Greenlintie
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- Aug 14, 2012
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Hi!
I am a very, very new chicken keeper. Our girls arrived on Tuesday (two bovins nero, two isa browns, one white sussex) and we've had a few eggs already, which is lovely.
We bought a bog-standard wooden house and retrofitted it with weldmesh panels on the sides, double layer of chicken wire underneath the run (it is raised off the ground), ran extra thick solid timbers around the base of the run to keep it off the ground and mr fox out and of course painted it. Unfortunately my daughter chose the colours, so it is mostly PINK.
Anyway, my plan was to keep the girls in their for a day or two then use the large weldmesh triangular ark my brother made me to help them get safely around the garden, eating weeds, bugs and other things and keeping them entertained.
The problem is that yesterday the weather was REALLY horrible - hail, torrential rain, the lot. The poor souls didn't get out into the portable run because there's no shelter on it & I know from reading up that they don't like it wet.
Now I'm thinking I need to build a decent sized run around the coop and 'run' underneath it, because let's face it, the weather isn't going to be better over the next few months LOL!
This is the house we bought (the extra large one) http://www.henhouseworld.co.uk/ch102.htm
so you can see it's not big enough for the girls to be in the run for very long (although better that than eaten by a fox!!) and yes, there is a local fox which I had a dream about having shot the other night. Amazing (and crazy because another one would move in...)
ANYWAY: I'm trying to work out if it's considerably cheaper to buy the materials myself (treated timber, weldmesh panels, plastic or onduline roof (do I mean onduline?), sleepers to sit it on, wire skirt etc) and just accept it will take a while OR do I get a bank loan and buy a nice one with ready made panels? I *used* to be quite handy, before I had my wee girl (now 4). It's beena while though. And my lovely DH is no use whatever - none. He likes to look at the girls but he hasn't worked out how to hold them yet, he's a bit scared of being pecked I think.
Anyway, thanks for all your thoughts: I've been doing a bit of scouting online and the materials do seem to be very expensive. I have a MASSIVE back garden for them, so I can build a proper sized run for when I'm not out there digging and planting and mowing and yadda yadda yadda. I don't want them to be unhappy or in danger!
Thanks
Susan x
I am a very, very new chicken keeper. Our girls arrived on Tuesday (two bovins nero, two isa browns, one white sussex) and we've had a few eggs already, which is lovely.
We bought a bog-standard wooden house and retrofitted it with weldmesh panels on the sides, double layer of chicken wire underneath the run (it is raised off the ground), ran extra thick solid timbers around the base of the run to keep it off the ground and mr fox out and of course painted it. Unfortunately my daughter chose the colours, so it is mostly PINK.

Anyway, my plan was to keep the girls in their for a day or two then use the large weldmesh triangular ark my brother made me to help them get safely around the garden, eating weeds, bugs and other things and keeping them entertained.
The problem is that yesterday the weather was REALLY horrible - hail, torrential rain, the lot. The poor souls didn't get out into the portable run because there's no shelter on it & I know from reading up that they don't like it wet.
Now I'm thinking I need to build a decent sized run around the coop and 'run' underneath it, because let's face it, the weather isn't going to be better over the next few months LOL!
This is the house we bought (the extra large one) http://www.henhouseworld.co.uk/ch102.htm
so you can see it's not big enough for the girls to be in the run for very long (although better that than eaten by a fox!!) and yes, there is a local fox which I had a dream about having shot the other night. Amazing (and crazy because another one would move in...)
ANYWAY: I'm trying to work out if it's considerably cheaper to buy the materials myself (treated timber, weldmesh panels, plastic or onduline roof (do I mean onduline?), sleepers to sit it on, wire skirt etc) and just accept it will take a while OR do I get a bank loan and buy a nice one with ready made panels? I *used* to be quite handy, before I had my wee girl (now 4). It's beena while though. And my lovely DH is no use whatever - none. He likes to look at the girls but he hasn't worked out how to hold them yet, he's a bit scared of being pecked I think.
Anyway, thanks for all your thoughts: I've been doing a bit of scouting online and the materials do seem to be very expensive. I have a MASSIVE back garden for them, so I can build a proper sized run for when I'm not out there digging and planting and mowing and yadda yadda yadda. I don't want them to be unhappy or in danger!
Thanks
Susan x