Chicken Run Building – Photo by Jen Pitino

Though it is technically still fall, much of the United States (especially at my home city Boise’s latitude) is already getting snow.  Last night was our first freeze of the year and I am consequently feeling even more desperate to finish constructing a deluxe chicken run for my backyard flock.  I am racing the weather.

My hens need a new extension on their home.  For the past several years I have allowed them to have free range of my backyard.  Despite all my efforts to train, fence, and even water hose spray them out of my flower beds, the roving flock destroyed many a beloved perennial and left the yard looking war torn.  I am a “chicken expert” (sort of) and I simply could not figure out a way to have both a beautiful garden and free-range chickens.  Continue reading →