I've got an idea in my head that I want to run past people who've got egg laying chickens and are good at gardening. I've had chickens for a year and half now, and while we've had a garden for years I wouldn't say we've ever been all that great at it. Currently, we have 6 chickens for our family of 5, and aside from the brief severe temperature dips we went through we get eggs all winter long. I've got 8 more chickens coming in the spring, and I've been thinking of building a structure that'd be dual purpose for both chickens and gardening.
Currently, I've got my 6 birds in one of these: Amazon product ASIN B07Z1T9BZZ It's nice because it's portable and I can move it around to a fresh area, because after a few months that ground is more of less a bare patch of tilled, well fertilized mud. Having this chicken run me thinking about a fixed version of this concept.
For sake of keeping the concept simple, I'm thinking of a 20'x20' area where I'd put 4x4x10' posts in the corners, and one spaced in the middle at 10'. My perimeter would take 9 of these posts. Then, taking 2x4x10' boards and running one across the bottom, one in the middle, and one at the top as a frame work, but mostly just to be a place where I could secure the chicken wire. I'd wrap across the whole thing in chicken wire including the top of this for predator protection which makes me think I'd set another post in the center of this and run 2x4's across the top for a place for the netting to lay on. Basically, a fully enclosed, open air chicken run that's 20'x20' for 14 birds.
So, if I build a 20'x20' or whatever size, it's a matter of time before it turns into another bare patch of tilled, well fertilized mud. So my concept was that I could build one of these 20'x20' sections that I'd keep the birds in, and then build additional 20'x20' section next to it and rotate my chickens in one area, and my garden in the other.
So that leads me to thinking of a 20'x40' total area, with two sections, where the birds would be in one area tearing it all up all summer long, and then when winter hits I'd move the birds to the garden side for the winter. Then in the spring I could move the birds back to the other side so the birds would rotate between sections of the structure between summer and winter and would be tearing down the old garden area, and preparing it for the next season over winter.
Does that concept seem like it'd work? I've looking at a lot of time and material for this project and I've never done this before so I don't want to be wrong and end up with a big mess on my hands.
Currently, I've got my 6 birds in one of these: Amazon product ASIN B07Z1T9BZZ It's nice because it's portable and I can move it around to a fresh area, because after a few months that ground is more of less a bare patch of tilled, well fertilized mud. Having this chicken run me thinking about a fixed version of this concept.
For sake of keeping the concept simple, I'm thinking of a 20'x20' area where I'd put 4x4x10' posts in the corners, and one spaced in the middle at 10'. My perimeter would take 9 of these posts. Then, taking 2x4x10' boards and running one across the bottom, one in the middle, and one at the top as a frame work, but mostly just to be a place where I could secure the chicken wire. I'd wrap across the whole thing in chicken wire including the top of this for predator protection which makes me think I'd set another post in the center of this and run 2x4's across the top for a place for the netting to lay on. Basically, a fully enclosed, open air chicken run that's 20'x20' for 14 birds.
So, if I build a 20'x20' or whatever size, it's a matter of time before it turns into another bare patch of tilled, well fertilized mud. So my concept was that I could build one of these 20'x20' sections that I'd keep the birds in, and then build additional 20'x20' section next to it and rotate my chickens in one area, and my garden in the other.
So that leads me to thinking of a 20'x40' total area, with two sections, where the birds would be in one area tearing it all up all summer long, and then when winter hits I'd move the birds to the garden side for the winter. Then in the spring I could move the birds back to the other side so the birds would rotate between sections of the structure between summer and winter and would be tearing down the old garden area, and preparing it for the next season over winter.
Does that concept seem like it'd work? I've looking at a lot of time and material for this project and I've never done this before so I don't want to be wrong and end up with a big mess on my hands.