My "portable" run

Now the inmates have settled in to the coop and run, we wanted to give them more space to range during the day. I decided to make a set of weldmesh panels, but wanted them to be easily moved if we wanted to change the area the chickens had to roam.

Here's the run in situ



I used some big screw eyes and fencing pins linked through the eyes to fix them in position and hold the panels together

A picture's worth 1000 words etc


I made a narrow panel and did not fix that in place at one end, so it works as a rudimentary gate.



All works well, but the colour of the mesh makes it hard to see through, so I painted the timber and the mesh itself with "tudor oak" fence stain. Here's a pic of one panel half done, showing the difference it makes



The ladies had a good grub around while the fence was incomplete


And here it is all painted up - so much easier to see the chickens. I did the mesh on the coop's run too.

that looks fab well done you, was a brillant garden you have for chooks, loads of places for them to explore.   nickyx

You can get the pins from builders merchants - Screwfix do them but are (for a change) quite expensive - £30 for 10.

I looked for fencing pins on eBay, and found best price was £13.50 + approx £7 delivery (agfain for 10), but then found some going for £11.50 - it then turned out it was a hire shop selling them that was 5 minutes from the place my wife works. They're secondhand, but who cares?

So there's a guide price for you

The panels I made at 1.6m - I used 1x3 for the bottom panel (OK, 25x75), and it came in 4.8m lengths, so slpit into 3 made best sense. The other parts are 38x25mm roofing battens - all pre tanalised.
I could then screw the sides on to the edge of the base to stiffen it up, and therefore didn't really need any cross bracing - though it's a bit tight to get two screws into the top rail from the sides to stop it rotating. Maybe a little corner brace at the top corners would be best for extra rigidity.

This might be a great solution for my garden in  winter...I want them to be able to chomp the grass so I want to be able to let them out of their run, but was thinking I's have to sit out there with them in case of fox attacks.  How fox proof would this set up be for a few hours in the garden?