Advice on the ideal chicken run

[Poppys posse]

Hi all
Sorry if this seems a back to front question - as I already have the chooks. I have a narrow garden, about 70ft. Its north facing so damp, no sun till April. The chooks wrecked the grass within weeks, which is fine. But I'm concerned that there is not enough vegetation in their run, there are shrubs for shelter but no grass. I have been putting straw down in this wet weather but no idea. What do you all have in your runs? Are they fully covered?

Thanks.

[Richard]

Hi, just moving this to the Chicken section where it will get better attention for you.

Richard

[Bickerton]

Fully covered run seems preferable, my outer run is a swamp. Whereas my concrete based roofed run is a veritable palace.

[Poppys posse]

Thanks Richard

Hi, just moving this to the Chicken section where it will get better attention for you.

Richard

[silverback]

My covered Walk-in-Run is static and also has no vegetation, just keep throwing in the leftover cuttings from the greens/cabbage etc, and the odd scoop of grass cuttings when available (grass not to long though!), girls have thrived in it!

[chookmike]

We lasted half a winter before we covered our inner secure run as conditions became intolerable for us and unpleasant to say the least for them.

The mud from the outer day run which they use while we are on guard with at least regular looks out the window is trampled through into the inner run now so back to square one. This spring I am either going to cover the whole lot or board over the outer run next autumn so there is no bare soil which can get wet, and the soil in the inner run will remain dry.

You will never, in my opinion, maintain a useful amount of greenery in a run.

We are going to try the idea of pots of fast growing greenery covered with domes of chicken wire that allow them to nip the ends off as they grow through the holes but it sounds like a lot of faff for little return.

Ours have 10 mins out in the garden before bed and have done very little damage in the two years.

Cheers

Mike

[KarenE]

Oh god yes do yourself and them a favour and fully roof the run - ours is and it's a godsend. On the floor, I use wood chip (not bark) which they love to scratch around in, and in autumn I'll throw a big pile of leaves in for them too. As long as the earth is dry, they'll be quite happy scratting about in soil. Straw will end up going messy and horrible if it gets damp. Other people use different material on their floors and will probably post in reply.

Greenery - no chance. Mike's idea of a pot is interesting. Alternatively, hang up green things like cabbages and such for them to peck at, or chuck grass clippings and bits of turf in as suggested. Mine get the free run of my garden all day so they are quite happy.

[Bickerton]

Ground level uncovered run



Raised roofed run. Both pics taken yesterday

[chookmike]

Bickerton - we have the same! And ours is raised 4 feet above the rest of the garden but even then doesn't drain.

Once we win the lottery we will have a huge dry barn and an acre of grass.

6 of my 7 neighbours flooded on Friday so we were very lucky

Mike

[jackian]

I agree with Karen E (and the others)
A covered run is a God send . We found the mistake of not having our run covered and with in hours we were soon putting a roof on .We used corregated plastic sloping of course to let the rain off .but you could you tarpaulin.
Mine have no vegetation in there but get thrown all the cabbage leaves, spinach and any other green stuff and the autumn leaves which they love because they have loads of bugs in .

[KathJ]

We're quite lucky as our soil drains quite well. Even so if we don't dig it over puddles do start to form. Our run isn't covered but we had the brainwave last year to let them into the greenhouse over the winter Luckily it's right next to the run and hubbie took out a pane of glass and borded it up with a little hole for them to get in and out. It's been a godsend over the winter as they have somewhere dry to keep out of the worst of the weather and to dust bathe and they can easily get back into their run for a 'walk on the wild side' if they prefer They'll probably be in there until March time or when the weather improves then we just board over the hole again until next winter.

[Thomassio]

Similar to the domes described by chookmike, a few friends had som success by laying a floor made of eun pannels. Effectively just a few pieces of 2x1 put together with some mesh over them. Underneath they planted a few fast growing plants. As I recall, clover did well and I think there is a type of grass thats also very resilient.

[Chicken drumstick]

As from the advice off the members on here....covered is a must imho ....







I also put a hen "gym" in there and hide treats in the green cups , plus put leaf litter in there for them to scratch in .

I only went in the house for a brew and when i went back outside it was in use already








Richard made a very good point on another post about having different height levels in a tall run .....something i will be doing .

To be its all about relieving bordom if you can't free range and keeping them entertained in an enclosed space .

As said on here the bigger the run the better

[lancashire lass]

We are going to try the idea of pots of fast growing greenery covered with domes of chicken wire that allow them to nip the ends off as they grow through the holes

what an excellent idea - I have a chimney stack conveniently placed under a hole in the roof of the run (where one of the tree branches goes through - wasn't a problem until all this rain and water now goes straight into the stack instead and keeps the rest of the run fairly dry) I know tomato pots fit in the top and was thinking about growing several pots with different things in but no idea of stopping the girls ripping the contents out of the pot - the chicken wire would solve that problem

I also put a hen "gym" in there and hide treats in the green cups , plus put leaf litter in there for them to scratch in

now your gym looks better than the one I had in mind for my run - I like it

Richard made a very good point on another post about having different height levels in a tall run .....something i will be doing

I built the high rise run soon after getting the chickens because establishing the pecking order was a bit brutal on the bottom 2 hens that were being prevented from feeding. I want to build another run directly underneath it so that there are 3 levels against that wall, each with their own bit of entertainment

[anne1234]

wat lovely runs puts mene to same my big out door runns are all mude at the moment just keep putin some dry straw in and cleaning the slabs so there is somewere for them to walk thats no mude