How to build a tunnel for your chickens | DIY Garden Projects | Gardening Australia

Millie and Costa build a chook tunnel as part of a hen house renovation. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe

It’s been years since Costa has visited Millie’s little garden in Central Victoria. On his first visit, he helped pave and plant a small entrance garden, on the second they built an ingenious temporary shed.

This time, they are putting a multi-use extension to the chicken run Millie shares with the neighbours. A curved steel mesh tunnel will also act as an extension to the chicken run and be topped with a timber bench seat. It will also contain the most abundant planting in the small backyard, lush, abundant, ebullient, and layered. Well, that’s the plan!

The Tunnel:
1. The first step is to dig out a trench for the mesh, around 300mmm deep and 400mm wide.
2. The mesh is 50mm x 50mm square, cut into 2 strips approx. 2.9m long x 700mm high.
3. Millie has galvanized the section that will be buried underground but will allow the upper section to rust for a few weeks, before sealing.
4. Millie and Costa carefully position 2 strips of mesh, with around 300mm under ground level. This will result in a standard sitting height of approx. 400mm.
5. The base of the tunnel is braced with some smaller pieces of mesh using a ‘C’ clip fencing tool, and then filled with compacted rocks. This helps to stabilize the tunnel but also offer secondary fox protection. Soil and mulch is then backfilled to the surrounding soil level.
6. Once the tunnel shape is formed, the top is braced with more mesh strips leaving an open space every 500mm.

The Seat:
The seat-top of the tunnel is made of salvaged macrocarpa sleepers (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa) cut into 500mm lengths. To create a curved top with straight timber pieces, each must be carefully cut into a wedge, so Costa has prepared some cardboard templates. The timber pieces are then fixed to the mesh at multiple points using a 30mm washer and a screw. Every 3rd piece is hinged, to allow easy access to the tunnel beneath.

The Plants:
The tunnel-seat sections off an area of garden, and Millie wants to fill it with plants including some that she has propagated herself such as native flax, everlastings, fan-flowers and bulbine lilies.

There is nothing like working on a project in your own garden with someone else, knocking together ideas, collaborating on creative solutions and more than anything having fun. And once you’re done, make sure you take some time to enjoy it!

Featured Plants:
BULBINE LILY - Bulbine cv.
FAN FLOWER - Scaevola ‘Purple Fanfare’

Filmed on Taungurung Country | Central Victoria
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