this video I'm going to be building a chicken run. Alright, so what I did is I staked out where my four by four posts are going to go. So wherever these steaks are is where there's going to be a four by four post and they're basically eight feet apart. So this run is going to be 10 feet wide by 24 feet from the chicken coop. They are basically eight feet from each other.

Here,

here I'm going to have my door to get into the run. And what I may do later expanded out another 10 feet. Because I mean, we're going to get roughly 15, maybe 12 to 15 birds. And they should be all right in here. But what we may do is expand it out even more to make it bigger to get more birds of course. Then later what we're going to do is build a paddock over here, a fenced in area where they could go out anytime they want. And just you know forage whatever they want out in the grass.

Alright, so

the first thing I have to start doing is get my posthole digger and start digging these holes for the post.

No matter how you look at posthole digging what do you do with it? Whether you do with a tractor or manual? It still sucks.

Think that's about it.

I'm putting my posts in three feet.

And yeah,

I'm about three feet. Okay, now we're gonna put my post in. If you noticed on my post, there black I put the roofing tar sighs What is it called Henry's number 201. I think it could be wrong, but I think it's to a one.

Just get an old nasty brush. You don't need any more by a real cheap one. painted on. I got a video on that. did a while back ago when I did my fence. And I'll put a link in the description. I'll put it at the end of the video.

I may treat these with some oil. Because you know how I treated wood is today it's garbage

doesn't last that long. But anyways, so now what I'm going to do is put a post level. I got it around here somewhere and put it on here. Make sure the poll is nice and straight and start filling it in. Keep checking it and then we're going to tamp it down, I got a good tampering tool and it'll have 10 more to go. Alright, so what I'm going to do is put one of these guys on here. This is for posts, whether it's square post or round, it'll fit right on there. And then with a rubber band or string or whatever you have, you just put it on the Euro

post

Now we're gonna start filling it in the hole, I keep checking my level. And you need to get to the tampering tool like this. I think this is a 16 or 17 pound tampering tool. And it's got a little flat end on the other end. And as you're filling it in, keep packing it down. And make sure it's nice and straight. Start some of the, well, I would say dirt, but I have clay.

Take some of that. And they're not the whole tamping tool. You just keep doing it, pack it all down. Keep checking your level, make an adjustment if you have to.

Good. Just keep on packing it down, filmed in packing it down.

And when this is filled up, and you have it all packed on. It's just like you, if you had any concrete sometimes you hit it on one side, it pushes a post over to the other and you go back to the other side. Go back and forth. Keep checking your bubbles and your level.

Keep on filling it in.

All right, there's been a slight design change. You want to say design it's, it's all in my head really. Anyways, I was all done putting the posts in. I started thinking I have a leaf vacuum when I was Dr. Leaf lawn vacuums, I should say. And it's the trailers roughly four feet wide. So I would like to bring it in and out to I'm going to suck up all the leaves, mulches them up and put them all inside of here for their bedding for their run. So I'm going to make a gate here and it's going to be six foot wide. So I can back it up in here, the way I drive, I might end up hitting something. So anyways, six foot wide. should do it. So I can bring it in here, dump my load or I can even take the cover off of it and use it as a trailer and take stuff out of here also. So that'll be good. So I'm going to make a six foot gate here.

And that should work. And once I get this post all tamp down good.

I'm gonna start closing this up. Alright guys, I started putting the boards in. I got them all in on the ground here. And

I've been connecting them. I've been using these Simpson strong ties. They're like little angle plates. They work really, really good.

All right.

So I got my line set up trying to get it nice and straight. Not so much level because the ground here is pretty unlevel. But what I'm doing I'm just measuring four feet from that board and four feet from the farthest board and putting a line across there at least nice and straight and sold that should work. Some cutting my boards putting the little angle plates on there and getting them ready to mount. And once I get all these boards put in and the ones going across, then I'll start putting the wire mesh hardware cloth on here on the bottom part of the first four feet. Then the rest of the way up and over the top. I'm putting the chicken wire.

So hopefully that'll work. Well not bad. I just picked up the leaves around the area here and mulch them up really nice. This will be their bedding for the run here.

A little dusty, but you know what? It's good. Just leaves and pine needles. Nice. So yeah, that'll be real nice in here. I just got to spread it out. And I'll be all set for the run.

What do you think Mia? Mia,

what do you think? You don't

know?

Is that what you think? Huh? All right, I got the leads home spread out. This is going to work out great, because it'll keep the chickens off the ground. So when it rains, they won't be walking in the mud. And this will all turn into nice, I guess composted manure, you know, in a year or two, this is going to be full of manure broken down, and it's going to go straight in my garden, so it's gonna be beautiful. Alright, so the next thing I gotta do is start closing this bad boy up, I got to put the, the gate here in the door I gotta make and so we're gonna do that next.

Alright guys, what I did here is I put the hardware cloth this is two foot hardware cloth all the way around the run, and I staple it up against the base here. But what I want to do, I wouldn't picked up these nine inch plastic steaks here. Let me give you a close up of these and get these at the gardening section at most big box stores. Okay, and then get one out for you. That's what they look like. Alright. And every so often just plop one down, just to hold it down.

I don't know every four feet or so. And eventually the grass is going to start growing through here and you won't be able to see this at all anymore. But this is good. So when an animal comes and tries to dig underneath their can't

Alright guys,

I finally got the chicken run done has taken me for ever. The weather wasn't cooperating, I was busy or something always come up. So yeah, I finally got it done. Let me take you in close and I'll show you what I've done. All right, I just got the screen, chicken wire on the top of the run done today. The rest of it I did earlier. As you know I put a gate here. Put a gate here so I can bring in my zero turn and behind my zero turn. I'm pulling a DR leaf vacuum. I can vacuum up all the leaves around my yard here, mulch it up, and then dump it all in here for the chickens. And then they will poop on it and make a wonderful fertilizer for me. And then after about a year, I'm assuming don't take it all out of there. Throw it in my garden, put new leaves in there and just start the whole process over again. So let me take you inside. Yes, I put some swings in here for them. They need to play. So I got a couple of various heights and they can jump on air and swing away. I made my chicken ramp. And that's all treated wood. It's a one by six to one by sixes, put together by some two by fours here. And these, the strips going across are three inches apart three inches here.

And

that was some four by four actually the trim that I had leftover, I cut them on my table saw, I made them all the same. And then this here, it's very simple what I did here, see if I can do it one handed. But you can see what I did there. I put that strip of metal with some washers to keep it separated. And here put a little bent angle angle plate I guess you'd call it and that basically fits

right on there like that and rests right on the on there and it that way won't pull out. All right, for the swings. I just bought these little hooks here

and put the swings like that these are two by twos and I just drilled a hole put a knot in there and that's how I made those so yeah and here I left this loose up here this netting with have to get up there with my fingers and be able to open this window right there we go.

Alright right

so this is it

so this should be an A plenty of room. Those poor chickens have been stuck in this coop now while they were in their brooder for four weeks. And now they've been in that chicken coop for a week now. Temperatures will get better. Saturday and Sunday. It's Friday right now. So I think I'm going to let them out Sunday Sunday supposed to be 70 degrees and that'll be perfect for them. It's been a frigid here two nights ago it got down to 11 degrees for two nights in a row and I had two heat lamps going in here so they survived okay over here if you watch my video on putting this chicken door opener on here, I said I was gonna mount the switch out here. So what I did is I got this external or exterior plug box and then inside I put the switch this is close auto and open for the chicken door right there. So right now I have it closed. Show you how the little chickies they're

doing

Hey guys, go girls, I

should say

hey, don't girls. Say hi to the camera.

Yeah.

Yeah, so what I had to do here to heat lamps on here. Just had to rig it up here like this real quick because it was cold the last few nights. I told you 11 degrees at night that is cold. I don't care where you live. It's cold. So they're about ready to get the heck out of here. So I'll make a separate video for that. Yeah, this is the outside world don't get too close to this door. Little girls. And I want you flying out of here and at the JC all over the place.

All right.

Okay, so on the bottom, like I said, I put the hardware cloth down. I ran out. I ran out of steaks. I gotta put one here and one over there. Anyways, see I got one there. Got one there. They're in every ball four feet.

Okay.

So I use the half inch hardware cloth for the sides here because I figure this is stronger than the chicken wire itself. The chicken wire put on the roof more for the birds of prey. hawks and stuff like that. And then of course this is more for raccoons and coyotes and stuff like that. Alright guys, I appreciate you guys watching. In case I didn't mention it, the chicken run ended up coming out to be 24 feet long by 10 feet wide. For all general purposes, it's done but I still have to make the water outdoor water and

feeder

for them. And I'll do that in a separate video I'll show you it's got some different ideas online. So yeah, I guess that's about it for now they can have fun on the swings and and enjoy themselves. I'm not gonna let them out today, but most likely, probably a couple days. I'll let them out. It's supposed to be 70 degrees and a few days so I'm gonna do that. Alright, I think that's about it. You have any questions, please let me know in the comments below. Thank you for watching. Please like and subscribe and share this video, and I greatly appreciate it. Thank you