Border security - wire on the ground, or trench and bury?

[greginshasta]

I will be moving the new run to the location where the hens will live tomorrow. Our soil is mostly volcanic ash and as such it is very soft. I actually sort of miss the clay where I used to live. It was a serious drag to dig in, but at least once you punched a hole it didn't collapes in on you.

Anyhow, I'm debating burying wire in the ground or laying a 2' section on the ground and shoveling some soil over it to hold it in place. Either way, attaching it to the 2x4 bottom of the coop will be easy enough.

Is laying a 2' border around the perimiter any more or less effective as digging a trench and burying the wire?

Thanks

 

[ArkyBird]

I heard that just laying it on the ground would be good enough, I guess it depends on what type of predator you might be dealing with. My ground is very hard and full of rock, so I am just laying a border of landscape timers all around the coop. I hope it works.

 

[Dawn419]

Greg,

We are "blessed" with red clay, which is solid as concrete due to the drought we are in. I used a 3' section of 1" chicken wire around the whole perimeter of the yard/run. To secure the wire, I soaked the ground with soaker hoses for a couple hours then used garden stakes and stakes I made from wire clothes hangers to secure the wire to the ground.

 

[greenmulberry]

I folded my wire outward and laid cement patio pavers on it all around.

 

[greginshasta]

Quote:
That's a good point. We have a bunch of 12" x 12" pavers left over from our greenhouse floor. Thanks for the idea - consider it a plan...

 

[Aun <HIS><]

We mounted chicken wire on the INSIDE of the coop, a foot up the wall, (behind the studs, because we weren't sure at that time if we would add insulation and plywood walls), then bent 90degrees out on top of the subfloor. We covered the chicken wire on the floor with cement, higher at the wall, then sloping down toward the middle,maybe a 1/2" slope. Then covered the whole floor with vinyl tiles. We only did the cement so the floor tiles would stay put over the chicken wire. But the thin layer of cement, sloping like it does, actually makes it so much easier to clean.

Since you don't have your floor yet, you could attach the chicken wire to your plywood floor before you put it in with staples. Then you wouldn't have to worry about it on the top of the floor at all. Our floor was already there when we started.