Ground is freezing before I can bury hardware cloth!!

[stpaulchickens]

New chicken owner here (since May). We are almost done building our coop/run (it took a LOT longer than we intended), but it's rapidly getting cold here in MN. Right now our chicks are in the garage at night & in a temporary run during the day unless we're home & then they do some free ranging sometimes. I don't know if we'll be able to bury the hardware cloth before the ground freezes though. Is it safe to assume that frozen ground will also deter digging predators? I'm only worried about digging, the top & sides of the coop are/should be fine. Any ideas???

 

[chfite]

The frozen ground should be sufficient. There is a product that looks like a croquet hoop only smaller that is made for pegging landscape fabric to the ground. I used it to peg my fencing to the ground in lieu of burying it. Over time, the soil has filled in around most of it, making burial unnecessary. Predators will be deterred by a barrier on the surface as well as one that is buried.

I have watched a dog try to get into my run. He came up to the vertical fencing and started to dig. He encountered the fencing on the ground, wrestled with it for a moment, the gave up. I don't foresee a predator backing up so far, testing for a barrier until he finds the edge, then digging underneath.

Chris

 

[stpaulchickens]

Thanks!

My original plan was to try to "apron" the cloth to the ground, but we had some people helping w/ the coop and they ended up cutting the cloth right at ground level. It was poor communication on our part. So.... I need a plan B. I'm thinking either cutting some strips & attaching them to the existing cloth and then making an apron w/ those - OR - would landscape rock surrounding the perimeter out about a foot or so work? I'm guessing that would be a lot of work to dig through as well, but I don't know. Any advice appreciated!!!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: That's the best plan
A border of rock will only provide a dry habitat underneath them for rodents, and STILL won't deter digging as well as wire

Just throw a thin layer of dirt on top and by Spring it willl be anchored in place

If you don't have a board around the bottom to attach to, "J-clips" do a great job

http://www.bassequipment.com/Default.aspx?TabId=11

 

[stpaulchickens]

There is a board on the bottom, surrounding the entire coop/run. I'll just plan on cutting some strips & laying them out apron style. We should be able to do that before we get too much more snow/icy cold weather here.

Thanks again!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Make sure to cut them long enough to overlap them at the corners so there will be no uncovered areas