is, it's like fortnox, but they spend all day in the top part of the garden that has a 6ft fencing all around it and is seperate from the lower garden decking and lawn, if that makes sense. They are only in the small run at night or if there is no one home, our dog watches them all day come rain or shine as she thinks there her chickens. When I get home from work they come out to play on the lawn for an hour while I clean out the run and change water food etc, I have wood chip on the bottom of the small run and blast it with a hosepipe every few days and then disinfect with johnsons animal disinfectant, the coop has a removable tray so that takes five mins to empty and fill with shavings. I have not found them any more work than the other animals, but they are better than TV.


lisa

[4c lady]

If your run is covered then you can go for wood chips like Easibed but this will need replacing once every 3-4 weeks depending how muddy it gets (in this lovely weather its every 2-3 weeks). If your run isnt covered I find Easibed gets very wet and very smelly. In my uncovered run I used sharp sand as my soil is very heavy clay and that works well but due to the weather at the moment ive had to cover the run. Just plain soil is good too as you can give dig if over. However I dont think you can get away without poop picking daily. I go out with a bucket and rubber gloves on and it takes me just a couple of minutes to collect the poop. With the sand/soil and Easibed a lot of it gets trampled in so there isnt much poop to collect. My coop and run is static and I just let them out at weekends to run round the garden like loonies and I spend a bit of time on Sunday evenings just clearing up the devastation - ha ha

[redd_angel55]

I would also say that if you don't poo pick every day, it will turn into a smelly mess very quickly! How many hens do you keep in your 8ft run?

[Mo]

When we were deciding which coop we wanted we went to a poultry show (the National was at Stafford that year) and looked at those on sale and chose the one that looked lightest and easiest to move.
Not very light even so ( as we've discovered when we wanted to move it out of the orchard), good carrying poles and just about light enough to be moved sideways single handed (shift one corner, then the other) but that doesn't do it any good as it stresses the structure.

Trouble is, anything that strengthens it would make it heavier.

[ihatejacknjills]

I never poo pick outside the coop but it does get a bit smelly after a while. Every now and then I dig over the ground and have a bit of a clean up.

[wendy]

My run is 40 + foot long so, no, it isn't movable
I poop pick the house only. But the run is covered with wood chippings, and lashings of stalosan before I put them down, that I clear out every so often. More in the winter than the summer. I don't get a smelly chicken run.
Wendy