Building our run -what materials?

[new chick 203]

So we are starting to gather materials for our run. We have cedar posts. My question is do we use hardware cloth or welded wire fencing or a combination of the two? What are the advantages of each? And for the top can we get away with bird netting, or will critters climb over? Thanks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I used 2" x 4" welded wire. It will keep the big things out and is less expensive than the hardware cloth. It will not stop snakes, rats or some weasels, but those are extremely hard to keep out anyway unless you enclose your top and everything else with the hardware cloth. One down side of this is that the chickens can stick their heads through the fence tryingto get to the grass and a predator can take the head off. You can use hardware cloth or chicken wire on the bottom 18" or so of your run, on the inside, to keep your chickens heads (and baby chicks if you will have them) inside the run.

Critters like raccoons can climb over and tear through the bird netting. The big advantages of the bird netting is that it keeps your chickens from getting out and it does deter hawks. My approach was to make the run pretty secure but not absolutely safe, then lock the chickens up at night in a very secure coop when the worst of the predators are out. They can come out during the day so there is some risk involved, but this suits my location and risk tolerance. Yours may be different.

Good luck!

 

[new chick 203]

thanks. That's just what I thought. And how deep do you bury the wire?

 

[new chick 203]

thanks. That's just what I thought. And how deep do you bury the wire?

 

[new chick 203]

thanks. that helps allot

 

[Ridgerunner]

I did not bury the wire. I made an apron. Take about 18" of the welded wire and lay it onthe ground outside your coop and run, depending how you are set up. Leave the wire horizontal and attach it to the bottom wire of your run fencing. I used J-clips but you can use hog rings or another method to securely attach it. You can remove about 2" of sod, put the wire down, then replace the sod, but I just left mine on top of the ground. The grass grows through it pretty quickly. The theory is that the predator starts digging next to the fence, hits the wire and cannot get through, and does not know to back up. It is a lot easier than burying the wire straight down, especially in my rocky soil.

 

[nelgkel]

I was only going to go out about 12" but think I will make the apron 18" for extra measures!

Love all the advice on this forum!!

 

[midget_farms]

I used 2x4 wire fence - but it wasn't welded wire - it was the cheaper (not hardly!) horse fence. Very stout.

I bought a roll of 24 inch tall galvinazed chicken wire & rolled it out around the run. I put 12inches flat on the ground & 12 inches up the fence. This does 2 things - 1. Goofball preditors cant dig under.

2. Chickens don't poke their heads through.

I didn't cover the top & have had a hawk come in & snack on one of my birds. I'm working on collecting the fence necessary to cover it.

As far as the woven nets go. They work OK but have drawbacks. After the hawk incident I bought one of those nets & installed it.

The next day we got 3 inches of snow & the weight of the snow tore down the net.

A determined racoon will easily be able to rip through that stuff. It is best for covering cherry trees & ponds.