Backyard Poultry Forum

We have 4 backyard layers currently living in an old aviary and free roaming for most of the day. Since moving from a suburban block to five acres 9 months ago we have finally started building our new chicken run and coop. The plan is to breed chickens for our family's egg and chicken supply plus be able to sell any excess pullets.

It's been a slow process with the new coop as we picked an area which was thick with planted Acacia longifolia. I carefully cleared a hollow within a thicket of acacia with the idea being to provide shelter, shade and reduce the noise from the coop. Our new run/coop will be 15 by 9 meters and partitioned into 3 bays to allow breeder and grow out pens.

Once the space was cleared we put in the first lot of posts for the first bay. Plan is to stage the build as time and funds allow us to continue. Digging in the posts was pretty hard as our soil is sand over solid laterite sometimes quite shallow. Once we got all the posts in we put up some timber frame in preparation for putting up the wire netting.

Anyhow here are a few progress pics so far.

This is the space for the new coop

First post in with our little helpers

Progress

Uprights up in prep for the wire

You have similar plantings to what I originally had when we moved to our property. Plan to ultimately rely on the eucylypts as the Accacia are not long lived. Notice in pic 2 that one is showing signs of age. Good choice of site - the chooks love the Acacia seeds. Great thing about building out of town is that you can choose the 'best' place for the chooks' -not the best place according to the neighbours or the council, and you can do it in your own time, and at virtually any hour. Looking good so far. Keep the pics coming.

Thanks Sue. Yes some of the acacias are starting to decline. We plan on putting in some additional shrubs around the run once complete for further shelter and sound reduction plus replace the acacias that might die. It's been a fun project so far and will keep this thread updated as we go.

Looking great so far Bender!

It's always helpful to have such an enthusiastic work crew as well!

I second what Sue says about location suiting the chooks and not the neighbors - my boys live in a different part of my property to keep peace with the neighbors and, come sundown, their ladies have to be escorted home from the day visits.

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Merrifeathers Orpingtons

Thanks Levrette and Smallflock. The work crew are always helpful, enthusiastic and don't mind getting dirty either

Looking great. The chooks will love that once it's finished! Looking forward to seeing it develop

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

Oh yes -- looking great! Keep us updated.

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NellyG ........................

Thanks 70%cocoa and NellyG.

We have no shortage of rock on our property so I thought I would put it to good use. We are digging a trench around the run to 500mm deep and filling it with rock for fox proofing.
Has anyone else tried this and do you think it will be effective?

Currently the trench is 500 deep by about 300mm wide but I think I'll widen it to 500 by 500mm

Yes, I think that will be effective at 500mm deep x 300mm wide and definitely if you widen it to 500mm.

Good use of a free resource!!

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

Great, that's good to know. Thanks 70%cocoa

Good idea - rocks won't rust out like mesh.
I've done something similar in some of my pens to also help with drainage - lined the trenches with geo cloth before adding the rocks and extended the trench downhill and away from the pens

That's a good idea Sue. Don't think there will be any problems with drainage here as it's pure sand

Have made a bit of progress this week. Have put up the netting on the sides and collected a heap more rocks for the rock border.
I'll hopefully get the netting on the roof tomorrow and build a door. Have moved our original coop inside the run temporarily until we build the new coop.

Wow - looking really good!

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NellyG ........................