I am putting my run together - I have the posts all set - and the way things worked out, I ended up closer to my yard fence than I anticipated. It's not a big deal, but it does change the way that I would put an apron in on two of the sides of the run.
So basically, the way these two sides are graded, I have a slope coming down off of where the yard boundary fence is at. My chicken area then levels off to a flat area. The edge of my run on these sides turned out to be about 8" or so from the slope (see the attached pictures). If I want, I can dig into that slope, and basically make a larger flat area, and give myself some room to lay the apron down outside the run. However, that's going to be a lot of digging and moving dirt, and I don't have an obvious place right now that could use the extra dirt.
What I am thinking, is to put some cinder blocks along the outside of the run on that side - basically, fill the gap between the run and the drop-off edge of the slope coming down from the fence. If it doesn't show in the picture, that drop-off from the slope is about 8-10 inches high, and then the slope back up to the fence climbs pretty quickly - maybe 30 degrees? If an animal decided to come in on that side, they'd be on an angled slope facing down at the run. They'd have the 1/2" x 1" wire cloth of the run to contend with, and then the cinder block preventing them from getting right up against the run fence. Normally, on flat ground, that'd just push them back and they could start digging behind the block, but in this case, they'll be digging into a slope just to get to level to get behind the block.
The 1x2 welded wire that I bought for this is 2' high. I guess I could cut it in half and do a short apron on that side, but it just seems like a lot less work to try and use the slope to my advantage.
Any suggestions, or different ideas to throw out there? Digging too far back into that slope will start to cut away at the base of dirt that the fence posts are using for the yard boundary, so I do have to keep that balance in mind if the better idea is to do some digging.
So basically, the way these two sides are graded, I have a slope coming down off of where the yard boundary fence is at. My chicken area then levels off to a flat area. The edge of my run on these sides turned out to be about 8" or so from the slope (see the attached pictures). If I want, I can dig into that slope, and basically make a larger flat area, and give myself some room to lay the apron down outside the run. However, that's going to be a lot of digging and moving dirt, and I don't have an obvious place right now that could use the extra dirt.
What I am thinking, is to put some cinder blocks along the outside of the run on that side - basically, fill the gap between the run and the drop-off edge of the slope coming down from the fence. If it doesn't show in the picture, that drop-off from the slope is about 8-10 inches high, and then the slope back up to the fence climbs pretty quickly - maybe 30 degrees? If an animal decided to come in on that side, they'd be on an angled slope facing down at the run. They'd have the 1/2" x 1" wire cloth of the run to contend with, and then the cinder block preventing them from getting right up against the run fence. Normally, on flat ground, that'd just push them back and they could start digging behind the block, but in this case, they'll be digging into a slope just to get to level to get behind the block.
The 1x2 welded wire that I bought for this is 2' high. I guess I could cut it in half and do a short apron on that side, but it just seems like a lot less work to try and use the slope to my advantage.
Any suggestions, or different ideas to throw out there? Digging too far back into that slope will start to cut away at the base of dirt that the fence posts are using for the yard boundary, so I do have to keep that balance in mind if the better idea is to do some digging.
