Using a dog kennel for outdoor run

[Tapsmom]

Hi
We are going to be building our coop against our barn. We are going to have an enclosed area for the chickens to be outside attached to the coop. It will have a top and the sides will be buried underround to keep our local hungry foxes out. My questions is this.. Has anyone used a dog kennel? I see planty of them for sale and I am thinking that this may be an inexpensive start. We still will need some galvanized wire fencing for the top and will need to either bury part of the chain link fence or hardware cloth, but it is looking like it might be a good option. My chicks are only 2 weeks old so I have the time to plan and do this right. I am brand new to this chicken thing and I have been learning about "chicken math" so I guess I better figure on having plenty of room for expansion LOL...Next on our list are dairy goats. (My horse is going to have LOTS of company in his new barn

 

[AngelzFyre]

Hi and welcome to BYC!

I use dog kennels on both my coops for runs. We cut one panel in half where it would connect to the coop and used fence staples to staple it to the coop in back and then reinforced it with crossties around the bottom on the inside and hardware cloth. They've been in use about 4 yrs now with no problems. Just make sure with having chicks in them that you do run hardware cloth around the bottom so they can't get through the links in the fence. We did this anyway since ours were always sticking their heads out to get to something and we wanted to be sure nothing pulled them through. You can always add extra panels for expansion on each side. Our chickens are only out in the daytime, we lock everyone up at night safe and sound inside the coop. Too many coyotes, foxes, opossums around here to leave the run open at night.
Good luck with your new chicken coop!

 

[HappyChickenLover]

I want to know how many people haven't tried to use a dog kennel? Actually its a great idea, I turned my dog kennel into a run. Now I am puting sheet metal accross the top to use for golden pheasants.

 

[dsqard]

I use dog kennel panels for my run as well. They work great and it is easy to expand if you need to.

 

[Kansaseq]

Been using dog kennels for 10 years now--they work great!

 

[ddmiddle7]

Do any of you guys have pictures of the runs you have made out of dog kennels? I am planning on using my old dog kennel as my run and am curious about how to connect it to the coop. I would love to see some pictures on how you all did it.
Thanks,
Dereck

 

[Kansaseq]

I know there is already a thread on this, with photos. You might do a search to see if you can find it. Lots of good ideas

 

[dsqard]

I don't have mine connected to the coop. I have it surrounding the coop since my coop is standing away from any buildings. What I did is connect my panels to my fencing that I use for my horses. The back side of the run is the horse fencing and the front and sides are dog panels. I did run hardware cloth on the horse fence side to keep the chickens in the run and to keep predators (and nosey horses

) out.
Here is a picture so you can get an idea of what I was trying to describe.

 

[In His Service]

I use dog kennels for my runs. Where they don't surround the coops, I attached them to the wooden corner posts of the coops with the metal bands they sell at Lowe's in the fencing department. Some places I used the half circle bands that screw in on both ends ( I used a washer and wood screws since the holes are kind of large. ) Other places I used the ones that look like a circle with a tab to the side and both ends come together using one washer and screw to attach to the coop. These are actually the bands that attach the metal fence post to the stretcher bars in the fencing.

 

[Tapsmom]

Thanks! That was what I was hoping for. Dsgard, do you leave your chickens in or out at night? I also have horses so it will be a similar setup to yours and I want to make sure they are safe from coyotes, foxes, etc. Our plan is to shut them in at night. We've already become quite attached to our little fuzzy featherballs