cliffoco
Chirping
- Jul 2, 2015
- 84
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I have 20 meat birds and will be raising them in a tractor that will get moved daily. It is 8x12 and 26 inches tall. The sides and roof are all 1/2 x 1/2 hardware cloth with part of the coop covered with a tarp ontop of the hardware cloth (to protect from rain and provide shade). I do not want to put a bottom on it because then I have to clean and it defeats the purpose of having the tractor IMO.
My first idea was to put 2 feet of harware cloth along the outside as an apron but some of the "pasture" is long grass and the weight of hardware cloth (with a 2x4 frame) around it will not weigh it down enough to sit on the ground nicely, so i was thinking instead of just buying 8x4 OSB (aspenite) and cutting it into 2 foot width then just use hinges and have that as the apron, however I am afraid that the predators will just back up the 2 feet and dig once they see the wood, where as with the hardware cloth they may just get confused and continue to try and dig through the hardware cloth since they can still see the ground.
THe osb is also cheaper being only 7$ for a board. Any thoughts?
I am in ontario Canada and my predators will be Coyotes, Fox and raccoons
My first idea was to put 2 feet of harware cloth along the outside as an apron but some of the "pasture" is long grass and the weight of hardware cloth (with a 2x4 frame) around it will not weigh it down enough to sit on the ground nicely, so i was thinking instead of just buying 8x4 OSB (aspenite) and cutting it into 2 foot width then just use hinges and have that as the apron, however I am afraid that the predators will just back up the 2 feet and dig once they see the wood, where as with the hardware cloth they may just get confused and continue to try and dig through the hardware cloth since they can still see the ground.
THe osb is also cheaper being only 7$ for a board. Any thoughts?
I am in ontario Canada and my predators will be Coyotes, Fox and raccoons