The Poultry Keeper

Nursie · Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 162

I have been worrying about having to bring the ladies under cover. I have 17 hens and at present, they have a run which I never use as they whizz around the garden all day.

The run is 22' long by 6' wide and about 4' high with a house at either end. The plan is to put a solid roof on it - it already has small mesh netting around the sides.

My question is this - shall I try to make the run interesting for them? i.e. should I put things in for them to jump on and play with, or just let them scratch around in it. I am really worried about them getting bored and attacking each other, but I simply don't know what else to do with them. Crying or Very sad

What do you think? Toys and games for them or just leave them to be bored?

Nursie · Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 162

I have posted a piccie of the run in the gallery in my album.

Please have a look and see what you think!!

debcat · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:25 pm Post subject:

you could put branches for them to hop on, hang cabbages etc for them to peck at.

your horse is gorgeous

sasha.p · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 472 Location: gwent

for mine i have made a homemade hanging suet block using raisins corn and cheese tasty bits(cheese slices) lol they love it ,occasionally we have bought rolls of turf and stuck them in they also love that instead of just dried mud then we remove them when they are knackered and we sometimes stick a large tray in full with chopped straw they love to kick it all about and have a scratch but make a huge mess with it,other than that we don't really know what else we could entertain ours with.we have now moved our onto our patio for hygiene reasons so i fear they are more upset now but we can still put turf over that but saying that I'm going to be paranoid about using turf now in-case a wild bird has pooped on it Rolling Eyes

there's no winning is there

debcat · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:33 pm Post subject:

if you put straw on the bottom you can spread the grain in that, takes them longer to find it and lets them have a good root around

Nursie · Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 162

Thank you for those ideas - what a good idea about the turf and also sprinkling straw with corn mixed in for them to peck at!

I really hope this will only be a short lived thing - my poor ladies are going to be MOST upset at going from 1/2 acre to 20' to play in!!

Thanks Debs, Samson is a marvelous beastie - huge and gentle, the perfect combination!!!! Razz

Bhindi · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:00 pm Post subject:

Sometime back I had thought that I'd be able to fling things in from the garden occasionly like leaves and soil etc., but I realise now that of course they would possibly be AI soiled... so then I thought maybe i could rotate intresting waste for them and isolate a load of stuff in my empty glass house... but any thoughts as to how long untill It would be safe to use???

jaydee67 · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:51 pm Post subject:

A virus needs a host to survive, so I wouldn't think anything with bird droppings on it would be a threat for long, no doubt someone will be along with an answer.

Fangs · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 2:04 am Post subject:

im looking into polytunnels. You can have them so they have a differnt material covering called 'Super White Cover' which reduces light teansimssion by 70%, thus reducing the amout of heat firstly.

You can then have ventilation added (net sides, up to 3ft) onto the polytunnel. This would prevent the birds from iverheating. It also isn't as expensive as having large runs built.

www.firsttunnels.co.uk is the site im looknig at.

Fangs

jooles · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:11 am Post subject:

That looks like a lovely run. I have a few branches suspended in my run and they are often sitting on them, all squashed up together. I had to stop them swinging though because when one chook jumped off all the others would fall off as the branch swung wildly about Shocked

Samson is gorgeous! Very Happy

(The size of those feet! Shocked

)

rubychik · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:15 am Post subject:

we have one of those huge party gazebo's 20ft x 10 ft maybe we could put it up over the whole lot.....stays cool and much cheaper (although you'd probably get more use out of a polytunnel after!

mojo · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:09 am Post subject:

couple bags kids play sand .....hygenic and easy to sterilise

rubychik · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:12 am Post subject:

i bought some play sand yesterday and a couple of cat litter trays to make dust baths!! For the chooks of course!

mojo · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:36 am Post subject:

and easy to sterilize too either by heat or by disinfectant.....but do it regulaly

Nursie · Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 162

Excellent suggestions folks - plenty of food for thought!!

I've toyed with the idea of a polytunnel but it gets so windy here I'd be chasing it half way to Scotland every other day!

Clever idea about the gazebo Rubychik - That can be moved about then as well.

Yes Jooles, Samson has HUGE feet which hurt a great deal when they stamp on you!!!!!!