You need to provide your chickens with a house or shed where they can be kept at night and in bad weather, and from which they can access outdoor areas.  Ideally the house should contain nest boxes and perches, and the birds should be able to free-range around it without coming to any harm.

For practical reasons though, it’s often necessary to provide a house with an enclosed or a fenced run attached, preferably a movable house. The house and run can be moved from one area to another so that fresh grassland is always available. In drier climates, straw can be put down in the run to provide a good base for the birds to scratch in for seeds, shoots and insects.