Chicken run upgrade

Mermaid spreading some hay in her new run

Being a bit new to home ownership and yard responsibilities, I asked around for advice on what I should do to the grass for the winter.  The advice I received was to aerate, fertilize and over seed.  So, I called a guy for yard aeration, and ran to Home Depot for grass seed and fertilizer. Once I got all the seed out, I was about to let the chickens run the yard like normal...  then I Googled "chickens + grass seed" and found out that chickens LOVE grass seeds.  The only thing they love more then the seed, is crisp green baby grass.  

So.... with that info, I realized I needed to quarantine the chickens for a while the grass comes in and get established.  I didn't want to keep them in the coop all the time, so I ran back to HomeDepot for some lumber and hatched a plan (wink wink) to open up their run a little.  I build a short fence along one side of the coop to the fence.  Then I took one of the wire walls down and built a door the same distance to the fence.  When the gate/door is opened up, it allows the chickens out of the smaller run but closes them into the larger fenced in run. 

I'm sad to have to keep the chickens from grazing the yard, but hope the it doesn't take too long for the grass to grow in.  I'll keep you updated on how they like the bigger run and how long they are kept from the yard. 

New coop/gate door opened

New coop gate/door closed

New shorter fence