Chicken Runs … Building A Quality And Cost Effective Home For Your Chickens

Chicken Runs – Ideas For Building Them


There are many different ideas about how to make the right chicken run for the least amount of money. There are free run ideas, and complete plans and layouts, with many pictures and video. One of the things to take into consideration when making a chicken run is space, and portability. You also have to think about why you are raising chickens, are you raising them for personal use, or to make some money either with selling the eggs or meat. If you are just raising them for a personal or family egg supply, then you won’t need a lot of birds, or a large space.

Chickens do a lot of scratching and abusing the ground. A permanent run will have to have enough space to allow parts of the ground to recuperate, where a smaller unit that is built right can be easily moved from one location to another. These portable units can be nice because you can make them in modules that you can place in different configurations. When you are thinking of ideas for cresting your run, you should place it towards the Southeastern portion of your yard. This will be where the sun comes up first, and starts to dry out the ground early. It also encourages the hens and roosters to start their day, giving you plenty of room to gather eggs and clean the coops, and their mess will start to dry out quickly.

One very good idea for a chicken run is to reduce the height, as you don’t need to make the run so high, as long as there is enough room for the chickens to exercise and graze properly. Many people feel that a chicken run needs to be so high that you have to make a door just to get in or climb over a waist high fence. This is just not true. You will spend less money on a well built low run, one with a sturdy top on it. Once you have the walls and frame built you can buy enough rolls of a tighter mesh for the top, and just roll it out over the top of the frame. If you do it in sections, you don’t even have to roll the whole thing back to get into it. Instead of waist high posts, try knee or thigh high walls instead, depending on how tall your flock is.

With this in mind, you don’t have to make a giant coop for you poultry either, as long as they have enough space to move around, and adequate lighting and ventilation. You will want most of your window to allow as much sun as possible, and also, if the cross breeze is variable, two smaller ones can be added to allow the wind to flow through. This will help dry out the coop and help it last longer, saving you money. Even if you decide to build from plans, you can purchase materials fairly cheap if you look around. Many times if you visit country flea markets you can find very good deals on things farmers or ranchers aren’t using anymore. You can also look around at lumber yards for wood off cuts. As long as it suits your needs, it’s usually cost effective or nearly free.

As you can see, there are quite a few steps to consider in building chicken runs, if you want them to work well. By attending to the details as you design and build your run, you will save yourself time and money in the end.

Chicken Run Basics


It is important to keep your chickens from running a muck in your yard, because of how much they like scratching and how much they eat. But in the same token you shouldn’t have to spend tons of money on chicken runs, coops and all the other ingredients needed to raise a healthy flock of birds. However you still have to weigh costs against durability safety, and ease of use.

First thing to think about when putting in a run is whether or not it will be permanent. You set up permanent runs a little differently than a portable one, and there are a few different things to think about. If you choose a permanent chicken run, you should divide the space in half, for many reasons. With a permanent run, you can’t move the unit to a new fresh location, dividing the space allows for the area to recuperate. It also makes it much easier to clean and do improvements, or repairs. You will need plenty of 2×4′s, at least one foot longer than the chicken mesh you want to use.

It is also a good idea to get the mesh at least four inches longer than what you want, and here’s why. Wherever you may live, there are going to be predators that will want to eat you chickens and eggs as much as you do. They will try just about anything to get into your run. Even if you are trying to keep costs low don’t skimp here. You will want to dig the holes a foot deep, and then dig a six inch trench connecting the perimeter. Place your 2×4′s in each hole. Here you have two options. You can either buy some easy mix concrete and pour some around each post, or you can pack the dirt back in and around. Next when you are putting up the wire, make sure that the bottom edge rests at the bottom of the trench, all the way around. Then you should add some weight to the fencing, to keep it in place. The cheapest way would be to lay some rocks or gravel in, or even the remnants of the concrete. Once you do that bury the whole thing to ground level. It may seem a lot to deal with, but if you’re on a budget, you may have to put in some extra work and planning.

Many of the materials you’ll need can be found at flea markets or swap meets. Do some looking around and don’t jump on the first thing you see, you may find a better deal four stalls down. When you have scanned the place, find the one that had the best deal for your uses. Make sure that every thing you pick out will work together smoothly. It may be wise to go with large staples when attaching the wire to the posts, but make sure they are large enough to be secure, or you will end up wasting more having to fix it regularly. You will need basic tools you may already have around the house, like hammers, shovels, and the like. Anything you may not have like a post hole digger, or an air tool, you should just rent one. It will be cheaper, you can use it as long as you need it and take it back afterwards. If you plan it out, you can make the most of your rental by scheduling other things at the same time.