Buring part of the chicken wire in the run?

[Willow's Meadow]

Should I bury part of the chicken wire in my run or not? The run cannot be connected to the coop and they won't be out there that long because I am planning to free range them most of the time when they are older. The run would just be to contain them if we have friends over or when they are little. But I am worried some animal is going to slip under the run, which will have chicken wire as the walls. Is that possible? I thought most chicken predators were nocternal(exept for the hawk). We'll have a deer net roof to protect against the hawks.

Also if I do bury it how deep should I bury it?

 

[newbiechickenowner]

I would say yes yes yes. We have had a predator that digs as soon as the sun starts to set enough...even though you are thinking it is a temporary holding spot, if you need to go somewhere or are late getting back or simply have your back turned, something could get in. We just continued the chicken wire down into the ground 12 inches and angled it out. The animal kept hitting the chicken wire when it was digging and finally gave up. It was really easy...just take a shovel and pull back a chunk at a time...goes much quicker than it sounds. Good luck

 

[babyblue]

we have a 6 foot chain link then on the lower half chicken wire doubled against the chain link. the chicken wire hits the ground and extends out about 2 foot in an apron. we just laid it over the ground and threw fresh used horse bedding over top. that has so many live grass seeds in it that its compleatly grassed over and able to mow the same season.

 

[newbiechickenowner]

I think that I am going to try to do something similar. Even though we burried it...one of the diggers got quite far down. I was thinking of laying down chicken wire right on the ground all the way around and then putting a layer of sod so that we can then mow it. Glad to know it works. This plus the vertical buried fence will make a nice barrier

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

First off you should always Bury or Skirt it round any yard/run.

Second chicken wire is great for keping chickens in but not so great for keeping things out think about a dog with their teeth they can break bones apart with one bite now what is that chicken wire going to do to stop that dog from getting into the yard/run?
Always use hardware cloth or/and welided wire fenceing.

Third that is a great idea of free ranging them but you should attach it to the coop so if you want to sleep in they can still come out to scratch around and eat or if you go out of town on a weekend trip you can have someone check on them you don't want them to free range when your not around.


Just my 3 cents worth
Good Luck to you

 

[sparrow75]

I just completed my apron this weekend. I used a tiller to till around (2ft) the perimeter of the coop/run. It broke up the soil about 2-3" deep, then i laid chicken wire (i overlapped 2 layers of chicken wire to reduce the mesh size from 1" to 0.5" since we have weasels) and secured it down with metal stakes ($10/75 stakes from Lowes), then shovled the dirt back over it.

I think the tiller was a great way to get the wire buried, only took about 2 hours from start to finish.

 

[fl_deb]

sparrow75 What a great idea! using the tiller would be so much easier even in sandy Florida


Thanks!

Deb