What's the weather like where you live? Everyone starting out with chickens seems to worry about the winter, when it's actually heat in the summer that can be more of a problem. Extreme summer heat kills some chickens every summer. Chickens come with down coats, after all, except they can't take them off when summer rolls around. So if your summers are hot, think about siting your coop someplace that gets shade. It will make your life much easier.
Think about drainage, too. The worst thing in the world is to build your coop and run and then discover that when it rains the run floods. Don't ask me how I know this.
Instead of digging a trench and burying wire (lots of work), you can achieve the same goal by attaching a wire apron to the base of your run and extending it outwards about 2 feet or so. Tack it down using landscaping staples, rocks, whatever you have available. The predator tries to dig at the base of the run, hits the wire, and doesn't figure out that it can back up beyond the edge of the wire to dig in from there. You might rethink using chicken wire either buried or as an apron, though. It's not very stout stuff.
Your coop is not designed so you can lock your chickens inside at night, so your night time security is going to be dependent on the strength of your run. Wire that has 1 inch openings will let pretty big snakes through, and will let critters like raccoons grab through the wire and pull pieces of your chickens out through the wire. Terrified chickens do what their instinct tells them to do when confronted with a predator: they try to flee and pile up in the corner of the pen where they are then grabbed. Sometimes "reach through" predation also happens when a roost abuts the wire and the poor bird is grabbed while asleep.
You can use wire with smaller openings (1/2" by 1/2" for example), or you can use wire with larger openings but reinforce vulnerable spots like the bottom 2 or 3 feet of the run and places where roosts come close to the wire. Some people double wrap these places with wire with smaller openings, use boards, etc.
Think about drainage, too. The worst thing in the world is to build your coop and run and then discover that when it rains the run floods. Don't ask me how I know this.
Instead of digging a trench and burying wire (lots of work), you can achieve the same goal by attaching a wire apron to the base of your run and extending it outwards about 2 feet or so. Tack it down using landscaping staples, rocks, whatever you have available. The predator tries to dig at the base of the run, hits the wire, and doesn't figure out that it can back up beyond the edge of the wire to dig in from there. You might rethink using chicken wire either buried or as an apron, though. It's not very stout stuff.
Your coop is not designed so you can lock your chickens inside at night, so your night time security is going to be dependent on the strength of your run. Wire that has 1 inch openings will let pretty big snakes through, and will let critters like raccoons grab through the wire and pull pieces of your chickens out through the wire. Terrified chickens do what their instinct tells them to do when confronted with a predator: they try to flee and pile up in the corner of the pen where they are then grabbed. Sometimes "reach through" predation also happens when a roost abuts the wire and the poor bird is grabbed while asleep.
You can use wire with smaller openings (1/2" by 1/2" for example), or you can use wire with larger openings but reinforce vulnerable spots like the bottom 2 or 3 feet of the run and places where roosts come close to the wire. Some people double wrap these places with wire with smaller openings, use boards, etc.
