How to Set Up a Mobile Chicken Run

By Erika Alino

Building the Run

My husband says it took a week to build the chicken coop. What I think he means is that it would have taken a week if we built non-stop without eating, sleeping, or going to work. Then maybe it would have been a week altogether? Otherwise, I’m not sure what time warp he lived in. Those chickens very much overstayed their welcome in their temporary home while we worked to get the coop done.

We finally got the coop up and running, but it’s still a work in progress! We have to complete the nesting boxes and cut the little window in the back so we can grab eggs from inside. Since they aren’t laying yet, we didn’t make that a priority. We just wanted them outside as soon as possible.

How we (mostly Ben) built the coop is a different post. What I’m currently trying to perfect is their “mobile chicken run.” The intention is to move the coop around the yard to give them new grass every few days. I’m developing a streamlined system to move the coop and the run without letting chickens escape and scurry all over the place. (Someday, I would love to have fully free-range chickens, but we aren’t in a place right now where that can happen. We would wake up to a flattened chicken in the road, which would not be fun.)

The Vision for the Mobile Chicken Run – How It Works

The current idea is to move the coop one half-section at a time. This means half of the grass is used within the run twice, but one half of it is always new. The point is to move the coop and run while they are outside without letting chickens escape. Four entry points let us move and connect the fencing on any side of the run.

The run is made up of chicken wire stabilized by garden stakes by the entry points and where needed. The chicken wire is broken into four sections, with each end stapled to a 2×4 piece of wood – simply because I got sick of the chicken wire catching on itself, and this was the easiest way I could think to resolve that. It also makes it easy to move the fence around – just grab the two 2x4s that make up that section. Because the coop is elevated and the chickens can go underneath it for shade or security, the fence has to surround the coop entirely.

The Setup

The four sections are connected with double sided clips, creating an entry point at the top, bottom, left, and right of the run. When it’s time to move the coop, I ensure it’s on the side of the run that I want to move toward. I unclip the one side from the middle and bring it to the other side of the run, so that the coop is now entirely enclosed with one half of the fencing and the other half is unattached. At this point, there is now an entry point at the bottom and at the top with half of the original fencing. I then move the unattached fencing to the opposite end of the run that it was on. I clip the “new” fence to the original entry points, unclip the middle entry point, and can open up the fence. The new half of the run will be open and connected to the original run.  

The next time the coop needs to be moved, I will move it to the newer section of grass. The process will start over, with the new section becoming the old section.

Mobile Chicken Run System Breakdown

1. Create four relatively equal sections of portable fencing. (We used 4×50 feet of chicken wire and garden stakes to stabilize it.) There will be four “entry points” – or places where the fence can be separated. Optional: Staple each end to a 2×4 wooden board so that the wire does not curl up or catch on itself.

2. Position fencing around the coop so that it encircles the coop and there is an entryway on four sides of the run. Use double ended clips to attach the two sides of fencing at each entry point to fully enclose the run.

3. To move the coop and run to a new spot, position the coop on the side of the run you are moving toward. Unclip the center entry points (D1 and A2) and clip them together in the center. D2 and A1 are still connected. The coop should now be fully enclosed with two sections of fencing.

4. Move the currently unattached fencing (C1-C2 and B1-B2) to the opposite side of the run.

5. Unclip D2 and A1 and move to the outside. Attach to the outside fencing: clip D2 to C1 and A1 to B1. The coop should now be fully enclosed using all four sections of fencing.

It’s not a perfect system, and we’re still making tweaks, but so far it’s working with what we have! We welcome feedback, suggestions, questions and ideas. Thank you!