12×27′ chicken run.
What a wet day this was!
This run was to house the 3 existing coops that the chickens lived in, A Flytesofancy Haven hen house . We removed the run from this for the customer as it wasn’t needed and would make it easier to move around inside the run. There was also an eggshell coop. Again, we took the run of for the same reason and another small coop that is possible from Oakdene.
Here is a short video of it going together:
The first 12′ of the chicken run has a mesh roof to ensure it was predator proof but still open to the air – I’m sure there was signs of something fox sized regularly visiting the corner of the garden. The remaining 15′ of the chicken run had a corrugated roof fitted.
Internally, the is a vertical support every 6′ and these are linked to the sides and cross braced where needed to ensure the run keeps it shape. If you were wondering, yes it is built on a slope. This is no problem for the structure even it it looks a little odd to the eye from some angles.
There is a 12″ solid base plinth. This makes it practical to use a layer of litter in the base without it spreading across the garden and provides some wind protection for the hens.
The whole lot sits on top of an 12″ wide anti-dig mesh which deters predators from digging next to the run walls.
Concrete footings with 1 block height is cheap enough to do.
Yes, it’s possible to use concrete blocks but i’d dispute that it is cheap unless you had all the equipment needed. Our run needs no footings so the 12″ base on a 9×15′ run costs around £200 and requires no extra labour. You’d need around £60 worth of blocks to do the same job. The footings would need 1m of ballast and about 120kg of cement so that’s another £100. I think you’d need to allow 2 days to do the work.