VIDEO: Chickens exploring The Garden Run chicken coop run extensions
I shot this just after opening up The Garden Run secure run extensions to our chickens for the first time last spring, expanding their secure daytime space threefold.
We’ve since added perches, grazing frames for chickens, an herb/succulent garden (on top of the half-height module), a small roof, and vining jasmine to the run. Yet even without those features in place, you can see that the hens are very much engaged in the run right from the start, moving from one “room” to another to forage together or separately.
You can configure The Garden Run modular chicken run enclosures however you like, building one module or many. As you can see in the video, multiple modules work together to create a variety spaces for your chickens to explore.
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6 thoughts on “VIDEO: Chickens exploring The Garden Run chicken coop run extensions”
I am building close to what is shown in the video with your plans. What did you put on the ground of the runs and coop initially? What is done to maintain the ground the runs and coop are covering?
Lee, I’ll email you about this too. When I built the coop, there was grass on the ground. Once the chickens were allowed inside, that grass was gone in a week from their activity, so it has been a deep litter ever since. The run was built over our chickens’ existing day yard, so it was essentially dirt. I prepped it by raking off the top layer of bedding/mulch down to the actual topsoil, then I raked that flat and set and leveled the paver stones for a simple foundation. Once the runs were finished, I put straw in the bottom to start a deep litter.
If you want grass inside either the coop or one of the run modules, you’d need to protect its roots with a grazing frame. The challenge in having a grazing frame inside an enclosed run is that if you also have deep litter around it, that will get kicked up onto the frame and smother the grass. Same goes for having it directly beneath a perch. So you’d want to put the frame in an area without deep litter and not right under a perch.
Are you in town with minimal space ? I use pink doggie exercise panels for an enclosure topped with mesh to keep predators out from the sky out here in the country. Kit comes with a door and I butt it up to drop down door from inside the front run. They live for time out on the lawn and it makes the egg yolks very yellow. If I had a way I would send you pics. You love your girlies like I do.
I have something similar but not as grand. Yours was a lot of work. I only have a hoop chunnel from the main run to the north forty to give them a little variety. In each of the runs I made a lawn box with 2x4s covered with hardware cloth and the grass grows up through it. Keeps them happy. Yours is really neat….the girlies seem very excited to explore.
Thanks, Cheryl. They really do enjoy it. Your chunnel sounds like a great solution with the space you have.
That’s right, Cheryl. We have a small yard in the city and lots of potential for predators (dogs, raccoons, hawks, etc.). So this design lets us make efficient use of the space to keep the chickens active, yet safe.