First coop and run, , should we dig or use hardware cloth?

[joan1708]

too cute! Gotta love good dogs!

 

[Aeropennchick]

I love the one with the teeth showing! Adorable!

 

[mamagrows]

I am new to chickens and just got a coop online. It is covered in hardware fabric but the bottom is open and currently just sitting on grass. I do not understand what everyone means by "apron". Can you explain? Also, with the trellis... are you just setting it down on the ground under the coop or is it attached somehow?

 

[aart]

I am new to chickens and just got a coop online. It is covered in hardware fabric but the bottom is open and currently just sitting on grass. I do not understand what everyone means by "apron". Can you explain? Also, with the trellis... are you just setting it down on the ground under the coop or is it attached somehow?

Here's a link...and a good way to search BYC (advanced search is up top of each page)
advanced search>titles only> apron

 

[write2caroline]

I am new to chickens and just got a coop online. It is covered in hardware fabric but the bottom is open and currently just sitting on grass. I do not understand what everyone means by "apron". Can you explain? Also, with the trellis... are you just setting it down on the ground under the coop or is it attached somehow?

There are a couple of ideas. An Apron can be wire layed out perpendicular to the vertical walls which would inhibit a predator from digging next to the wall. I prefer digging a narrow trench and using wire and cement making that wall really tough to get through. I currently use a different approach. I lifted my coops up off the ground on 4x4 stilts and I lock my chickens in wood coops. So long as I remember to close the doors, my chickens have been safe from predators.

I also hate stooping while cleaning so with the coops up at waist level, and wide doors I can open the coops and clean them fast and effectively. My chickens climb up onto a ramp with little horizontal wooden dowels to assist them in traction and the go through a smaller door in the bigger door. Inside they have roosts pretty high up.





I have a large run for them during the day and at night they are locked up. I have seen raccoon prints in the run but they have not been able to get to them in these coops. I built the a frame coops but those were compromised by raccoons and the chickens flat out refused to go into them at night opting for the pallet coops - made from discarded pallets and straightened used nails, painted with oops paint. - These were the old ladders I have replaced with the ladders with the dowells. When they were little they had a tough time getting to the higher roost so we built a bridge for them.

Caroline

 

[mamagrows]

I have an enclosed wooden roost for at night but I thought I needed wire at the bottom anyway. I let them downstairs during the day and locked upstairs at night. The only free range when I am out with them. Here is a photo.