New Chicken Run

The original chicken coop and run I built are about two years old. Within a year, 4 chickens turned the run into a dirt bath. When it rained, they turned it into a mud bath. I put down straw, which would help for awhile, but then another rain and it would be a swamp again. I decided to build a new run to let the old one dry out and recover some growth. Here's the frame for the new run:

New Chicken Run with cob wall foundation in foreground

I used wood leftover from an old shed. There are three cedar posts cemented in the center and some cedar branches finishing off the framing. The coop is raised off of the ground and the new run is framed out from an entrance under the coop.

Unfortunately, before I finished this, one of my chickens got sick and died. I think it must have been a respiratory infection. The front run was almost never dry and the chicken poo wasn't getting turned over very well. She seemed to be eating and drinking fine but was very lethargic for about a week. I honestly didn't think much of it but I came out one morning and she was still laying under the coop where she'd been the night before. R.I.P. Rose.

The loss was pretty upsetting, especially since I knew the front run wasn't healthy and was trying to build a better set up to avoid something like that. I was afraid the remaining 3 might get sick too so I expedited the construction of the 2nd run. I was going to just cover the entire frame with chicken wire but instead of building another mud pit, I put a roof over half of it. I left the south end open b/c a roof there would just drain onto the cob wall. Here's the new run finished: 

Finished run (coop is to right, entry at bottom)

I used metal sheets from the same shed to cover half of it. Eventually I'll have a rain barrel connected to the back of the coop with water feeders to both the front and back run.

The girls seemed to like the new space. There's plenty of grass and weeds under there and I think they like the shade, too.

Girls in their new run

To move the girls into the new run, I closed off their front door and added a new one leading into the back. They learned the route in and out of the coop pretty quickly. Once I closed off the front run, I cleaned out all the poop-straw, turned the earth over, and added some dirt from the compost. I pulled a bunch of weeds from the garden and tossed them in there hoping they'll grow. Once the weeds start to grow (they better grow, they have no problem anywhere else), I'll put a roof on the front run and let the chickens back in there. I think rotating back and forth should work as long as I don't let either run get too eaten up.

Original run after I turned the earth and added weeds.

The coop is a pretty serious structure so rather than tear it down or try to convert it into something mobile, I wanted to try and work with it where it is. Hopefully this will be a long-term healthy set up for the remaining GG's. I may even extend the space on the front run and add a few birds to the gang.