Designing your Chicken Run

You may be asking, why do I need a chicken run if I have a coop? Chickens love to forage and love being outdoors. The run will provide a safe space for them to do this. Our hen house is inside the run. This gives them space in the mornings to mess around until I’m ready to let them out to free-range.

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How big should my chicken run be?

An important factor is whether or not your chickens will free range. We have a light predator load plus a livestock guardian so it works for us. However, it’s not safe for everyone.

When designing your chicken run, space is important. You need to plan for 10-15 square feet per chicken in the run. If your chickens are primarily free-ranging, like ours, you can get by with a little less.

We originally only planned for four chickens. We figured that would provide plenty of eggs for our family. But chickens are addicting, if you have space, build a run as large as possible. It’s also nice to leave them in the run a little longer on bad weather days.

What materials should I use?

We placed our coop at the back of our fence, which provides two walls of the run. The Bearded Rooster did not do board on board and placed the boards a little farther apart to allow for some airflow. In the Winter, I cover with feed bags to block the breeze.

A lot of people use prefab dog run. Chainlink keeps most predators out. Depending on your predator load, you may want to reinforce with hardware cloth and possibly a hot wire.

You want it to be tall enough to walk in. This will allow you access to easily clean. A few years ago, we went on a coop tour in Dallas. I saw some runs that were just a few feet tall. They were built so the top would slide off for easy access.

Cover your run to protect from ariel predators plus raccoons and opossums. There are lots of options. We used clear roofing panels.

Feeder and Waterer

The feeder and waterer should be in the run and not the coop. Water will add to the moisture in the coop and cause a problem in winter plus you don’t want to attract predators inside the coop when the girls are sleeping.

If you can hang your feeder and waterer from a chain, the chickens won’t be able to roost above it and poop in it. They need plenty of fresh, clean water for egg production.

Put several feeders and waterers out if you have space. This will allow the chickens at the bottom of the pecking order access to food and water. If not place them in the center of the run so all the chickens have access to it. Avoid the corners. Your top hens may guard it.

Shade for your Chicken Run

If you can place close to trees that would be great. But if that’s not an option, you may need to add artificial shade. Ours gets evening shade but we added a tarp to give a little more coverage. Chickens don’t do well in the heat so they need a place to escape from the brutal sun in summer.

Dust Bath Area

Dust bathing is an important activity to help keep your chickens free of lice and mites. Having an area in the run for them to dust bathe is important. We have a kiddy pool for ours.

You can also use logs, bricks, or stones to designate an area. Even an old tire or two works well.

It may not matter where you think they should dust bath, the chickens may pick a favorite area.

However, setting up the perfect dust bath will encourage them to use it. Anytime I add fresh materials, the girls hop right in.

Blocking Wind in Winter

You may also need to add a tarp or some type of material to block the wind in Winter.

Additional Options for your Chicken Run

If your chickens aren’t free-ranging much, adding some vertical space can be helpful. Stumps of different sizes, tree limbs, ladders, and roost bars are good options. Also, toys, hanging baskets, suet block holders can keep your chickens occupied and provide hours of entertainment.

Ground materials

It won’t take long for your chickens to eat, dig up, and destroy any ground materials where you place the coop. It was a couple of months with ours. We soon had to decide what to do. We were using pine shavings so I added straw. After a few weeks of rain, the run was a mucky mess. We put boards down so I wouldn’t fall and bust my butt, however, that was just a short-term solution. I needed to find something else.

Our local feed store was offering a class, the A&M Professor suggested pine bark mulch and sand. I thought I’d give the mulch a try. Since we had plenty of dirt on the ground, I decided to omit the sand. The mulch has been great! It keeps the ground moist in the summer where it had been drying out and cracking. During the rainy seasons, it has kept everything dry.

Some people use sand only and love the ease of cleaning it. Whichever you decide, you just want to make sure you girls have a dry area. Foot problems can develop quickly if they are standing in water and mud.

If you just brought home your baby chicks, you have plenty of time to plan your chicken run. Take your time and think about all the options. It will be six to eight weeks before they are ready to spend time outside.