Chicken Run Question

[Ridgerunner]

I an planning on building a 10'x20' run using a party tent frame. I would like to wrap the entire thing in chicken wire and then run 36" high welded wire fencing (2"x 4" openings) around the bottom with 12" of the fencing bent out as a no dig barrier. The chickens will be cooped at night for safety.

Which is the preferable chicken wire for runs? 2" opening or 1" opening?

Definitely the 1" opening if you use it. The 2x4 welded wire will stop larger predators, overlapping that with chicken wire will stop smaller predators. Some critters like snakes, mice, and smaller weasels can still get through but a combined 2x4 + chicken wire is pretty effective, especially when combined with the apron as you plan.

Larger predators like a big dog or big boar raccoon can tear most chicken wire, how big they have to be depends on the gauge of the wire. Larger animals can tear some hardware cloth, again depending on the gauge of the wire. Wrapping whatever frame you use with chicken wire will provide a deterrent against many critters but not all. Putting 2x4 welded wire around the bottom will really help but raccoons can climb.

I built my run out of 2x4 wire and put a solid roof on it. Then I wrapped the bottom 18" or so with chicken wire, more to keep baby chicks in than any other reason. It has an apron. Practically anything that the 1" chicken wire will stop but that can get through the 2x4 wire can climb but the arrangement has worked well for years.

 

[HotWingsHoulihen]

@Ridgerunner,
Thanks for the input. Sounds like your setup is similar to what I am planning. The hens will only be out in the run during the day. I just need enough to fend off any daytime attacks or, at least, give them a chance to get away. They will be securely cooped at night.

 

[BDutch]

I have a run made from a party tent skeleton for 4 years now.

Building it:
The parts of the frame were glued together with construction glue. I painted the frame in a dark gray color with metal paint. I cut 1/2 " square wire. Aprox. 12" got in the ground to stop the digging preditors. Above approx. 30" and on top I put netting (1.5 "square, strong and dark grey, used for caging big birds) against hawks and to prevent daytime preditors from climbing in. The opening is closed with a mesh panel + netting.

Problems:
Two periods (for a week or so) I had a rat coming in the run. They climb and chew on the netting where the hardware cloth ends. So now I check reguraly. And having neighbour cats helps a lot too.
At night the coop closes with a chicken guard. There was never a problem with storm or snow.

Preditors and snow:
Here in the Netherlands we have less preditors as you have in general in the States. But we do have e.g. foxes, hawks, polecats and martens. But rats seemed to be the biggest issue. The second run I made is with a wooden frame and netting (cat net) only on top.

In an area with much more snow, the netting on top can be a problem. Because the snow grows on the threads, the netting will close and will get heavy. Maybe the paty tent frame is not strong enough to hold such a weight.

 

[aart]

In an area with much more snow, the netting on top can be a problem. Because the snow grows on the threads, the netting will close and will get heavy. Maybe the paty tent frame is not strong enough to hold such a weight.

How much snow do you get there?
How loaded did it ever get...pics?

 

[BDutch]

This snow-report is from 2017-2018:
Significant snow fell this winter especially in December. On December 10, a disturbance that spread across the center of the Netherlands caused 5-10 cm of snow in large parts of the Netherlands. A further outage moved northeast on December 11. This caused 10-15 cm in the west and center, so that the snow layer there grew to 15-20 cm in many places. In the Veluwe, a snow cover of more than 30 cm was created temporarily.

10 cm = 3,93700787 inch

Normally there is just 1 inch of snow, one or two times in the winter period. It's quit special if the cover stays for a week. Above a picture of the run (10 dec 2017) with a lot of snow.