Knowing a Chicken Pen

Chicken run: completed frame
Image by Mo Morgan via Flickr

Things to consider about chicken pens

A chicken pen is also known as a chicken run. It is an enclosed area that is placed usually in a yard or lawn and allows your chicken to run loose and feed of worms, bugs, minerals on the dirt. Chicken pens are usually enclosed with high chicken wire or tall fences so as to keep predators away. A chicken run is sometimes attached to the chicken coop so that your chickens can come in and out their coop easily as they wish.

You might ask why you need to build a chicken pen. Here is why building a chicken pen is nice. Firstly, chickens need fresh air and lots of sunshine. You should also bear in mind that chickens need daylight for at least 12-14 hours for them to lay healthy eggs on a regular basis. Therefore it is not recommended that you keep chickens locked up in their chicken coop all the times so this why you will need a chicken pen.

With a chicken pen or chicken run, your flock of chicken is allowed to roam freely in the backyard. Then they can absorb plenty of daylight that they needed and also, they will have this activity as an exercise tool too. It is highly important that the chicken run should be built properly. This is to protect your chickens from going out and protect them from unwanted visitors from coming in. You should be mindful of predators that might be lurking nearby. Keeping chickens in chicken coops will allow easy access to a constrained but then a chicken pen is the best way to ensure your chickens to grow up happy and healthy.

When you let your chickens loose for quite a time in a chicken pen makes them highly active. They like it when they use their instincts to scratch and dig up soil in the hopes of finding worms for their daily intake and other minerals found in the earth. More so, a chicken run will give more space that is required for them to properly mate, bathe in the dirt and engage in small time chicken fights if you have roosters in the flock. This is a sure way of fun and enjoyment. Read the rest of this entry

Efficiently Building a Chicken Pen

chicken pen
Image by sierravalleygirl via Flickr

Things to consider in building a chicken pen

You might know about all the interiors regarding the chicken coop’s interior. How the chicken pen be laid out probably hasn’t crossed your mind. There are factors that need to be considered and this depends on how well you allow things. You could have a happy group of chickens or a group of irritated ones. Irritating your chickens is never a great idea.

The first thing you need to know about creating a chicken pen is that you have to determine the type of fence you want to use. It is recommended that you do not use standard wire fence since chickens can easily poke their heads through it or they can squeeze through it. This could be a problem but then as we all know, chickens are the most widely sought prey from other animals and hunted animal by humans. Surely, when one gets loose it is sure to be eaten.

When your chickens are in the pen, you have to ensure that they have water inside it. It is best that you have a water dispenser inside the pen but having water outside that they can easily access it great as well. You can improvise it with a galvanized metal watering device as this will hold up two gallons of water. Basically, the most important thing you have to do is to ensure that you clean it because it is outside the coop and this is probably on the ground.

Moreover, it is not necessary that feed them food on the outside as this is a bad idea as chicken feeds will be destroyed in the rain. Feeding them in the pen will require you to simply toss them bread or other scraps all through the day. Chickens will eat it right away and this saves you the hassle of worrying about them being hungry. Read the rest of this entry

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