Fence suggestion

[lynnehd]

Looks great! Are the arcs made out of PVC?

My understanding is that birds' vision is about 10x better than ours. So they can see clear things like fishing line strung across, etc.

 

[aart]

Ok, we are done done.

lol you're never DONE done...there will always be something to fix or tweak or improve upon...just sayin!

 

[attimus]

Looks great. I'm sure you feel like you can breathe again.

 

[ukrkoz]

Yeah, I know. Still have to secure the posts. Have water feeding cups ordered, will have to install some inside and some outside. Want to add automatic feeder to the inside. But to do that, will have to re-arrange current coop heater into smaller size and reposition it inside. Though it's 100 sf inside, I am limited on choices.
Then of course girls will need some entertainment in the run. And will make a small compost pile in the run too. They LOVE digging through compost and picking worms. Old pile is outside the perimeter now. I had to bypass fire-pit and it's right next to it.

 

[Ilene]

Hi guys,
I've been enjoying the back & forth regarding the fencing.
I have the chicken wire as well but recently developed a problem of my dog getting underneath.
How do you secure the bottom so nothing can crawl under it & into the chicken area?
Just lost 3 beloved hens due to this new problem. Thanks fo any help.

 

[ukrkoz]

I simply drove U shaped metal pieces into the ground every few feet but a digging dog will go under if he wants to.
I'd say it may be easier to train the dog or employ one of those proximity collars that will zap him if he gets close.
Otherwise you will need to bury a solid something along perimeter to prevent digging. Too much work.

 

[Ilene]

Thank you.
We have the electric collars, but it doesn't stop her unfortunately.
As you said, the u-shaped clips are too easy to dig out.
I think for now we're going to add another foot of wire to the bottom and put very heavy rocks on top of it. AND keep a VERY close eye on the the dog.

 

[ukrkoz]

Nope. Not dig out. She'll dig UNDER. I had a dog that decided to become a shepard to neighbor's cows and dug a hole, in matter of 20 minutes, large enough for a very large dog, under solid chain link fence, one that has lower edge of it buried into the ground several inches. A digger is a digger. Esp motivated one.

 

[Blooie]

What you've done looks fantastic! I wish we had that much space and such a beautiful setting!

Critters will go as close the the run or fence as they can to start digging. They are smart, but not smart enough to think, "Well, ran into a barrier here - maybe if I move back a foot or two away from where I really want to be I can get in -- or out." Our ground was way too hard and rocky to dig a trench and put in hardware cloth. Besides, I'm way too lazy for that much extra work! We live in town and my set-up is visible from the street, so whatever we did build-wise and protection-wise had to be either invisible or attractive.

We used the long roll of single strand wire designed for electric fences and cut off a piece about 5 feet long to use as "thread". Then we literally sewed hardware cloth going about 2 feet up the sides of the run, repeating the thread cutting for lengths as needed. Any longer than five feet and the cuss words were released as it tangled up. Any shorter and it would have taken forever. At the bottom we folded the hardware cloth outward, forming an apron, and tacked it to the ground with landscape fabric staples. Our rolls of HWC was 4' wide, but you could do the same thing with 3' wide, going up the run about a foot and then out 2 feet, or even chicken wire. All you are trying to do is form a barrier that prevents digging. By golly it worked! Our birdy English Setter, Molly, got so overexcite when the chickens were released into the run for the first time. First she paced the outside of the run, then she got to digging. One broken and bloodied toenail later she decided those chickens just weren't worth it and she's never done it again. Same scenario with a neighbor's dog, just this morning, in fact. He jumped our fence and was trying to dig under the south side of the run. He didn't get anything but sore toes and a thrown rock to the behind.

Our initial plan was to cover the hardware cloth apron with flat rock. But it showed it's effectiveness immediately even without the rock. And the grass quickly grew up through it, which allows Ken to mow right up to the sides of the run without hitting anything. No tall grass around the run means no hiding places for little pests, either.

By the looks of things the last thing you need is advice...you sure have done an amazing job and I'm a little envious. But I just thought I'd share what we did to deter digging.

 

[ukrkoz]

Thank you for kind words. Necessity is mother of invention.
What I am trying to say is this. For a motivated critter, whatever it is, anything that is ON the ground can be overtaken THROUGH the ground, or under the fence, if so desired. Some dogs are diggers. Some are not.
The only way to really prevent them from getting is is to dig in a solid something about 2 ft deep. Same chain link fence, eg. Around here, it's a machinery breaking task it's so rocky. I say zapping collar is a best bet for a dog. Or, a smelly stuff they don't like, like pepper or similar.