really simple chook house and run

Sunny Side

In the Brooder
7 Years
Jan 10, 2013
24
2
22
Perth, Australia
This is the chook house and run my hubby put up for me on Christmas Eve. We have just started with raising chickens. They are still babes (3 weeks) so I keep them in a brooder at the moment. We live in a fairly warm climate and I just wanted a simple place for them to lay eggs and roost over night and somewhere with a roof. This is a cool shady spot in the garden and is tucked away in a corner. So much so you can't really see it until you come upon it. I would like to have a vine climbing on the front too so it's fairly inconspicuous. Not much to see in this picture. The basic frame is up. This space measures roughly 8 square meters, intended for 3 hens.





We have chicken wire on the roof and down the sides. Trenches were dug between posts to bury the wire into the ground to fox proof - (which is the equivalent to cat and dog proofing - I am yet to see a fox in Perth). Apart from snakes I can't think of any other predators..







The ends of the chicken wire are neatly tucked behind this board drilled to the post. It's probably unnecessary but looks super neat, keeps the wire very taut whilst protecting the chooks from catching themselves on any sharp wire edges.








The lay box is very simple. Three boxes - roughly a foot square in size (little taller maybe) with a bit of a covered veranda for privacy. Three is apparently more than enough for 3 hens. I think one may have sufficed. These are some of the chicks sussing out their future abode. The roost is a wide ladder resting against the opposite wall. It's all undercover but open. I was considering having it all enclosed however i don't think it's necessary. Any advice on this would be appreciated. The guy in the white suit is the on site QA rep.

And this is the final product:








Finally, the builder and the architect: (of which we are officially neither)


700


 
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Gorgeous. Please consider replacing the chicken wire with hardware cloth. Would hate for something sad to happen to your lovely chooks in their cute house and run. I am honestly trying to be helpful and not a killjoy. I really love the look of this and work you have put into it but I wish it wasn't called chicken wire. I see so many people work so hard on their coops and the are disappointed that the chicken wire part was not adequate protection from night predators.
 
I appreciate all advice and need it since i am inexperienced at raising chickens. I have been thinking about this too. I think i need to do more to protect from snakes but not sure to what extent yet. My neighbour has chooks and turkeys so I'm going to go over and see what set up he is running with. What other night predators were you referring to?

I've got a much smaller chicken wire mesh. If i use this around the perimeter up to about 60cm high do you think this would suffice?
 
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Apologies for not responding sooner. I was offline for awhile. I'm not a big fan of chicken wire but smaller would be better. I use 1/2 inch hardware cloth to be extra secure. It's a 19 gauge welded wire. Fairly rust proof.
 

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