[ReaderRabbit]

Hi All

We've had our 3 chooks (2 x Wyandottes and 1 x Barnebar) for a couple of years now and they have lived happily in their home made coop with a small run 1m x 3.5m (including a sheltered area under the coop).  They have been let out each morning to free range around our smallish garden with the run and coop only locked up at night once the girls have put themselves to bed.

But last week my husband was just in time to rescue one of the Wyandottes from a sneaky fox that had come into the garden at 6:30am and had luckily only managed to get a mouth full of feathers.  It's put the wind right up us (and the chooks) and we are now keeping the girls in their run unless we are in and around the garden/kitchen to keep an eye on them. 

We are both out at work all day so obviously this is not ideal and  we are now in the process of ordering the materials to build them a bigger walk-in run with a slabbed base and a wire mesh/plastic corrugated sheet roof.  We have sourced some ready made 3ft x 6ft weldmesh panels and are torn between making the run 9ft x 9ft or 9ft x 12ft.   Also, because cleaning our home made coop has always been a pain we are going to convert our 5ft x 3 ft shed into a hen house.  We plan to butt the shed up to the run with the door on the outside for us to get easy access and a pop hole cut into the side for the chooks to go in and out of the run.So my question is - how big should we make the run? 

Our garden in only about 40ft square so should we spend the extra £££s and use more space to make the run slightly bigger or will 9ft x 9ft be fine for 3 large chooks?


Cheers

RR

[mpv1961]

After reading alot on here and other places We went for a 8x6 run with a 8x6 coop we have at present got 6 chooks, seems like there does not be a rule for size but oviously the bigger the better.

[GrannieAnnie]

I agree with mpv, the bigger the better for happier chooks!  Sorry about the fox.  there does seem to be more around this year, but then they have cubs to look after!