Chicken tunnel

[Rosieposie6]

Howdy, just jumping on here to see if anyone has made a chicken tunnel and if you have pictures of your designs that I can get ideas from I’d appreciate it! I’ve allowed my hens to free range the past two years we have five acres so I always wanted them to have access to most of the grass, bugs/frogs all that good stuff. Well at the very beginning of December last year I had my first hawk attack he brutally killed our rooster who was trying to protect the hens, it was devastating but he died a noble death. Our neighbors also have tons of hawk attacks on their flock too. Anyways since then I haven’t let them free range at all they have a large run connected to a coop and a little area of outside space that’s completely covered in heavy netting. I still want the hens to have some access to our land without getting picked off by hawks. Hawks are our biggest predator problem in rural west Michigan. We don’t get a ton of raccoons or other predators because of the farmer fields surrounding us but hawks are everywhere. We are thinking of building something that we can move around so it’s not set in one place my husband is insistent on using chicken wire because it’s more cost affective but ground predators can tear through it easily from what I’ve heard but our biggest issue is hawks not raccoons or other animals but if you’ve used chicken wire with success I’d like to see it! Plus the hens got into my garden beds last year and nearly destroyed all my hard work so that’s another reason I want them in a tunnel!

 

[perkolator]

5ac is a lot of area to cover by making chunnels or overhead protection and I'd imagine it would get expensive. I thought about doing it when I started locking up my flock, but seemed impractical with the distance I'd have to cover. I was going to make mine from chicken wire and some inexpensive structural material for the "skeleton" - like bamboo, pvc pipe, rebar, etc. and make it in modular sections.

Do you have trees available for shelter? I have 1/4 of your area but we have an orchard and plantings on most of it, without a lot of open grass where a hawk would be able to fly and pick one off. Mainly I've observed my flock will all go hide whenever a raptor is spotted, which is often. We've only lost a few to raptors over the years, but mainly I don't daily free-range ours due to bobcat presence

 

[tlcmurphy]

I would think a movable chicken tractor would serve you better?

 

[Rosieposie6]

5ac is a lot of area to cover by making chunnels or overhead protection and I'd imagine it would get expensive. I thought about doing it when I started locking up my flock, but seemed impractical with the distance I'd have to cover. I was going to make mine from chicken wire and some inexpensive structural material for the "skeleton" - like bamboo, pvc pipe, rebar, etc. and make it in modular sections.

Do you have trees available for shelter? I have 1/4 of your area but we have an orchard and plantings on most of it, without a lot of open grass where a hawk would be able to fly and pick one off. Mainly I've observed my flock will all go hide whenever a raptor is spotted, which is often. We've only lost a few to raptors over the years, but mainly I don't daily free-range ours due to bobcat presence

We aren’t planning on making a tunnel around our entire properly just a small one that we can move around every day so their getting the benefits of some free ranging without becoming Hawk lunch! We do have tons of woods and trees but because they’re so exposed during the fall/winter months a tunnel is the best solution to keep them safe. We are planning on getting another rooster but they aren’t bulletproof. The hens don’t run for cover when hawks fly over their kind of dumb lol

 

[charlie1051]

We aren’t planning on making a tunnel around our entire properly just a small one that we can move around every day so their getting the benefits of some free ranging without becoming Hawk lunch! We do have tons of woods and trees but because they’re so exposed during the fall/winter months a tunnel is the best solution to keep them safe. We are planning on getting another rooster but they aren’t bulletproof. The hens don’t run for cover when hawks fly over their kind of dumb lol

Not to change the direction on you but have you though about puttin' up some netting? I feel your pain on the hawks.

 

[Rosieposie6]

Not to change the direction on you but have you though about puttin' up some netting? I feel your pain on the hawks.

We already have netting up but it’s only over a small area. We want to build a chicken tunnel so they have more access to grass without getting killed since we have so much land they want to explore.

 

[charlie1051]

We already have netting up but it’s only over a small area. We want to build a chicken tunnel so they have more access to grass without getting killed since we have so much land they want to explore.

Right on, I understand! There are some cools tunnel pics on google. A British person built one 10 feet high to go up and over a road, so his ladies could literally get to the other side.. No joke. it's awesome

 

[Big Doggie]

Howdy, just jumping on here to see if anyone has made a chicken tunnel and if you have pictures of your designs that I can get ideas from I’d appreciate it! I’ve allowed my hens to free range the past two years we have five acres so I always wanted them to have access to most of the grass, bugs/frogs all that good stuff. Well at the very beginning of December last year I had my first hawk attack he brutally killed our rooster who was trying to protect the hens, it was devastating but he died a noble death. Our neighbors also have tons of hawk attacks on their flock too. Anyways since then I haven’t let them free range at all they have a large run connected to a coop and a little area of outside space that’s completely covered in heavy netting. I still want the hens to have some access to our land without getting picked off by hawks. Hawks are our biggest predator problem in rural west Michigan. We don’t get a ton of raccoons or other predators because of the farmer fields surrounding us but hawks are everywhere. We are thinking of building something that we can move around so it’s not set in one place my husband is insistent on using chicken wire because it’s more cost affective but ground predators can tear through it easily from what I’ve heard but our biggest issue is hawks not raccoons or other animals but if you’ve used chicken wire with success I’d like to see it! Plus the hens got into my garden beds last year and nearly destroyed all my hard work so that’s another reason I want them in a tunnel!

Howdy, just jumping on here to see if anyone has made a chicken tunnel and if you have pictures of your designs that I can get ideas from I’d appreciate it! I’ve allowed my hens to free range the past two years we have five acres so I always wanted them to have access to most of the grass, bugs/frogs all that good stuff. Well at the very beginning of December last year I had my first hawk attack he brutally killed our rooster who was trying to protect the hens, it was devastating but he died a noble death. Our neighbors also have tons of hawk attacks on their flock too. Anyways since then I haven’t let them free range at all they have a large run connected to a coop and a little area of outside space that’s completely covered in heavy netting. I still want the hens to have some access to our land without getting picked off by hawks. Hawks are our biggest predator problem in rural west Michigan. We don’t get a ton of raccoons or other predators because of the farmer fields surrounding us but hawks are everywhere. We are thinking of building something that we can move around so it’s not set in one place my husband is insistent on using chicken wire because it’s more cost affective but ground predators can tear through it easily from what I’ve heard but our biggest issue is hawks not raccoons or other animals but if you’ve used chicken wire with success I’d like to see it! Plus the hens got into my garden beds last year and nearly destroyed all my hard work so that’s another reason I want them in a tunnel!

 

[Big Doggie]

Howdy, just jumping on here to see if anyone has made a chicken tunnel and if you have pictures of your designs that I can get ideas from I’d appreciate it! I’ve allowed my hens to free range the past two years we have five acres so I always wanted them to have access to most of the grass, bugs/frogs all that good stuff. Well at the very beginning of December last year I had my first hawk attack he brutally killed our rooster who was trying to protect the hens, it was devastating but he died a noble death. Our neighbors also have tons of hawk attacks on their flock too. Anyways since then I haven’t let them free range at all they have a large run connected to a coop and a little area of outside space that’s completely covered in heavy netting. I still want the hens to have some access to our land without getting picked off by hawks. Hawks are our biggest predator problem in rural west Michigan. We don’t get a ton of raccoons or other predators because of the farmer fields surrounding us but hawks are everywhere. We are thinking of building something that we can move around so it’s not set in one place my husband is insistent on using chicken wire because it’s more cost affective but ground predators can tear through it easily from what I’ve heard but our biggest issue is hawks not raccoons or other animals but if you’ve used chicken wire with success I’d like to see it! Plus the hens got into my garden beds last year and nearly destroyed all my hard work so that’s another reason I want them in a tunnel!

I made some tunnels for safe travel between the coop and a close by tractor. The cheapest are made from wood. Four pieces that measure 12”x 12” at each end. These are connected by 2x3” pine that are 40” long. These make the body of the tractor so what you end up with is a 12” high tunnel by 40” long. I cover it with green snow fencing stuff made of plastic. Although I’m going to wrap it in chicken wire too. Most day time predators are put off by the plastic fencing but this is for day time use only. Raccoons will rip through in no time although they are night hunters. So by this time the hens are back in the coop.

 

[ChaosMom]

Those who use chicken tunnels: how do you connect it to the run? Do you have to make an additional pop door, this one in the run to enter the tunnel? (Or maybe cram them into the tunnel, one at a time, and hope they head to the other end...)

After the endless hardware cloth we've been nailing up to the new run, I would REALLY hate to compromise the near-wall around (and above) the run.