[ANHBUC]

Two things strike me looking at the photos of lovely coops and runs. The first is that a lot of them are as big as our whole garden! Feeling our's are a bit hard done by.

The other is that the fences on some are quite low. We have nearly seven foot fencing/gate on the drive where they will spend most of their time and six foot around the garden. I must admit when we were looking at requirements the height of fencing needed didn't really seem to come up. Will a six foot fence keep my hybrids in or will we need to clip flight feathers?

One of my Black Rocks flew vertically to a branch when I measured it, 7 feet!    However our fence surrounding the garden is 6 feet maximum and lower in some places and they have never made an attempt to leave the garden. 

[Hedge]

Our split animal house... rabbits on one side chickens on the other

[ANHBUC]

Great setup Hedge.

Welcome to the site. 

[Hedge]

Great setup Hedge.

Welcome to the site. 

Thanks ANHBUC...  Only had the Chickens for a couple of Months but totally hooked already.  My wife has wanted the rabbit mansion for ages and we had thought about chickens combing the two works well and they like to pop in and visit each other at feeding time.  Looking at the other setups has given me plenty of ideas to improve on what we've got. 

Great forum here!

[Jomtie]

Our set up is quite straightforward. We bought a coop from fleabay and my OH built the run. He dug down and put slabs in on their side to stop foxes digging underneath and mesh underneath the coop. The first pic shows that and the second shows it finished, complete with plastic corrugated roof. The run is 10' x 8' but the girls still expect to come out into the garden every day for several hours and dig up my borders!!  

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

Doodlehouse Mimi, 8ft by 12ft run, roof watch this space \

[ANHBUC]

Great job.   

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

Great job.   

Thanks in part to your pre build advice!

[ANHBUC]

Great job.   

Thanks in part to your pre build advice!

We are still in the design stage of the roof as we want to get it right first time.  You can't rush these things!   

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

Great job.   

Thanks in part to your pre build advice!

We are still in the design stage of the roof as we want to get it right first time.  You can't rush these things!   

Ooh... Well if you are generous enough to share your final plans I'll be very interested to take a look, I have about ten different ideas flying around in my head at the moment!

[ANHBUC]

As ours is attached to our garage we will probably be doing the roof sloping from the garage wall.  We will be using coroline sheets and they give some usefull information on the structure/ slope needed here.

www.edecks.co.uk/uploads/manuals/COROLINE%20LORES.pdf

If you need more than 5 sheets B & Q have a discount on them.  We will need to have atleast one clear sheet due to the siting as it would be too dark in the winter.

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

I think I need a structure engineer ha ha! I told myself that I would need vertical supports within the run to support the centre of the roof due to the added weight should it snow in winter. Im not sure if I want central supports though, I'm not sure it will snow and now I'm not sure I want a solid roof... I'm going to get no where fast at this rate

[ANHBUC]

   Know exactly where you are coming from.  The problem then is that you end up over engineering. The roofing sheets are quite light and it is just a chicken house after all.

Back to the drawing board!! 

[woodbwoodman]

Here is my setup- this is a series of photos I took during the build.
It started with a 8x6 shed, and I moved the end wall into the middle, making a 6x4 shed for storage and a nice shelter open to the run at the other. A little complicated in that the roof had the triangular gable attached - made moving the wall easy, but then I had to instal an internal triangle to close the gap, and also made attaching the corolux run roof more awkward.
I bought 13x25 aviary mesh from Hills of Devon, 122 wide. I built rectangular frames based on the mesh width, allowing a single 'cell' overlap to ensure no gaps. The framework on the ground was reclaimed joists, which I had bought for raised beds. Since the ground slopes 2 ways, this allowed me to have the frame on a slope, but the frames horizontal. Took a bit of planning but glad I did it.
Roof is partly coroloux - very awkward, definitely needs a knack! The remainder is more mesh framing. I did wonder about vertical supports, but it seems very solid.
I used vinyl on the shed floor - makes the cleanout very easy. Installed a cheap coop for the 3 girls; only problem is that they roost on top of it instead of in it! Maybe they will go in when the weather gets cold. So more vinyl on the coop roof to deal with the overnight 'deposits'.

[woodbwoodman]

next 2 photos...