The Making of "Fort Knox"- Part 2

Not only do chickens need a safe and secure coop to sleep and lay eggs in, they also need a safe yard to roam around in.  We built our run extra large to ensure our girls would have plenty of room, even if we had to leave them caged at times. Out of the two months we worked on the chicken housing project, about 6 weeks of it were spent on this part of Fort Knox.

The area we started with was the area to the left of the coop when you are facing the building. The 30ft x 10ft area was, luckily, already without trees. It runs along the south wall of the garage and was as packed with trash as the coop was. As we worked we found all sorts of interesting things, including lots of car parts. We are guessing the area was a car junkyard at some point.

The first task to tackle was measuring out the run and placing posts where they were needed. The Hubs and a friend spent the better part of a Saturday working this out and then digging the post holes. I was reminded that I have a wonderful man when he still said, "I love you," at the end of that day- it was incredibly hard work.

Next up was setting the posts with concrete and digging the 1 foot deep trench between all of the posts. As painful as this was to do, I'm so happy now that we did. We have chicken wire a foot below the ground- nothing is digging into this thing!

 

Then it was time to put up the cross pieces- these gave the run more stability and gave us a place to attach the fencing.

 

 

The fencing on the lower half was layered, one panel attached to the outside of the frame and then another panel attached to the inside of the frame.  In between the two panels we placed rocks. We used the smaller, 1 inch, chicken wire on the bottom of the run.

 

Larger 2 inch chicken wire went on the top half and on the roof. Then, the Hubs built a lovely door and the run was finally finished. It was crazy hard work, but oh so worth it. When I go out to check on my girls I know they are safe and sound in Fort Knox.

 

Tonia