Advice for run structure please!

[bozza]

Thank you Marigold. Everything I have read about keeping vermin out points at weldmesh with these size holes, so I will ask for my quotes to include this. Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly on this. Ps your photo of your girls is fabulous! They are beautiful hens. Your comment about Lily being what on made me laugh a bit too loud! Thanks again xx

 

[bozza]

Just a quick update for anyone that’s interested...the run is on order!! A lot of the groundwork/prep is done and I have the blisters and aches and pains of a 90 year old today. I have also taken delivery of a new shed which will house all my chicken stuff, feed etc. (I bought a galvanised steel bin for my feed). I’m almost exploding with excitement already so what I will be like when I can actually go and get my hens, I dread to think! I will attempt to upload a picture of my endeavours so far!!

 

[bozza]

Tomorrow I will be laying my permeable membrane and putting my sleepers in place ready for the run to go on top!!

 

[Marigold]

Fantastic work, Bozza! It's lovely to hear all that excitement bubbling out of your posts. You've certainly earned those productive aches and pains, well done! We're all on tenterhooks (whatever they are) waiting for the next instalment.
I bet some of us who've been keepers for a few years, like me, remember how interesting and involving it was at the very beginning of our lifelong hobby. There's absolutely nothing like the First Egg, though, however long you've been keeping them.

Good luck - (or should that be good cluck?)

 

[Margaid]

Don't want to hi-jack the thread but just for info, "tenterhooks" are the little hooks in a wooden frame used for stretching/drying cloth, originally in the wool trade. If you look at the selvedge of a length of material you may see tiny little holes where the hooks have gone through. On one side the cloth will be flat but on the other there will be little raised points - the hooks being pushed through raise a sort of "burr". It's a useful way of telling the "right" side of the fabric as the hooks were pushed through from the "right side" so the roughness is on the "wrong" side.

I can remember how I excited I was to get my first hens!

 

[Marigold]

That's very interesting Margaid. Good to wake up to a new bit of knowledge.
I remember your story about when your first hen got out of the box and you were chasing her round the field in the darkness. Let's hope Bozza has a calmer delivery for his!

 

[Margaid]

I haven't forgotten that either and doubt if I ever will ! :lol:

The title of my post about it is

Oh boy! Did I get that all wrong!!

but I don't know how to insert it as a link ...

 

[Marigold]

I haven't forgotten that either and doubt if I ever will ! :lol:

The title of my post about it is

Oh boy! Did I get that all wrong!!

but I don't know how to insert it as a link ...

Find the post and click on it.
Copy the link at the top of the page.
Paste the link into your new post, here.
Bozza will love to read about that!

 

[Margaid]

Thanks Marigold, I didn't think of it as a web-link!

www.poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=124&t=7536&hilit=Oh+Boy!+Did+I+get+that+wrong

Hope this works!

 

[Marigold]

Ahh, happy days!
i hope she hasn't put you off, Bozza.

 

[Margaid]

Well I wasn't frightened of handling them after that - baptism of fire!

I actually remember laughing when I tripped over the tussocky grass and went flat on my face!

 

[Marigold]

BTW, last week when giving the run a deep clean in preparation for new pullets, I inspected the mesh covering the floor very carefully. In one corner I could see shallow tunnels running under it, probably made by the voles (mice? rats?) living under the adjacent neighbour's shed, but after ten years the 1/2" mesh was intact everywhere and there was no sign that any rodents had got through it into the run. I filled the holes and tunnels with fine gravel trickled down through the mesh, and covered it all up again. Then I left bait boxes out in the run for several days and the bait was untouched. When we installed the mesh we took it 15 cms up the sides and fixed it all along to the side mesh with soft garden wire threaded through in big ' stitches' and it seems to have really worked. I think whatever is living under there is just enjoying a nice dry place to make tunnels. Well worth the initial effort!

 

[bozza]

Ah, Marigold, that’s really reassuring and good to know! As labour intensive as it has been so far and certainly will be over the next few weeks, I’m definitely with you on this. I can’t imagine where I would begin to start rat-proofing once the chickens were in situ, so I think it is well worth putting in the time and effort at this stage for peace of mind in the future! We have laid the base with 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch galvanised weld mesh which runs under the sleepers which we have laid as the base that the run will sit on. The weldmesh has a excess margin of about 18 inches all the way round, which, once the run is in situ, we will run up the outside of the run and I plan on using similar soft wire to join this up to the weldmesh that comes with the run. In my mind, this explanation makes sense so I hope you know what I mean!

So have you been struck down with Morehens disease, or have you lost some of your flock recently?!!

 

[Marigold]

So have you been struck down with Morehens disease, or have you lost some of your flock recently?!!

Both actually - when hybrids get to around 2-3 years old they inevitably become less productive or start laying deficient eggs, which is OK if they're well-loved pets, but not if the deal is that they get a really good life until they stop earning their keep. I haven't got space for unproductive pensioners so every 2-3 years I have a clear-out, deep clean the run and coop and all the equipment, and start again with new pullets. The local chicken seller will soon have some hybrids of the breeds I want, so its just window-shopping at present.
See https://www.staghillfarm.co.uk/chickens

 

[Icemaiden]

Marigold, have you thought about getting some dual purpose birds instead of hybrids this time? You're not afraid to despatch them when they stop earning their keep; this way you can eat them instead of putting them into landfill (I'm guessing that you don't bury them?).

How about some Maranses? They're supposed to taste lovely.

 

[Marigold]

Several reasons, Icemaiden. Firstly, I think 2-3 y.o hens would be too tough to eat, and dual purpose hens would be likely to lay less than hybrids and to go broody which is a nuisance. Secondly, dual purpose breeds can make sense if you hatch your own and grow on the otherwise unwanted cockerels to about 16 weeks and then cull them for the table, but I haven't either be room or the desire to do this.
Lastly, although I do now cull my own birds I really hate doing it, and even if I knew how to pluck, eviscerate and prepare the bodies for the table, I couldn't eat them because they do all have names, I do treat them as individuals, and I do feel sorry when they go. I give them 5* treatment all their lives in return for the eggs, and for the interest and life they provide in the garden, but I don't get attached to them to the extent that I lose sight of the fact that they are there for a purpose, and I don't want a lot of old birds laying soft eggs now and then, slowly degenerating into prolapse and peritonitis, whilst I'm buying eggs as well as feeding pensioners.
But I do understand that many people keep their individual oldies well on into old age and cherish them to the end, and that's fine. I used to do that, and I used to take the oldies to the vet to be PTS, but after many years of chickens I've gradually changed my view of how I manage my very small flock (3-5 birds max.) I do think that all keepers need to know how to dispatch a bird quickly and efficiently in an emergency, and having learned this, it seems best to keep in practice now and then, and it's a lot cheaper than the vet as well.

 

[bozza]

I’VE DONE IT....I’M FINALLY CHICKEN READY!! So, after several intense weekends of back breakingly hard work I’m finally ready for my chickens and will be going to get them tomorrow! To say I’m excited is an understatement (you may have guessed that much!). I will post photos of them tomorrow but for now I’ve just got a couple of my run. Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone on here who has given me advice and help so far. It’s only just starting I know, so I will no doubt be on here plenty as things crop (s’cuse the pun) up.

 

[Marigold]

That's just BRILLIANT!! Well done! Unrecognisable from the first pics you showed us!
Can't wait to see the chickens!

 

[Icemaiden]

Great job Bozza! I look forward to seeing photos of the girls & reading about how you get on.

Have you seen the pinned post of the huge variety of normal poos, & have you got a compost heap? Chicken poo makes for some fantastic compost...

 

[Margaid]

Looks fantastic! Good luck with your chooks. Looking forward to seeing photos of them.