How do you reenforce your outside chicken run?

[UnlabeledMama]

My husband is in the middle of building our 20x20 outside run (we are waiting to the concrete to dry for the posts right now. We have chicken wire and plan to run it up 6 feet. We live in town and there are not a lot of predators, but I want to be safe. I'm actually more worried about any neighborhood dogs that get out. How do you reenforce the bottom? Do you think hardware cloth over the chicken wire would be enough? Or should I try to do some sort of wooden fence along the bottom? Thank you for your help!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Hardware cloth over the chicken wire is definitely the way to go. If you have opposums or raccoons then chicken wire alone will not be enough as they can reach in and eat the birds through the fence. Hardware cloth is expensive but worth it.

If I am understanding correctly you are doing 6ft walls and no top? What breeds are you getting? If you have good flyers then they will be able to get over that - just to warn you. I have a leghorn that can get over my 5ft fence WITH a clipped wing. Just something to keep in mind. Some breeds can not fly so it may not be a problem. If you have flyers and you really want to make sure they can not get out you may want to consider a wire top.

 

[UnlabeledMama]

I have mostly heavy breeds, but I am debating a top or not. I was thinking about just stringing rope as a hawk deterrent ...

 

[cafarmgirl]

My run is similar in size to yours, we used heavy duty shade cloth to cover it. Our local hardware shop cut's it to size, hems it and installs metal grommets. This has worked really well for us. Keeps the chickens in and hawks out and provides a little shade. My hens are locked up at night and the only predators around in the daytime are roaming dogs and hawks. My run is chainlink with hardware cloth on the bottom few feet and for extra dog protection I ran a hot wire near the bottom all around the outside. This has worked perfectly at keeping dogs away. My own dogs plus a few of the neighbor dogs have stuck their nose on that wire, none of them have approached the run again.