[porkandapples]

This weekend we are building our new 200m sq chicken run which will house a variety of 20 or so different chickens. I will be selling the eggs of our happy hens to friends, family and neighbours. The eggs will be a varied selection of colours and sizes and sold in colourful egg boxes with stickers inside telling the buyer 'who laid your eggs' with the name and picture of each chicken and a description of their eggs. I will also be breeding a small number of Lincolnshire Buff chickens to sell as i think they are the perfect garden chickens to start with - thats what i did! Because of my 'marketing strategy' i would like the new run to not only be as interesting and exciting a home for my new chickens as possible i would also like it to look pretty and quirky. The fencing will be 5ft high 1" sq aviary mesh. The posts will be painted in pink, blue, green, white. There will also be electric fencing all round. The hen house is a converted 6x4 garden shed which will also be painted prettily! There is an obvious corner for dustbathing which they already use while free ranging. There are trees overhanging for shade. I plan to hang washing line across in places to hang things like cabbages etc from. There will be straw bales and various logs and branches in there. There will also be a seperate run and house within the run for the broody hen to hatch her littlies our. I will put large up-turned plantpots and the like in there for a variety of nesting options.

So any and all ideas for how i can make this a lovely and attractive home for my chucks grately appreciated 

Thanks for all the helpful info and advice that has helped me get my plans this far too 

[Castle Farm]

Sounds wonderfull to me. You need to take some photographs of it when it's ready....mainly to remind you what it looked like before it became covered in mud and s**t

[egbert]

Are you roofing over any of it?

Sounds very interesting - pictures please.

[CameronS]

give th a climbing frame, old fence posts and branches are good, mine love being able to get off the mud

[ellied]

No suggestions, it sounds like a palace already but I do want to see your photos please

[hughesy]

When it's finished let the chickens have the house and move into it yourself. It's the only way it'll stay as you've done it.

[Sandy]

  Sounds brilliant, I put some hanging baskets around for plants and my chickens found thier way into them so I gave them one to nest in! My top part of the garden did look pretty but now, particulalry after the winter, there are pooooo piles everywhere, piles on the little table and chairs and there are also loads of pot holes. I would love to see your set   up, it should be a nice and interesting environment, I put loads of logs around ours as well as go and dig worms for them.....!!

[Womble]

How about some Wallace & Gromit-esque contraptions?  I'm thinking rollaway nest boxes that triggers cupfuls of grain to be released every time somebody lays an egg, or perhaps a windmill that fills up the water drinker?  What about a see-saw that they could run up and down?

If it's just for fun, why not make up a website for your enterprise, with live streaming webcams of the hens at work?  You could do some in-depth career histories on your "meet the team" page: "Henrietta has two years experience in the egg laying business, having graduated from pullet school in 2009. She is particularly partial to cabbage leaves, and will jump higher for a worm than any other chicken in Britain. Her hobbies are kung-fu, and listening to classical music." 

If that was all just a step too far (it's 06:30, and I'm waiting for my porridge to cook!), one of our neighbours has a run door with a hole cut out in it the shape of a chicken, and that looks pretty smart. Perhaps a hen shaped weather vane on one end of the coop?

[doganjo]

I think you should change your username, David - maybe wallace or gromit - I can never remember which is which lol

[porkandapples]

Thanks everyone, some egg-cellent ideas

Womble i love your ideas, shame the budget won't stretch to that though!

I do realise it won't stay as pretty as it starts out but it only really needs to look good over the spring summer period and can be rejuvenated each year. The purpose is to stand out and be remembered by our egg customers and those that buy our chickens we hatch out (hopefully). And for our own and the chickens fun and entertainment of course. Just wanted to do something a bit different. We've been selling eggs for a while and it pretty much pays for the chickens keep as it is just wanted to step up the game a little