How do you feel about...

[silkiechick05]

anchoring your coop wire into the ground to keep predators from digging under it,

or just making a wire bottom for the coop.


which is better???

 

[Luna_Chick66]

I'm a chicken flock newby and we aproned out the hardware cloth all around the coop and run.

I've never really heard of making a wire bottom for the coop, tho.

 

[Stephanie-n-Hayden]

I would think that a wire bottom for the coop would be too hard on the chicken's feet.

 

[Kittymomma]

Just run an apron around it. The extra expense of covering the entire bottom of the run isn't worth it and would deny your chickens the fun of scratching around. As long as you run it out 18-24" nothing is going to dig in.

 

[silkiechick05]

okay, so how did you anchor the wire into the ground??

dig a trench?

 

[grandmaof5]

silkiechick05, do you mean around a run, or the bottom of your coop?

 

[silkiechick05]

the run. the coop will have a solid bottom.

 

[Luna_Chick66]

Quote:
I dug a trench around 3 sides and in the front I dug deeper and used fencing that had bigger space than hardware cloth because I want to plant in front of it.... around the coop on 2 sides I am just going to bury the hardware cloth under a bit of dirt and plant grass.

 

[Lil Chickie Mama]

I'm putting a hardware cloth bottom on my coop and run. I have an apron but a gopher managed to dig under it so it opens up an entry for other nasties. I love having a dirt floor (with bedding material over top) but this is unacceptable. I'll just keep my run with the apron, but for the coop I'm putting a hardware cloth floor covered with the regular dirt and bedding stuff. That way there's no digging in.

 

[patandchickens]

Personally I think that in most cases it makes more sense to have a 2-4' wide apron, horizontally on the surface of the ground or covered by mulch/pebbles/turf/pavers/whatever...

...you *can* trench the bottom of the run fence into the ground, but it needs to be at least 18" deep (and even taht won't stop a few really-motivated 'professional' foxes or terriers) which is awfully hard work unless you own a ditch-witch, and then it is hard to monitor its rusting or to replace if need be.

JMHO,

Pat