The chickens want very much to explore outside the coop. At first they were just peeking around us when we’d sit in the open door to visit. Then they were jumping on our hands and letting us pet them just to get a better look. Today Rocky jumped clear for the open when it was just Scott in the doorway. He caught her on the way out but it’s time to build the chicken run.

We intended to start the run during the weekend. We planned it Saturday and bought the materials Sunday, but ended up giving the coop a face-lift instead of building the run. Our neighbour Gerry has a lumber/plywood junk pile in his backyard (we’ve largely placed our chicken coop to block our view of said). Destined for the dump (when?), Gerry said we could help ourselves. Finding some decent exterior-treated OSB meant taking off the OSB siding we’d so labouriously affixed the previous weekend, but we’re glad we did. Looks smart! And it won’t fall apart right away (my bro Jamie gave the plain OSB two months of our rainy winter).

Today after Rocky-the-chicken-explorer headed out the door, we started the run in earnest. Scott and I are beginning to work well together. We struggled together over how to build the thing – both how to design it and how to put it together. That was a helpful change from me figuring out everything then him saying why don’t we just do it this other way?

We changed the design several times today before deciding the run would angle away from the coop (to avoid some shrubs while maintaining width), and that the roof would slope front to back instead of away from the coop so we can expand the run length in the future simply by adding more panel sections.

Finally and finally, we began to build. Posts in, boards up, the $$ hardware cloth finally dug into the ground and stapled to the frame. More tomorrow if no rain.