[Dominic]

Building a run is a lot easier than you think.
A local timber yard will be able get you pressure treated 2x2 wood very cheaply.
The Wood for my 2.4mx4.8m was around £50, the weld mesh was another £60

Some 4inch screws and it shouldnt take you a day.

Your quite near to HappyChicks, they have a run less house for £105
Thery also sell wire for quite cheap, but its the 80cm tall stuff, not 120, which will be easier to work with, but require more wood for support.

[boosmummy]

thank you so much everyone for all your help, you are absolutely invaluable xx

[Indiana]

I bought one of the Cocoon houses a couple of months ago. No run with it as my hens have about an acre to run around in, it was just to keep them safe at night.

Can I just say that although these houses are cheap. You get what you pay for. This is an ok product but not a quality product and I wouldn't buy another although I'm not unhappy with it.

 If possible I would rather get some plans buy some good quality materials and build for myself at least you get exactly what you and the chickens need.

[hillfooter]

I bought one of the Cocoon houses a couple of months ago. No run with it as my hens have about an acre to run around in, it was just to keep them safe at night.

Can I just say that although these houses are cheap. You get what you pay for. This is an ok product but not a quality product and I wouldn't buy another although I'm not unhappy with it.

 If possible I would rather get some plans buy some good quality materials and build for myself at least you get exactly what you and the chickens need.

It's true that you do tend to get what you pay for and this house is cheap but that's no excuse for the crass design.  Generally these "ebay" flat packn houses made in China or Indonesia are beautifully machined quality construction because they are made in furniture factories with modern machine tools at slack times when furniture orders are low ie they use up expensive slack capacity.  They therefore fit together well and have good surface finishes and can be made from reasonable quality wood.   It's just that they are badly designed because the people who design them are garden furniture designers who don't understand the needs of a chicken house and they are made to the minimum cost so fixings are cheap and wood guages are too flimsy for the British climate.

Even making your own you need to work from a good design.  See Diggits design and construction post on this site which takes you through a well documented build project with photos.  It was a simple design yet was done to be chicken friendly and had lots of simple features which made it easy to maintain.  Pity he didn't quite complete the post thread by telling us about his experiences in using it. see this link

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=69975.msg799456#msg799456

Here are some links on house/ run design and what to look out for.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=61242.msg711486#msg711486
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=56897.msg670192#msg670192
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=61068.msg709524#msg709524


HF

[Beano]

Have you had a look at tje coop & run set-ups in the Chicken Chat section?
There are lots of pictures of all sorts in there. It might give you some ideas.