Well, owing to having a $300 chicken coop and run in the back yard, a several hundred dollar green house with 2x2x7 half inch hardware cloth chick run, and $180 into the run on the lot, not counting a couple of hundred for the open air summer coop on it, I have discovered that chickens are expensive.
And of all of them, right now my birds are in the original coop and run in the backyard. Courtesy of night time temps not dropping below 80 and my NOT spending electric to a/c their coop, it is secure run, open coop. As it was in the beginning. (you can see this coop and run on my page.) Unfortunately there was a middle. I added heavy guage 2x4 cattle type fencing when I had to dog-sit for my daughter's gsd, and I dropped the 1 inch chicken wire into an apron to prevent digging this left a foot or so of fencing that was just the 2x4, which I had been patching at for a few months as the sparrows stealing chicken feed were a nuisance.
There is no nuisance quite like a weasel. A weasel is not strong enough to tear chicken wire or screening off, even if it is just lightly stapled. but it will fit through a hole the size of a golf ball and kill adult hens and chicks alike. The safest spot according to my birds was UP. Weasels don't climb as well as I would think apparently. I've gone from 5 adult hens and 14 pullets to 3 adult hens and 3 pullets in 2 weeks. The greenhouse had a safe chick coop, but due to temps I had windows open and little birds loose in it. I lost 8 pullets there.
The summer coop on the lot got filled with my 2 oldest hens (partly as weasel bait) and partly for a test. No roof. 20 ft of elm tree, and I don't clip my birds wings. The weasel only got one from there, I think Red went up.
But when it successfully got into the backyard coop after we thought all openings were closed, and got 3 pullets and a young laying hen, I'd had it. There isn't an opening a golf ball will go through anymore. No more sparrow problems. Even though 90% of the coverage is 1 inch chickenwire overlapped, wire tied and stapled over the 2x4 fencing.. And my dogs are not understanding WHY they are sleeping outdoors, but they are. With full access to all sides of the run. That's important. Backed up against a fence makes it not patrollable, so I have a 6 ft gap between run fence and privacy fence..
But digging is a non issue with just a chickenwire apron tacked into the ground and overgrown with grass. At least so far. and my youngest dog is a digger...if it would have gotten her a sparrow she'd have dug in. Weather doesn't always permit secure coop, so a really secure run is a very good idea. And mine is inside my privacy fenced yard.
Gypsi
