This will be my first time owning chickens & am trying to decide the best way to predator proof the run area. We have lots of predators (hawks, rats, foxes, raccoons, coyotes, neighborhood cats, chipmunks and squirrels, and potentially weasels as well).
I would like to challenge your basic assumptions, based on my experience. When I first got laying hens, I, too, was thinking about making a predator proof chicken run. I quickly calculated there was no end to how much money you could put into making a chicken run predator proof. Hardware cloth is very expensive. Solid roofs are expensive. Digging down to lay wire is a lot of work. All those upfront costs to protect my chickens from a potential threat?
I added up all those costs to make my chicken run predator proof and quickly blew past my budget.
So, the next thing I asked myself was how much do I pay for a baby chick? About $3.00 each. When I started thinking about that, then I realized that I was considering spending 10x, or 20x on the "insurance" to protect my chicken investment.
I did see great value in making my chicken coop predator proof, which is what I ended up doing. I was willing to settle to make my chicken run
predator resistant, meaning it would stop most of the daytime predators I was concerned about - neighbor dogs. Most wild varmints I would have to worry about come out at night. By then, my chickens are locked up in the Fort Knox coop.
So, my chicken run is fenced in by relatively inexpensive 2X4 wire, with cheap bird netting stretched on top to prevent hawk and eagle attacks. No predator aprons or moats dug into the ground. I lock my chickens up in the Fort Knox coop every night. In 3+ years, never a successful predator attack. For me, it worked out.
If/when I ever suffer from a successful predator attack, I'll have to reconsider my options and how to strengthen my defenses.
Because I was willing to settle for a predator resistant chicken run, I was able to build a much larger run and my chickens have much more room to move about than what I could have afforded with a predator proof run.
I turned my chicken run into a chicken run composting system, so I actually prefer the open bird netting top which lets all the rain come through and helps with the composting process. Also, I live in snow country in northern Minnesota, so building a solid roof over my entire chicken run would be an expensive project to support our snow loads. Someday, I would like a covered run over a small portion of the run, or maybe a just a removable cover for the winter months to keep some of the run free from snow.
but I'm on Cape Cod, MA. So we have mild New England weather here. Usually only a few days in the 90's in August and that's about it. We get some snow too, but it doesn't usually dip below 0F. The run is shaded by 2 large beech trees which provide deep shade in the summer and lose their leaves in the winter allowing sunlight in the winter (still somewhat shaded though from their branches). We had been planning on a metal roof but I wanted to make it more natural by doing the polycarbonate & letting the natural light through. In the summer they'll really only get a little bit of morning sun before the beech trees shade them for the rest of the day, so I'm hoping that will be comfortable for them. I've also seen polycarbonate roofing that isn't totally clear that allows 80% sunlight through (instead of 94% like the clear stuff I was looking at) so that's another option too.
