We had chickens at the old house. They had a really nice coop that my DH built. Alas, it was too big to travel by road to the farm intactly. So where to keep the chickens until we can move the coop over.... We had several family pow-wows to make the correct decision.
So what did we decide?
Paul did the labor. He had to make sure there were no holes for wayfaring critters to come in and get a chicken dinner. He used some excess barn siding and a nice door. We used the nesting boxes from the old coop. The chickens moved in easily and felt real comfortable. We know this because they are laying well. The downside of the run-in coop is that it doesn't have much light. The windows in the door is the only source.
The chickens are happy having a dry place to scratch. There is very aged manure in the run-in, and they love scratching through it.
We can cut through the barn to get to the chickens, It is a bit muddy in the pasture area outside the run-in. This has worked out well.
The chickens have total access to the outdoors, but they only seem to go out when the weather is fine. They like the dry dirt rather than mud.
So what did we decide?
The back of the barn has a 'run-in'. A run-in is a shed like structure that is built on the back of a barn. It is a place to give animals protection in bad weather, a place where they can run in and be dry. We have a large run in and so we decided to build the chicken coop in the end of the run in.
The chickens are happy having a dry place to scratch. There is very aged manure in the run-in, and they love scratching through it.
We can cut through the barn to get to the chickens, It is a bit muddy in the pasture area outside the run-in. This has worked out well.
The chickens have total access to the outdoors, but they only seem to go out when the weather is fine. They like the dry dirt rather than mud.
We do hope to get the coop moved in the next month or so, but until then we have happy hens in the run-in.
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