coop "apron" for a moveable coop?

[misoandkimchee]

hi there!

so i've read a variety of ideas on how to protect my urban chickens from predators (mainly rats, racoons, i think), but am still needing advice on a predator-safety system that meets my needs.

my coop/run structure is 3'x8'ish, made to be portable. I would like to leave the bottom free of hardware cloth, so that the chicks have access to the dirt/grass/etc and can do some garden tilling for me

however, i would like to move the coop periodically, about every month or so, and so digging under sod to put in a 12" + wide hardware cloth "apron" seems like maybe too much work.

do you think i should forfeit their access to the soil and just cover the whole bottom with the cloth? or suck it up and remake an apron each time i move the coop? or is there another way?

thanks a lot!

 

[Southpaw970]

I've been trying to come up with ideas to solve the same problem.

We have a Fort Knox secure coop/run for the older chickens, but I would really like to have a small tractor for our in-between-chicks. They are old enough to go out to the coop, but not quite big enough - and then there's the whole being on different feed thing.
Just bought a big bag of Layena- so switching everybody to Flock Raiser is not really something I want to do.

We have a problem with dogs running loose around here. We lost our first attempt to have chickens a few years ago due to 2 of them digging under the temporary run that 3 chickens in. So I don't want to put these chicks in something that is not very secure.

One idea I have is to make it A-frame with hardwire cloth on the sides and maybe close the bottom with pasture wire. Then large animals couldn't actually get in it, but the chickens could still get to the good stuff on the ground. I wonder how well that would work....
Now, trying to get DH to build it for me is another story.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Make a frame for the hardwire cloth for the bottom, and put wood around the bottom with grooves in it that the framed hardware cloth could slide into when you are not out there to watch or maybe even just slide it in for protection at night. You know, a removeable bottom. That's a relatively small coop, and should be fairly easy to frame the cloth. Obly thing I can think of that would work.

ETA: You can get supplies for making window screens at Lowe's...I bet that would work for the hardwire cloth to be framed into. then you would only need like a 3/8 inch groove to slide it into.

 

[Neilette]

Actually, you could just attach a 12" apron (to deter diggers) around the base of your tractor -- without burying it. Much like MPC's apron fencing. The horizontal barrier seems to befuddle them, and they will always dig right next to the wall. I recommend .5"x.5" hardware cloth to deter even the smallest vermin; but 2"x4" welded wire fencing will keep out any racoons, foxes, coyotes, and dogs. Secure it securely. No matter how small the grid (even being crushed by the frame of the tractor), my lawn survives well for the 24 hours between tractor moves.

 

[Intheswamp]

If you're going to be moving the tractor then I guess your only option is to lay the apron on top of the ground. A.T. Hagan does this with his hoop houses and I believe that he reports that in several years he hasn't had any diggers to get inside the coops. Here's a link to a thread where he's posted several good images of a couple of his hoop houses using the "on-ground" aprons.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=172799&p=7 Scroll on down to message #129 to read where he discusses the "ground wire". He is using chicken wire for the apron but states that he might try 2"x4" welded wire later. The welded wire might actually work better as it might lay flatter and hold it's shape better...and naturally be more secure. Good info there!

Best wishes,
Ed

PS...Here's a pic of one of his hoop houses...

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I was going to post a photo of what I use but Intheswamp beat me to it!

It's just as you see it. The wire is tacked to the bottom of the tractor frame all the way around. I was using it two feet wide but have since gone to just a foot wide. My oldest tractor is going on four years now and nothing has dug under yet. The key is that the wire has to lay flat on the ground so you may occasionally need to walk on top of it after moving to make it lay down like it's supposed to.

I'm using a doubled over length of chicken wire (two foot wide wire folded over on itself) right now, but I'm not happy with it. The predators can't get in but this new treated wood they are making rusts the wire faster than it used to. Any kind of wire that is small enough to keep the predators out will do. My main concern are things like coons, possums, dogs, foxes, and coyotes. For you folks who have to contend with weasels and minks you may need to use half-inch hardware cloth.

.....Alan.

 

[patandchickens]

Aside from the "no apron, hope for best" option, you have two choices, really:

either 1) hinge an apron onto the tractor, so that it folds up for "easy" moving, or 2) use separate pieces of wire pinned to the ground as your apron, relying on the tractor's weight to keep animals from shifting it off of them or prying it up.

If you are only going to move once a *month*, I would probably suggest the second choice, because grass and weeds and such are going to grow through the apron pretty badly for at least several months of the year, and you are likely to have quite a hard time freeing the tractor TO move it if the apron is permanently attached to it

Whereas a separate piece of wire you can haul on from different angles til the grass lets go. If you are concerned about the tractor being light enough that an animal could shift it, perhaps you could rig some way of temporarily clipping it to the apron wire; and do use tentpegs or cinderblocks to pin or weight the edges of the apron down. Ideally you would use an apron at least 18" wide on a lawn, wider if this is a turfless garden (animals dig much more easily through plain dirt than through turf)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[elmo]

I'm wrestling with the same question. I had a hardware cloth apron on my first tractor, but didn't like it much. It crumpled up from time to time as I moved the tractor, I sometimes scraped myself on the sharp edges, and the chickens got their toes caught in the wire occasionally as I was shooing them into the tractor.

I'd love to find something lightweight that I could hinge on the sides, and flip up to move the tractor, but so far, I have no idea what to use.

 

[imamtgrandma2]

I'm thinking of going the route of an electric wire around the coop much like this website has https://mobilechickencoops.com/images/img_2636.jpg
I'm probably going to do both - the wire and an apron held down with stepping stones or the like.

 

[DaveD]

Here is my suggestion:

Take 4- 1x4's that are17" long

1) attach the narrow ends to the corners of the tractor going out at a 45 degree angle (If you think of a box, the corners will have lines going out to the top-left, the top-right, bottom-left and bottom-right)) with a hinge

2) place the hardware cloth on it going out 12" to the left, right, top, and bottom

3) add a hook to the small pieces of wood that are still sticking out on the1x4's (17" is slightly longer than gets covered by the 12" hardware cloth)

4) when you want to move the tractor, you fold the 4 corners up and latch the hook onto eye screws you put on the tractor.

I think this would work nicely. If you need, I could probably sketch it up for you to get a visual

-David
Look at solutions, not at problems