Chicken Run project

Back in the fall we lost several hens and roosters to some predator. We've been good about shutting the chickens in at night but at the end of February we slipped up and left the coop open at night again. We lost 2 hens to something. I was thinking coyotes but they didn't carry the bodies off, just took off the heads. I've heard this is typical of raccoons. Also, our neighbor said that he gave his chickens away because he couldn't keep the coons out of them. The loss of the two hens was more painful this time because they had started laying eggs on Kelsay's birthday and so that was a loss of a couple of eggs a day. Still, with the 7 hens we have left, we get more eggs than we know what to do with. Another problem was that the hens would fly over the little fence we had around the yard. The girls and I had several good chicken chases and I was getting tired of having to keep an eye on them and go get them back in the yard. So I decided my goal for March was to get a chicken run built.

I found a simple plan on the internet but we ended up modifying because that plan used a kreig jig and we wanted to use my dad's framing nailer since that would be a lot easier and faster. On St. Patrick's Day we had beautiful weather and started the project. Aaron and I got some nice tools handed down from Aaron's uncle so we had a very easy time making the cuts. We used the nailer ( I got to run it a bit, it was very heavy and had a kick). We built the walls and put them together and started on some of the wire and doors. We had to call it quits for supper.

We continued the next afternoon. My Dad finished making and hanging the double doors and Aaron put the chicken wire over the areas we hadn't done and over the doors. It was windy and blustery on this day and came in and snowed 4 or 5 inches that night so we were glad to have to project done before the snow hit.

I'm enjoying it and the chickens are enjoying it. We do have a few minor things to adjust/fix but I'm very happy with how this turned out and I'm planning to build a similar structure to expand their outdoor area very soon!

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