Chicken tunnel management

[Labsandchickens8]

Hi all,
I am in my first year of chicken keeping and loving it. I have a mixed flock of 10 hens, 9 different breeds. I have a decent sized run with some enrichment of branches, climbing spaces, a pecking toy, and regular fresh vegetables. I also have a large as yet unfenced yard with lots of predators around, including my own two Labradors. My idea is to make a long movable chicken tunnel so they can forage in the leaves and grass for at least a couple of hours a day. My concern is that my oldest hen (by several months) is very bossy with all of the rest. She constantly pecks at all of the other 9, especially my sweet little Speckled Sussex. She is a Bresse, by the way. She also seems kind of frantic to get out of confinement. My fear is that she might attack the other hens in the tight confinement of a tunnel and do some damage. Does anyone have any experience with this? Will she be too preoccupied with pecking around to pick on other chickens, or does she need her own tunnel, which seems ridiculous.

 

[ChookaPete]

As long as you have a 'long' network of tunnels, and by mean by chicken standards - say one main tunnel that runs along the length of the garden, and a branch tunnel coming off it, then that gives options for all the chickens to move around. If one hen gets picked on she can move to another tunnel for respite.


It might be easier though to keep your two dogs in a separate yard, or indoors during part of the day while the chickens are foraging?


I have been thinking to use a wire tunnel so my chickens can cross from one side of my front yard to the other, without smothering the whole driveway with poop! But that restricts access for people to move along the side of the house to the back. Also I noticed yesterday my chooks having a snooze under the car that is parked under the driveway, which looked so cute so I don't have the heart to confine them.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

As long as you have a 'long' network of tunnels, and by mean by chicken standards - say one main tunnel that runs along the length of the garden, and a branch tunnel coming off it, then that gives options for all the chickens to move around. If one hen gets picked on she can move to another tunnel for respite.


It might be easier though to keep your two dogs in a separate yard, or indoors during part of the day while the chickens are foraging?


I have been thinking to use a wire tunnel so my chickens can cross from one side of my front yard to the other, without smothering the whole driveway with poop! But that restricts access for people to move along the side of the house to the back. Also I noticed yesterday my chooks having a snooze under the car that is parked under the driveway, which looked so cute so I don't have the heart to confine them.

Thank you so much for the advice! That's a great idea about having a branch or curve in the tunnel so they can really spread out. Whoever first thought of chicken tunnels was a genius.

 

[ChookaPete]

Thank you so much for the advice! That's a great idea about having a branch or curve in the tunnel so they can really spread out. Whoever first thought of chicken tunnels was a genius.

Thank you very much!

Yes I recall seeing a photograph online of chicken tunnels along garden beds and love the idea so much! At the moment I am growing fruit trees in my garden, so I don't have chicken tunnels yet. I only have the "corridor" along the side of my house for the chickens to walk along from the backyard to the front yard. It does limit the amount of poop that covers the side path, but honestly it doesn't keep them off it completely - every time I walk down the side of the house they follow me hoping for a snack! It's so cute that I end up opening the side gate for them anyway so they don't have to go back up and down through the corridor then through their portal hole through the fence!