how deep should I bury hardware cloth?

[lunger]

Hello,

I am building our first chicken coop and the plans have me burying the hardware cloth 1' deep. I searched the predator/pest forum and find the recommendations range from about 1' to 1 1/2 feet. I only want to dig once, and more importantly I don't want our chickens getting killed so I am wondering if anybody has had experience w/a predator digging deeper than 1 foot to get to chickens? My tendency is to go 1 1/2 feet deep for "insurance" but if it isn't necessary then I could probably find something better to do w/my time/energy than digging a trench.

Known predators in our immediate area coyote, raccoon, skunk, and fox. I don't think they are "diggers" but there are bobcat and probably the occasional mountain lion coming through.

Many thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[panner123]

What is more important is bring the wire out in an L shape about 2 feet away from the chicken yard at the bottom. Then I bury it between 6" to 8" deep. Doing this gives my wife enough dirt to plant her flowers around the fence. Doing it this way the predator digs and hits the wire and stops. It doesn't figure out that he needs to back up so he can dig under the L. Once this is done it is a one time deal.

 

[lunger]

Great, thanks for the idea. The plans we have mention that rather than trenching you can put the wire on the surface to prevent digging but we didn't want to do that because it would interfere w/gardening. Burying the L, as you mention, would solve that.