How to Make a Rooster Pen

Roosters are known for their bright red combs and wattles, their long tail and saddle feathers and, perhaps most of all, their early morning crowing. People keep roosters to both protect and breed with their hens. This means keeping your rooster happy is important, not just for your rooster, but for the well-being of your hens as well. Keeping roosters happy and healthy means providing them with exercise and sun exposure every day. Rooster pens are enclosures for roosters that keep them safe so they have plenty of time to parade and peck around the yard.

Things You'll Need

  • 4 eyehooks
  • 4 wooden posts measuring 6 feet by 5 inches by 5 inches
  • Chicken wire
  • Gravel
  • Level
  • Measuring tape
  • Shovel
  • Staple gun
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Instructions

    • 1

      Find an open area in your yard that receives sufficient sunlight where you can set up a permanent rooster pen. Measure a 6-by-3-foot rectangle in the space you choose.

    • 2

      Dig holes at the four corners of the rectangle you measured. The holes should measure 2 feet 6 inches deep and have a diameter of 15 inches.

    • 3

      Pour 6 inches of gravel into each of the post holes. If your wooden posts touch the soil, they'll rot.

    • 4

      Set a post in a hole, checking that it is level with the level tool. Mix the concrete and pour it into the hole. Do this for each of the posts. Wait until the concrete has hardened, which should take 2-3 hours, before proceeding.

    • 5

      Roll out the chicken wire and cut out two screens that measure 6 by 6 feet and three screens that measure 6 by 3 feet. Match the 6-by-6-foot screens and two of the 6-by-3-foot screens to the correct, fitting sides of the rectangle. Match one of the 6-by-3-foot screens to the top of the rectangle (this will be the pen's ceiling).

    • 6

      Staple all but one of the 6-by-3-foot chicken wire screens to the posts. This open end will be for your pen door.

    • 7

      Screw two eyehooks into the top and bottom of one of the posts that will be used for your pen door. Screw the other two eyehooks an equal distance apart along the same post.

    • 8

      Staple the side of the last 6-by-3-foot chicken wire screen on the post opposite of the post with the eyehooks. Stretch the screen across the opening, and then hook the chicken wire onto the four eyehooks to close in the pen.