How secure is your run?

[Mikee1948]

Fox in the daytime, coons in the night. I've lost chicks to both. If you're not locking them in at night, every night, you will need to use hardware cloth. Raccoons will reach through a chicken wire fence and rip their heads off. They will also climb a fence and get into your run and coop. Hence, I have a mesh fence over the run. I had a raccoon squeeze through a 3x5 inch opening.

 

[dawg53]

Pictures Dawg53?

It's buried under the grass, wanna pic of the grass lol?

 

[FireTigeris]

Well if you want to show off your coop or anything...

I' sure your grass is beautiful-

My yard is like:

"What's grass?"

 

[dawg53]

Well if you want to show off your coop or anything...

I' sure your grass is beautiful-

My yard is like:

"What's grass?"

Come on up and I'll show you!

 

[Nslangton]

I hope our run is very secure. It is built between a paved walk, paved driveway, and two buildings. We dug a two foot deep trench around the perimeter and buried hardware cloth that far down even under the buildings. We filled about a foot with stone and then dirt on top. The top is covered with hardware cloth also. Predators would have to dig under the driveway, walk, or building before they could even reach the hardware cloth. We have every predator known to man. Fox, Hawks, Eagles, Owls, Coons, Possums, Coyotes, Weasels, etc. We live in the middle of a state park on Mink Road and the creek that runs through the back yard is Mink Run. So needless to say we also have Minks.

 

[FireTigeris]

Come on up and I'll show you!

*looks at location* well it's not like it's going to be far...

 

[Newchicks1]

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.

What type of piping did you use on / between your t posts?

 

[Newchicks1]

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.

What type of piping did you use on your t posts?

 

[speckledhen]

It's just various sizes of PVC pipe. I don't recall the sizes since that building is no longer a chicken coop and the pen was dismantled.