Anyone willing to give me some ideas?

[Sunwren]

I'm not the most creative person in the world but I have this space that is not being used right now and since I seem to be accumulating more chickens I thought I could make an area that could be somewhat predator proof and easily accessible (by me) for the chickens. Any ideas welcome!

I can say that my number one chicken predator has been a really bad sneaky fox. There are also hawk, coyote, neighbor dogs and raccoon in the immediate vicinity though. I realize the tree is really a dead stump with a vine living on it but the chickens LOVE this tree! They all spend a bit of time every day scratching around it so i'd like to utilize it if possible.

 

[jinxschuh]

Deffiantly KEEP the tree... I love dead trees as much as I love live ones!! If this was my run I would buy welded pig fence panels (I'm actually gonna use them for my pernament run already, I just won't have a cool tree sticking out the top). They come with smaller openings like 2 inch so it would be small enough gaps to keep the fox and dogs and what not out. The panels are sold flat, not rolled up, so they are more sturdy/stiff then what you can buy in a roll. Attach both ends of the fencing to either side of the top of your run walls (maybe on the side that doesn't have 2x4 running horizontally you could use zip ties or pieces of wire to secure it to the exsisting fencing so you won't have additional costs, I'd just use a staple gun across the side where the 2x4 is) so they create a dome shape over the run. If you space the fencing just right and cut what space you need out of the sides (would be the top/bottom of the panel if you think of how it would be used traditionaly to build a fence) of the fencing panels to accomadate the tree then you'll be able to staple it directly to the tree to secure it. Hopefully you can find tall enough panels that one panel will go from the end of your run up to about half of the width of the tree. That way you will be able to cut the space needed to accomadate the tree on the side of the panel so you won't have the need to go over the top of it. then a second panel can also be cut on the side to accomadate the other half of the tree and attched down the rest of the run fencing... does that make sense? O how I wish I was there to help!!! I'm actually kind of jealous...

O, and bonus of creating a dome, I would think the vine would eventually also use the dome to continue growing/climbing... eventually you will have an arbor of vines.

 

[BellevueOmlet]

You can definitely do some cool things with that area. Just make sure that you make it very secure = hardware cloth up and tight against the tree and fully protected.

 

[jinxschuh]

Quote:
I don't know who would use hardware cloth on their run. I think that would be an over kill especially since it looks like the current fence on her run is the same size as pig or sheep fencing would be. I dont' think she would need something smaller over the top of her then then she has down the sides. If she goes with the same style of fencing she is already using, just in panels instead of roles, it would be easier to manage because she wouldn't have to worry about stretching it and trying to unroll something that was rolled so tight for shipment it is hard to work with while attaching it. Plus, hardware cloth can be mean with all the rough edges and hard to cut... just my two cents on that.

 

[duckinnut]

What I used for the top of my run was plastic construction/snow fence its tough as nails, easily handled and not too expensive. The best thing about it that you can get it pulled real tight without much labor. I've got a virtual trampoline on the top of mine. Snow fence is like plastic deer fence but more durable,it doesnt get brittle from the weather. The only drawback is that is bright orange. The holes in the fencing is 1 1/2 square.