Anyone have a rock apron around their run?

[annie3001]

i suggest the apron (hard wire cloth dug deep). I also have poured cement along the edges and white small pebbles. It holds up very nicely. worth it, if you can do it. i would highly suggest it.
I am finising up my duck run, and will do the same thing over their too.

 

[debid]

Quote:
Yep, that will work! I can't get my wife to carry rocks that big for my coop!

The secret is leather gloves and a tractor with a front-end loader. And then I do it "all wrong" so my husband feels obligated to step in and show me how it should be done.

At any rate, it's nowhere near as hard of a job as it would be with a wheelbarrow.

And Annie, the whole idea is to avoid digging. It takes all day to plant a single tree here because there are so many rocks that you can't stick a shovel in the ground. You have to find the edges of the rock that's where you'd like the tree and hope it's small enough to remove. And then that the ones hiding below it are as well. You also need to have some fill dirt ready because there's a very good chance you won't have enough dirt to fill in around the tree if you don't.

 

[Kaneke]

I'm thinking also, if you are concerned about the ground not being flat --- to get some bags of cement, mix them up one at a time like the people who make their own walkways do, pour down an inch or so of cement and plop the rocks in that

using the cement more as a "grout" than as something you'd walk on

around here the soil assays out about 75% rock and gravel, but the moles, voles, and gophers still dig it up like crazy; then the cats and dog dig after the rodents ....

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't do that. I use the wire apron laid on top of the ground. I do put a few rocks on it to hold it down, but it does not take that long for the chickens to scratch dirt on it and grass to grow through it.

I don't have the experience with this, so I am just throwing out the question for discussion. Would a solid barrier give the predator an idea of where to start to dig?

My main comment is more on my dogs. It is amazing how big a rock they can move. The smaller one (32 pounds) usually does most of the digging then moves out of the way while the 42 pound one muscles the rock out of the way. She can easily move a rock as big as my head and has managed some bigger ones. Then the smaller one goes back in to dig some more. Those two together are actually quite a good cooperative destruction team.

The wire apron idea will stop dogs from digging out of a pen too. This I do have experience with.

 

[jbrown_14105]

Remo Sez: "I have both wire and rocks. I bring my fence out about 14-16 inches(I don't bury it I just lay it on top of ground) and then I lay large flat rocks on top of it."

Hmm interesting idea!


I also have used rocks on top of the fence laying on the ground and it works well....just don't leave a space too far...the chickens will find a way to get under it to get out!
Mine did till I spaced the rocks closer!
small brain chickens still figure things out......qoute me on this!
Jim Brown
Lockport NY