Choosing between free-ranging and keeping chickens safely inside a run is a decision that faces all chicken owners – but one way to give your birds more of the advantages of the former while enjoying the safety of the latter is to build them a chicken tunnel.
Chicken tunnels are easy to construct, and your chickens are sure to thank you for your efforts – and for anyone who’d like to have a go at building one, here are 24 DIY chicken tunnel plans we found online that will show you how it’s done.
1. Best DIY Chicken Tunnel Can Let You Watch the Birds Roam Freely – Cute DIY Projects
As these bloggers write, keeping chickens means finding a balance between allowing them to roam free and preventing them from destroying flower beds and vegetable gardens that you’re trying your hardest to grow. Their solution is this amazing chicken tunnel that gives them maximum freedom while still keeping them away from places they’re not allowed to go – and the blog also gives you all the advice you need to build something just like it.
2. DIY Chicken Tunnel How-To & Price Breakdown – Uncle Jo’s Farm
If you’re wondering about some of the advantages of building tunnels for your chickens, this YouTuber will give you a good list. As she mentions, her daily routine has become so much easier since she built the tunnels, and her chickens seem a whole lot happier too. But how did she build these wonderful tunnels? Check out her video and all will be revealed!
3. DIY Backyard Chicken Tunnels Tutorial – fabartdiy.org
With chicken tunnels, chickens don’t just lay eggs for you – they also help you keep your garden or yard in order by pecking up pests and pulling up unwanted weeds wherever you let them roam. Chicken tunnels are simple to construct, and this post gives you lots of photos to show you what’s possible. That way, with these ideas as inspiration, you can get started making tunnels of your own right away.
4. Best Chicken tunnel ever! – Da ChickenMan
In this video, this YouTuber explains how he designed and built his chicken tunnels – and as he explains, security for the chickens was extremely important since he lives in an area with a lot of possums and raccoons. That means it’s a good video to watch for anyone with similar predator problems – since his ideas will show you how to give your chickens somewhere to run and forage while still keeping them as safe as possible.
5. DIY Chicken Tunnels/Bug Moat – Steemit
If you want to build tunnels for your chickens, consider making the tunnels modular. That way, they’re easy to move around, directing your chickens to any areas where you want them to “work”, as this post explains. It also teaches you how to build a “bug moat”, a tunnel around the perimeter of your yard patrolled by chickens that intercept bug intruders as they try to make their way onto your land. Ingenious!
6. Chicken Tunnel Construction – Tim Taylor
The chicken tunnel we get to see in this video is a more permanent version and is designed to help these lucky chickens gain more nutrients in their diet as well as giving them more access to sunlight. It’s an informative video that takes you through everything this YouTuber did to construct the tunnel – and as you can see at the end, the chickens seem to be very happy with their extra space to roam.
7. DIY Backyard Chicken Tunnel – homesteadlifestyle.com
We love seeing photos and videos of happy chickens zipping around in their tunnels, and here’s another blog with a great pic of a chicken tunnel in action. The post also includes a step-by-step guide to how to build one of your own, so your chickens will soon be able to enjoy the same kind of freedom.
8. Creating Chicken Tunnels – Tiffany’s Farm
As this YouTuber explains, these guys originally tried to make their chicken tunnels from chicken wire, but that version kept collapsing. They also tried PVC, but that didn’t work either – but they finally found a solution that did exactly what they were hoping for. And you can see how they achieved it by giving their video a watch.
9. The Chicken Tunnel – Good Life Permaculture
In this blog post, you’ll learn about several ways to make chicken tunnels, including a free-standing fence version and a version that creates a diagonal tunnel against an existing fence. As you can see from the photos and diagrams, everything works together to give the chickens the maximum amount of freedom while still keeping them safe – and the chickens also help by pulling up all the weeds, so it’s a win-win for everyone.
10. Chicken Chunnel- Mark Kitchen
For those wanting to know about all the advantages of chicken tunnels – of “chunnels” as they’re called here – this video is a great place to start. It lists the benefits to chickens, including exercise, new pasture, fun and safety – and although this video was made to advertise commercial chicken tunnels, it should also give you plenty of ideas about how to DIY them if you want to save yourself some money.
11. Chicken Tunnels for The Garden – A Chicken Super-Highway
“A chicken super-highway” is how this blog describes chicken tunnels, and if you want to build some for your birds, it gives you all the details you’ll need about several different options. It talks about different shaped tunnels, including square, round, triangular and semi-circle versions, and it also mentions several cool features you can include such as subterranean tunnels and chicken bridges – the kind of thing that will be so much fun to construct.
12. Easy Chicken Tunnel, Chunnel from Run to Garden – Fireballmalone1
The chicken tunnels in this video are constructed from two-inch by four-inch 14-gauge fencing wire, which this YouTuber chose because it’s easy to use and shape, and it’s also an inexpensive option. After bending it into shape, he then pegged it in place using metal stakes – and then he just needed to add the doorways, which he also demonstrates. This is a simple design but one the chickens are sure to love – and we’re sure lots of people will be keen to copy his ideas.
13. DIY Chicken Tunnel (Step-by-Step Guide) – Ask a Prepper
This blog post lists several more advantages of chicken tunnels, just in case you’re not convinced about how much of a good idea they are. These include things like chickens preparing the ground for seeding as well as adding natural fertilizer – and they also just look super-cute as they run around their tunnels. The post also gives you a simple step-by-step plan for building one just like it, so why not give it a go yourself?
14. How to Build a DIY Backyard Chicken Tunnel – How to Do Anything
Here’s a short video that showcases several different versions of chicken tunnels to show you the kind of thing that’s possible. It doesn’t offer any detailed plans, but building most chicken tunnels is fairly intuitive anyway, so most people will be able to manage without a step-by-step tutorial.
15. Our Chicken Tunnels, Coop, and Run Setup around the Garden – Journey with Jill
If you want to see how chicken tunnels can be incorporated into a complete setup that includes a run and a coop, this video is for you. In it, this experienced chicken keeper gives us a tour of where her chickens live. One useful bit of info she gives us is how they minimize occasional tunnel breaches – but the whole video is fascinating and well worth a watch.
16. How to Build a DIY Backyard Chicken Tunnel – ideahacks.com
Free-ranging chickens are at the highest risk of being picked off by predators, but as this blogger writes, you can reduce the likelihood of this happening by constructing chicken tunnels for them to explore. The post then explains how to go about building a chicken tunnel of your own – giving useful tips on things like measuring out where it will go. After that, it’s simply up to you to buy the materials and start building – so what are you waiting for?
17. DIY Chicken Tunnel – Chicken Coop
With the system this chicken keeper has devised, he can easily direct his chickens to any part of his garden – where they then perform useful tasks like weeding, digging out bugs and turning over the soil. It also includes a system of cut-off gates, and the whole thing is an inspired creation. We’re sure plenty of people will love what he’s done and will be itching to try something similar themselves.
18. How & Why You Should Make Your Own Chicken Tunnel! – typesofchicken.com
This post starts by telling you why you would want to build a chicken tunnel and then explains everything you need to know to make one yourself. It also offers tips on things like making the tunnels as portable as possible, helping ensure you – and your chickens – receive the maximum benefits from what you build.
19. Chicken Tunnels: Protection for The Girls Around My Homestead – Tiny Dreamer
This YouTuber has an interesting backstory about why she needed to build chicken tunnels that revolved around an overly aggressive rooster name Clucky Chan. You can find out the details of what happened by watching the video, but as well as dealing with her rooster issues, she also ended up with a cleverly designed set of DIY chicken tunnels that we’re sure lots of people will be curious to see.
20. How to Make a Chunnel for Chickens – Storey Publishing
Making a chicken tunnel doesn’t need to be a complicated project, and you won’t need to spend much money on it either, as this plan shows. We like the way this post also includes useful photos with each of the steps, making it an easy tutorial for just about anybody to follow.
21. Chicken Tunnels: DIY Tutorial – This Ohio Farmhouse
The chicken tunnel this YouTuber designed is a lot bigger than most of the others we’ve seen, so if you copy this plan, it will give your birds a whole lot of extra space to roam. That way they will also have access to more of your garden, providing even more benefits – and free gardening services – to your land. Check it out and see if it’s an idea you think you can use!
22. How to Make a Chicken Tunnel – DIY Chicken Garden Run Tunnel
This blog post doesn’t give you a specific plan to follow, but it does give you a couple of examples of some completed chicken tunnels – or “chunnels” – to help you get inspired. As we’ve mentioned before, chicken tunnels are not complicated structures to build, so for most people, the ideas will be enough – and after that, you should be able to build something yourself without a detailed guide to follow.
23. We Made a Chunnel! – The Haynes Homestead
Here’s a fun video to watch. In it, we get to see how these farmsteaders built a solid chicken tunnel for their birds, allowing their chickens to run freely between the outdoor coop and a warmer indoor one. What’s interesting here is that they chose to add a wooden walkway to the tunnels, but this was necessary partly because it works as a bridge. Do you think this is a good idea? Check it out and decide for yourself!
24. Build A Chicken Tunnel, or “Chunnel” – Meyer Hatchery Blog
To finish, here’s another post with some chicken tunnel photos we just love. For us, photos like these are all we need to be convinced that chicken tunnels are such a great idea because the chickens inside just look so happy. Give it a quick look and see what we mean!
Plenty of great plans to copy
As we’ve seen, there’s no shortage of plans online for you to copy, giving your chickens a whole extra level of freedom without exposing them to the dangers of predators or allowing them free rein to peck your garden to bits.
We’ve enjoyed collecting these plans for you, so we hope you’ve enjoyed reading and watching them all too. And above all, we hope we’ve helped you find the ideas and inspiration you needed to get started building a chicken tunnel of your own.
