# Those who keep chickens in their gardens



## Wyrd (Jul 27, 2010)

For those who keep chickens in their gardens, what do your coop/pen/run look like?

We are trying to decide what type of pen to make for the chickens we plan to get
We want something fairly decorative as we are trying to sell our house so want it to look 'pretty' so not to discourage viewers, but I also want it to be practical.

We are converting our old shed into the coop and feed store and will be having a run next to the fence.
We like the look of a trellis or picket fence with some planks at the bottom and chicken wire, but I'm concerned about having an open top and would prefer it to be closed.


----------



## Cleo38 (Jan 22, 2010)

My OH converted an old storage unit into a coop. Added nesting boxes & perches inside. He also made a door with a ladder so they could get in & out easily.

We have fenced off an area of the garden with 6ft chainlink fencing, with approx 2ft buried so when they dig they still can't get out. Our area doesn't have roof as there was no way we could do this - inside there is a couple of trees & bushes so adding a roof wouldn't have been practical.


----------



## sezra (May 20, 2011)

We built ours in the corner of the garden from scratch with a wooden frame and strong metal mesh. We used corrugated plastic for the roof. OH is not the most practical bloke in the world as you can tell from the door. The roof leaked until this summer when he found a way of supporting it properly! We did everything we could to fox proof it, it is not the prettiest run in the world but you have to make the best of what you've got!


----------



## bigdaddy (Feb 5, 2011)

all home made nice and cheap and dose the job

plus they get the run of garden everyday too


----------



## sallysqueak (Apr 19, 2011)

Have a look at these 2 chicken coop designs to see if they would suit you, if not keep checking back as i'm going to be adding loads more to that page, including a coop you can carry around so as not to kill the grass. It's quite ornamental.


----------



## Forever Hopeful (Jul 25, 2011)

This is our coop and run that we built at the bottom of our garden


















It obviously isn't movable though, the hens free range a lot of the time but are quite happy in their run.


----------



## pet playpens (Jul 26, 2011)

Here is our chicken house, we made it to fit in the corner of our garden.


----------



## musix90 (Dec 2, 2010)

Wyrd said:


> For those who keep chickens in their gardens, what do your coop/pen/run look like?
> 
> We are trying to decide what type of pen to make for the chickens we plan to get
> We want something fairly decorative as we are trying to sell our house so want it to look 'pretty' so not to discourage viewers, but I also want it to be practical.
> ...


those chicken coop are amazing. if you have no roof would you conciser fruit netting


----------



## FourFerrets (Oct 10, 2009)

If your reason for a roof is to keep the foxes out. fruit netting isn't gonna cut it.
I have welded mesh and tarpaulin on the roof of my pen.
Apparently foxes are more like cats in the heights they can jump and scramble up.


----------



## RubyReckless (Oct 25, 2011)

We have an Eglu cube withn the extended run. We also have a fairly substantial free range area in our garden for during the day. I used to have an Omlet, but once someone offered to buy it frrom me 3 years ago and I realised I could go from 3 hens to 9 in one easy leap buy selling it and using the money towards a Cube.
I know they aren't the cheap option, but I do love how easy they are to clean. Plus hens are such cheap pets that they ofset my pricey housing.
And somehow it is far too easy to keep accumulating hens.


----------



## Katielouise24 (Dec 6, 2011)

This is my previous chicken house.. have since upgraded when moving house to a bigger but more standard one... we wanted a 'chicken beach' so painted it to look like a beach hut & hung some shells in the run which the chickens pecked.. we put play sand in the bottom of the run & then river pebbles & planted beachy type grasses around the outside. It wasnt movable but when we were there in the day we just let the chickens free range. 

xx


----------



## mrchick (Dec 29, 2011)

there are good news

POULTRY DISEASE, newcastle disease in broiler chicken. symptom. clinical sign - YouTube

poultryphotos.com


----------



## joanchiu (Dec 29, 2011)

Ours too was a little bamboo house but most of the time

they get to run of garden.


----------



## TriciaD (Nov 9, 2011)

We made our chicken house. The picture shows it with a very small run, but it has now been extended and the run is now about 4m by 3m, and the house is on the end.


----------

