Home to 6 babies

Great place for the chicks and really like the set-up you have going on.

-- Use it up, Wear it out --------------- Make it do, Or do without!

Thanks. The plywood on the top is because it gets so hot in their run they needed shade. We will replace it with shade screen later.

-- Hawaiilad Larry

The chickens don’t care how fancy as long as they are safe. Will it keep the mongoose out?
Chickens do like some loose soil to take dust bathes. Just a hole filled with sandy soil will do. I guess there aren’t many worms for them to scratch up there but there are lots of other bugs. (-:
I understand from a friend who lives on Kaui they have more feral chickens than they can handle. Lots of early morning crowing.

-- Les B, Oregon

We dug a trench all the way around the run, ran the wire down into it and poured cement in it…I hope that will keep the mongoose out. If not, I will set some traps outside the run. On top of the lava is several inches of cinder they can scratch in.

The chickens in Kaui are all over the place. When you get off the airplane they are waiting for you outside the building. I guess they had lots of chicken farms over there at one time…or someone let loose many chickens.

-- Hawaiilad Larry

As long as the lava rock isn’t from an active volcano it’s good ;-) this is a case of function more than artistic value. I think it looks great. I just don’t want to take care of the chickens.

-- Mother Nature created it, I just assemble it. - It's not ability that we often lack, but the patience to use our ability

If I were a chicken I would think it was a paradise. I’ve built a couple of chicken enclosures in my day and yours looks very good.
Do you have nest boxes inside? Perches?

-- "So much wood. . .so little time!" www.woodworks-by-donna.com

Good luck! I have found that hard rock( not sure if lava rock is hard) is a great catch all for unwanted plant growth, volunteer trees and quick growing weeds. It’s pretty though. I went to a softer stone that decomposes. Still have waaaaaay to many volunteer trees. LOL! don’t name them.

-- Cau Haus Designs, Thomas J. Tieffenbacher

There are 7 nesting boxes built in and room for 7 more…and plenty of long and short perches. Since the whole Island is made up of 5 volcano’s, we can’t do much about the lava rock. But if you look in the back of our property, you can see just how lovely it does look. It’s true there isn’t much grass here, but everything else grows so easy….yea, volunteer trees, but easy to pull out. Tree’s in our area are old Ohia and don’t get large. That is not sky at the top of the picture…it’s the Ocean….a bit over cast and not as blue as most days

-- Hawaiilad Larry