Chicken Run Fencing?

[jentralala]

My family and I are working on building our chicken coop and run. The chicken coop is 8x8 and is 6 ft high, and we will be housing 8 to 10 chickens.

I see a lot of people recommend hardwire cloth to build the entire run with, but our run is going to be pretty large and that's very expensive, although I see it as being very resistant to predators. My situation is this, though. We are building the chicken coop in our back yard (we live in a suburban neighborhood), which is already fenced by 3 foot chain link. Is it possible to use something cheaper than hardwire cloth?

The wire part of the coop (we live in hot and humid Florida, Ocala area) will be hardwire cloth, definitely, stapled down and boarded over. The door will be padlocked at night. The chickens will only have access to the run during the day and will also be allowed to 'free range' in the back yard in the evenings when I'm able to supervise (we will be adding wire to the top of the fence to hopefully prevent any escapees).

Anyways, so my question is, is it possible for us to use something less costly than hardwire cloth for the run? Links to products would be greatly appreciated.

I've already learned so much from reading on this forum, and I'm excited to learn more!

 

[OwensChickens]

If you already have a way to contain the chickens by means of your chain link fence, then you can use a hot wire electric fence for predator control. Over large areas it works out to be very cheap per foot.

 

[Faerspell Farms]

Predators can easily dig under the fences with sandy soil. If you keep them in the coop free from threat of predators at night their run can be 1" hexagon poultry wire. Most likely you will want to make an apron to go underground to prevent them from digging under the fence. It's also not a bad idea to have 2' of 1/2" hardware cloth for the first 2 foot on top of the 1". Raccoons can reach in 1" wire and pull pieces of chickens out. Predators are less common during the day but if hungry enough they will surely come to visit. A top is most likely wanted as well to protect from flying predators.

 

[jentralala]

Yes, we are definitely going to wire and roof the top (we have a bald eagle who likes to visit occasionally) for protection and shade. Along with the wire I was going to add grape vines (and possibly shade block?) to give them added shelter from the heat. I'm also adding an apron into the plan as that seems a lot better than digging a foot down into the ground to bury wire. Should the buried wire be hardwire cloth? How far should it go from the coop? 1 foot, 2?

What we are using for the 'frame' of the run is a metal carport skeleton (20 ft long, 10 ft wide, 9 1/2 foot tall) which I'm sure is not ideal but it was free and is quite large.

Thanks so much for all the ideas!