Help with my new RUN

[Kovalciks Chickens]

I have 3 hens and 1 roo japs, 1 mille fleur belgian d'uccle roo, 1 ausie hen, and 1 EE hen. I made a run for these guys and its 35ft long and about 10ft wide. I use these guys for showing and I want to be able to let them free range while they can stay in the coop when they want. Should I bury the wire to the coop to protect from things getting in there? I will not be keeping them outside at night.
Will I be able to let all of them in the run without the 2 roos fighting? I have 2 roos in with 5 hens, is that enough?

 

[Tigerjane]

Yes, you should bury your hardware cloth 12-24in around the perimeter. Things may burrow under during the night and still be there when you let your chickens out into the run. And I've heard 10 hens per rooster is good, so you may be a little low on the number of hens per rooster with your flock.

 

[Dora'smom]

I am not an expert on the roo thing, but I think that there could be some fighting since you have so few hens to those two roos. Maybe someone with more experience will chime in. As far as the burying of wire, I would say yes, do that, as it would be too late once your birds are killed by a predator that didn't have to work very hard to get in. Something could scope things out before you have a chance to put the birds in for the night, and dig very easily under the fence---it's much more difficult if the wire is buried. Better to be safe.

 

[elmo]

Rather than burying wire, you could make an apron of wire lying flat on the ground outwards from the perimiter of your run, 18 - 24 inches, and stake it down well with landscaping staples. Predators try to dig next to the fence, hit the wire, and give up because they don't think of backing up to the edge of the apron to dig under. That's the way I have our runs set up.

I know that people keep more than one d'Uccle roo in a pen successfully; I don't know about the other breeds. You've got plenty of room in your run, so that should help. Try it, but keep an eye on things to see how it's going.

With bantam breeds, you can often house one roo with one or two hens, but if you tried that with many of the standard breeds the poor hens would get over mated quickly.