How secure is your run?

[snoggle]

So the 6 x 8 coop we are building should be pretty secure from nighttime predators. However, my husband thinks that a few t-posts and some hardware cloth will be find for the run they will be in during the daytime. I disagree and would like to build a run that is covered and has hardware cloth buried a foot or so around it.

We live in rural NE Ohio. Dogs really aren't a major issue on our road. It is a VERY busy state route and dogs don't live too long if they are loose (Sadly, I know this personally.). The area I'm planning on putting the coop and run in is very open, but I could put their run under one of our big maples if that would offer some protection from hawks, etc. I think I'd still feel better with a covered run. Plus, I'm a little concerned about large branches falling from the trees since they are pretty old. Any thoughts?

Are there any other daytime predators that I need to think about?

Am I being overly concerned, or is my husband just being overly cheap?

 

[FireTigeris]

Here's mine:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/album/view/id/6177963/user_id/44847

1/4 inch hardware cloth all around and vinyl 'flooring' http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/cat...d=10051&catalogId=10053&Ns=None&Ntpr=1&Ntpc=1

my run is fully floored and covered (and was expensive)

If I were to do it over I would seek out recycling centers for materials.

 

[Gargoyle]

My run is on an 8 x 20' concrete pad (so nothing can burrow under; it has corrugated galvanized metal all around two feet up and then chain link, with hardware cloth covering the upper part where it connects to a roof. The roof is a mix of plywood and corrugated transparent poly panels, with screening over the panels. Basically no openings bigger than 2" x 2", and nothing that a raccoon can take apart in a single night (and I walk around it almost every day to look for damage, so that if a coon tries a multi-night approach I'm likely to spot the attempt).

I'm not paranoid, the raccoons are just spreading nasty rumors that I'm paranoid because they are out to get me.

 

[bj taylor]

my coop is very secure, but the run is open topped. it's odd shaped & quite large. tomorrow we're going to suspend shade cloth overhead w/the west side lower & the east side higher for shade as well as hiding the babies from hawks. time will tell if this is sufficient to keep them safe.

 

[snoggle]

The run will have a dirt floor since I plan on putting my compost pile in there, so that the chickens can "turn" it for me. It will have to be a pretty big run in order to have room for the compost heap and for me to get in there with a wheelbarrow, etc.One of my main reasons for getting chickens is to use them as garden helpers. That's why I figured the buried hardware cloth would be my best protection against digging predators.

I like the recycled materials idea.

Any other ideas?

 

[FireTigeris]

I have dirt on top of the flooring, it works fine like that- I have rabbits and ducks and doves in there.

The HW cloth will rust, and quicker due to the heat/acidity/alkali of the compost.

The apron is outside the pen needs to be 3 feet deep and three feet out- this keeps weasels, dogs,foxes and coons from trying too hard.

 

[Gargoyle]

one thing with the compost pile, watch out for moldy fruit and such, the mold is bad for the chickens.

 

[speckledhen]

Agreed, we fence off the compost pile from the chickens. Have lost one to sour crop from eating moldy feed at the base of the pile of shavings/poop from the coop when the pile was bulging against the fenced area. Two contracted it and we saved one-the other was in hard molt and didn't survive.

We use 2x4" welded wire on steel U-posts, then wrap the bottom with hardware cloth and bend and "apron" outward, cover that with rocks or pavers. Only one of our pens is covered, the bantam pen--here is a picture. As long as the coop itself is predator proof and you put them in before dark and lock the door tight, the fence doesn't have to be tight enough to keep out night time predators.

 

[dawg53]

I have welded wire layered with chicken wire as an apron going around my pens. A truckload of dirt shoveled over it and the grass grows right through it. The only thing that can get in my pens are snakes. Too expensive to use hardware cloth all around my pens. However, my coops are impenatrable.

 

[FireTigeris]

Pictures Dawg53?