chicken run with tree inside

[NickyPick]

I've got a big old Chinese Tallow tree in my run. We enclosed the run in chicken wire (hardware cloth on the bottom 3 feet) and just wrapped the wire around the tree. It's been 5 years now and we've had to re-wrap a couple of times because the squirrels make a hole, but nothing bigger has gotten in. At night, they're locked up in the coop, so any coons or possums can't get in there.

 

[Mims]

I say go for the area with the tree. We built our enclosed run extending out from an old 4 x 6 shed. There is a small mesquite tree just outside the shed, so when we attached the hardware cloth we made sure to attach it close to the tree trunk. (we used wire, not wanting to nail into the tree). The wire is really close to the tree and nothing larger than a lizard can get in there. The chickens love the shade and the two Sicilian Buttercups could climb it when they were 3 weeks old!

@StoneHens - can you share a picture of this? I am about to do the same thing, but it's a huge tree, and I don't want to nail into it either....