Chicken Enclosure

[CaundleMama]

At our last place my 2 bantams & 2 hyline browns had the run of the garden,& subsequently destroyed it,making hanging out washing a trecherous muddy slippy experiance

Here we have 4 biggies,2 silver sussex & 2 gold laced wyandottes in a decent sized enclosure my hubby built.My dad lives with us now & was very not keen shall we say to have them wanging around the place,our lease also states poultry must be kept secure(lots of other livestock round here)
Now the 4 biggies(hindsight prob should have got 2 bantams & 2 biggies) combined with the rain have made their enclosure the Somme

Every day they get a sack of fresh torn grass & hedgerow plants plus cabbage,lettuc leaves from the garden etc along with layer pellets & odd treat of corn.Yet once they hav scratched thru that the mud is shocking at the moment.

We can move the enclosure,its 9ft odd high & will be covered in with chicken wire on top soon,its heavy but moveable,but I dont think the ground would recover quick enough in the time the place we swing it round to gets to the same state if that makes sense?

Dad suggested getting in there & digging it out a bit,replacing it with some fresh soil. I just want to avoid problems & also keep them in the best circumstances I can.,maybe I am over fretting bout the mud?

Really its tips for good managment I am after,any help welcome thanks

[CaundleMama]

if it makes it easier for anyone I have just stuck a photo of the enclosure on my blog so you can see the sort of set up I have.

[Millymollymandy]

I certainly don't think digging out the mud then replacing with soil is an option, because as soon as it rains the fresh soil will turn to mud too!

I'd move it if I was you. The weather 'should' be getting a bit drier and warmer, and the grass (or weeds) ought to start to grow back on the muddy patch.

I like your sparrow by the way!

[CaundleMama]

hes a big lad isnt he
Im not so worried about how it looks so to speak,just more the side of health for the birds if they are on the same bit of ground for a bit,what sort of time frame would be good to move it to over?
I can see hubby going if the answer is monthly

I wondered if there was any one else keeping birds in a fixed place & how they make sure the ground & the birds stay healthy

[Millymollymandy]

Yes it would be a bit much to move every month! I have a much bigger enclosure which I've divided into 2 runs and a bit where they always have access to. I've only got 4 hens but even so, if I didn't swap them from one run to the other every week or 10 days, there wouldn't be much grass/weeds left, as they just dig all the time!

[CaundleMama]

that was the original plan here but the bit we allocated for the 4 of them seemed too small to cut in half so to speak,would you mind giving me the measurements of one your whole enclosure MMM?
It dried out there lots yesterday thanks to gorgeous weather but hmppff looking at the sky this morning think thats soon going to go the opposite way

[Millymollymandy]

I don't know the measurements but it is must be between 100m2 and 150m2 altogether, before being divided up. I'm only guessing because I know the square metrage of my veg patch and it is smaller than that!

[CaundleMama]

hmm approx 9metre square here,sooo here comes a nag to GTD to make it bigger

[Thurston Garden]

CM I agree with 3M You need to move it. One on each corner and it should not be too bad?

I have a wee movable run and have just re-erected it today after fixing some chicken wire to a large 8ft by 4ft pallet (the kind plasterboard comes on). This is to house our Sasso Quartet and will be moved periodically so they can clear a piece of ground destined for strawberries next year.

The Quartet will not be playing to earn their keep though - Sasso hatching eggs for sale very very soon!

[CaundleMama]

thanks for the reply TG,how long then can they be on one bit of ground I guess is my next question?

[Thurston Garden]

Really depends on the number of birds and the state of the weather. More birds + cr4p weather means you would need to move them more regularly.

This is my wee movable broody run. It is only 6ft square though. I can make & add more panels as required. The corners are tied together with string.



Ther birds in the pic are 26 days old and that was their first day outside (they went back inside at night for the first few days).

At 40 days old:



they were permanently in the run I had to move it every week. As they got bigger I moved it sometimes every two days! This was on our front grass mind and I was trying to feed it at the same time.

[red]

The Quartet will not be playing to earn their keep though - Sasso hatching eggs for sale very very soon!

ooo that could be good to know...

[Thurston Garden]

Red I am going to move them tomorrow. I can't tell if they are all laying atm because they are in with the big crowd. I hope they are though and will find out later in the week.

A local woman was asking me for some in the autumn, but she emailed a few weeks ago to offer me her incubator so I don't know if she is still lookingto hatch some out.

One of the hens is more like a light sussex, but when you look at the Sasso parent site, there's all shapes and colours! So far, most of the white chicks have turned out to be males which is what we want yum yum!

[CaundleMama]

rquick update I got some high chicken wire(their wings re clipped so cant hop thts high) this morning & with a bit of wrestling managed to do the extention which I have stuck on my blog(dont use photobucket etc sorry so cant put pics on forums)
I KNOW! hubby is going to go
oh

when he sees it & he WILL be able to make smething much neater & stronger etc,movable wooden panels on feet I am thinking but in the meantime this has solved a problem

I can hear the ground in the enclosure heaving a sigh of relief plus very happy chickens with new *bit* to explore.

[Millymollymandy]

Just copy and paste from your blog! All photos need are to be already hosted on the internet, so you don't need Flick or anything else when you have loaded a photo onto your blog.