I'm sick of scrabbling on my hands and knees to retrieve eggs from the mud of our low run. We're happy with our coop (eco hen house) and it has plenty of room for the 5 chickens we have, and any others we might get in the future, so I'm not looking at changing that. We are hoping to move later this year, so if we upgrade the run before moving, then it needs to be something that will withstand being taken apart & put back together again relatively easily. Minimal diy skills and even more minimal time available at the moment, so I need something nice and easy to assemble. (the plan is for the chickens to go to stay in a chicken hotel for a week or so while we move, so we'll have time to dismantle & rebuild the run). I'd also like to be able to extend the run in the future - we have five girls at the moment, and they keep us in eggs nicely, but I'd like to be able to add a few more as these start to slow up on the laying. Open to any suggestions / recommendations. It won't be an immediate thing, because we'll need to squirrel away the money first - just want to get the ball rolling.
Ooh Helen you have got grass again. Ours is made much the same way but Alex wouldnt like to take it to pieces as the panels are fixed onto cemented in wooden posts . Done properly it seems to me that you are making a lot of work for yourself to construct a w.i.r. only to dismantle it when you move later this year . Dont forget that not only do you have to construct the sides but also make the bottom of the run fox proof by some means. Alex dug down around the perimeter and fixed 6" log roll to the bottom of the panels and then back filled with huge stones and old bricks both sides. At the very least you should probably dig wire down below the run to stop foxy loxy.
It will be alright in the end , if its not alright, it isn't the end . Quote from the proprietor of the The best exotic Marigold Hotel for the elderly and beautiful
If you decide to keep the low run until you move why not make a long ladle. We have one with a ladle spoon fastened to a broomstick handle so that we can pick up fallen apples into a bowl without too much stooping.
We use a anti dig skirt that sits on the surface. Fairly quick to dismantle and works fine. I don't think there is any need to dig down. If the run uses corrugated sheets you can use screws instead of the nails to hold it down then you'll be able to dismantle it.
Right. decision made. I'm saving for something along the lines of the one chm posted - been having a nosey around the website Would be nice to dispense with soggy tarpaulins that blow everywhere ... hopefully a new run in a new garden by next winter
Plan B. Please can I just run it by everyone for suggestions before I commit myself...
3 chickens at the moment, want to get more, but in stages, getting a few every so often, so that we don't end up with a flock entirely composed of retired hens.
We are going to move soon (because the right house *is* just around the corner), but I've waited long enough already, and want to upgrade the run now, but be able to take it when we move.
So, inspired by Helen, 've been looking at weld mesh aviary panels. Is it really as simple as buying the appropriate combination of panels/doors & bolting them together? I'm thinking of a 4-sided enclosure of aviary panels, with an aviary panel roof. I'll cover the roof and part of the side with shade mesh and/or tarpaulin. Keeping the existing coop, either cutting through the panels and then butting the pop-hole side of the coop against it, or putting the coop inside the run, but raising it up to give a covered area underneath.
Does that sound OK? It's 10 square feet per hen isn't it? So 12 x 8 would allow me to have 9 and a bit chickens?
Would it be easy to make such a run larger in the future, just by purchasing more panels and adding them in?
"Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder..." Thoreau.
Even though my run was custom built the guy built the panels in his workshop then assembled it at my house (is that what you meant?). I have a cube so the guy cut into one of the panels to make a doorway, he then put a wood frame around the cut out bit so I can close the hatch if I want to. I hope that made sense.
A friend has copied my run and he built it in panels then bolted or screwed them together.
We're happy with our coop (eco hen house) and it has plenty of room for the 5 chickens we have, and any others we might get in the future, so I'm not looking at changing that. 
