This was right after we brought the first girls home, so of course there is NO grass left in there now :) The pen is a 12x7 dog pen. We built a small pen last year, but now that we have the four girls, it's too crowded and there is a bit of bickering at times.
My first idea was to get another dog pen, attach it to this one and let them out in there for limited times so they can graze. I'd have to put a hole in this coop to attach it (Hubby says absolutely not.) or replace this one with kennel panels so I can make two doors. One inside, and then the existing door open inside. Make sense? Sorta?
The pink would be the kennel doors. This way I could open and close the inner door to let them out on the grass. Obviously not to scale, just a visual idea :)
The bottom is wrapped in fencing. You can either do a makeshift gate or make a tunnel to connect it to the pen. If I did that, again, I'd have to make a hole somewhere. Or try to herd them to the trampoline. I think it'd be easier to move the trampoline, it gives them shade and protection from hawks. Chickens can be trained to go to certain areas, but there's a high risk of escape for this set up.
This chicken owner made a "chunnel" / chicken tunnel out of wire.
And there is one last option. When I had my horses, we had a lean-to that blew down. Well, actually blew out of the pasture, across the yard and landed near the barn. Thankfully no one was hurt, just destroyed the lean-to. We still have most, if not all, of the pieces. However, some were horribly bent and it's really not usable for anything. I need to look at it, but we *might* be able to use part of the roof section to make a chicken tractor.
Before:
After: