Do ya'll hardware wire the yard area of bantam coops?

[zookeeptd]

For small coops with Bantams.. Do you put hardware cloth on the ground?

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

I would dig it in the ground around the coop.

 

[joan1708]

I attached the hardware cloth 12-15 inches on the outside and inside walls of the run. My coop has an old fence wood floor and I put hardware cloth on the underside of it. On one side of my run is a 6 foot pave-stone retaining wall with a 6 foot fence. I am confident nothing can dig under that. On the other side I have the hardware cloth and I have planted fruit trees along there, so eventually the roots should also impede digging. Below is a picture of the run as I was building it and you can see the hardware cloth on the ground. I tacked it down heavily with green plastic landscape stakes and put 6 inches of litter on that. I wanted to be sure there are no sharp edges for the bantams to cut themselves on. I have to say I hate hardware cloth. It is a pain to work with and I was constantly scratching up my arms with it. The problem is I hate rats more than I hate hardware cloth. If I had it to do all over again, I would have painted it black before installing it to make it more see-through.
this is how it looks now.