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.
Teenage Chicken Run Building Assistant – Photo by Jen Pitino
The issue of chicken abuse on my yard came to a head a few weeks ago when I several out-of-state relatives came to visit and I decided to through a large backyard party in their honor. The hens went into lockdown, and a co-worker’s teenaged son was hired to help me fix the yard. Endless hours filling in holes and replacing destroyed plants and a significant amount of money spent, I began to seriously rethink whether to let the hens roam freely after the guests left. It is nice having flower beds again, rather than haphazardly dug dust baths throughout the yard.
The chickens are unhappy and want to run free. Their inability to co-exist with landscaping however, has me frantically building a large, enclosed run. I am trying to create a compromise – if the hens can no longer free-range, can I at least provide them a bigger space to keep them happier in their confinement.
Like all home projects, the chicken run construction is taking twice as longer to complete as anticipated. To compound time crunch, I was down for the count with a nasty bout of flu and bronchial congestion for about 2 and ½ weeks. Behind schedule, hampered by the now dark evenings (thanks seasonal time change!), and worried that it is going snow any day, I am feverishly playing architect and construction worker in my backyard. Last weekend, I had to stain the wood for the run inside my cluttered garage because of rainy, cold weather.
Tonight after work, I will go home, don paint stained sweats, and put in an hour or so of work before it is too dark and cold to go on. Focus on the goal. I cannot get discouraged by the winterish weather and odds stacking against me. Are you frantically trying to get your flock ready for winter or finishing a coop/run project as well?
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OMG, I know exactly what you are going through, my flock have multiplied and I had to add an extension, I thought it was gonna take a week and that was 4 weeks ago and I still need to roof and paint, these farm chickens are lucky I love them :).
Mine roam free on my twelve acres but of course they stay around the house to eat all my flowers, prized hostas and plants that I paid quite a bit for 🙂