How to secure under a raised coop?

[m_shuman]

Our Coop is raised 24" off the ground. We were going to use that space as part of our run. Now DH says it is imposible to secure that area because there is no way he can bury the hardwire under this area of the coop. What have you done to secure this kind of areas in your raised coop?

 

[patandchickens]

You don't need to bury hardwarecloth. (Ever, really. Unless you are trying real hard to keep rats completely out. Which is nearly impossible and they will likely just find another way in ANYhow

)

Just do a good digproofing apron -- see other threads for instructions -- much easier, and very easy to retrofit to a low space since it's all on the OUTSIDE of the run fence.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[TouchO'Lass]

Quote:
What kind of predators do you have in your area? What type of "hardwire"? What kind of ground?
Depending on these factors, you could run pressure treated 2x4s (or 2x6s) horizontally around the base, attach your apron as pandc referenced, and if it can't be buried, perhaps cover it completely with gravel and heavy rocks?
Good Luck!

 

[dbounds10]

ours is raised 17 inches and it is part of our run, we just wrapped it in harware cloth with an apron. You can kind of see it in the picture below:

we screwed it to the legs and the bottom brace all the way around and attached it to the run at the front. There is a 1 foot apron all the way around.

 

[bufforphfan]

My coop is raised to about that heighth and my chickens hang out under the coop in the heat of the day. My run has a 2X4 base running around the perimeter, with non-climbable wire fencing attached. This arrangement was sufficient during the day, as there are no domestic dogs to worry about here. Most preditors are active during the night or near dusk or sunup hours (skunks, coons, coyotes). That is when your chickens are most vulnerable to attack, except for chicken hawks who will attack during the day, if they are out free-ranging. After a racoon got inside my coop at night, I installed 2 electric wires around the perimeter to help protect them at night. One wire is about 4" off the ground and the second wire is about 8" off the ground. My coop door is secured at night with a steel rod run through two pipe hangers attached to the coop, on both sides of the ramp door. I have not had any more trouble with night preditors. Once in a while a hawk will look the situation over and then fly away. A big crow landed outside the run and when it approached the run looking for feed, the wire zapped it and it flew off and hasn't been back. Good luck!

 

[m_shuman]

TouchO'Lass :

Quote:
What kind of predators do you have in your area? What type of "hardwire"? What kind of ground?
Depending on these factors, you could run pressure treated 2x4s (or 2x6s) horizontally around the base, attach your apron as pandc referenced, and if it can't be buried, perhaps cover it completely with gravel and heavy rocks?
Good Luck!

We have coons and opossum and now and then a lost humting dog wanders into the yard. We are using 1/4" by 1/4" hardwire cloth and our ground is hard dirt for about 4" then it is dense GA clay.​

 

[m_shuman]

Quote:
We are burying the hardware cloth around the run to keep digging predators out. We have covered our entire run with it. We used a finish nailer with staples to secure it to the 2x4 frame and then nailed 1x2's over the seams on the frame.

 

[tanyizzle]

You can see what we did in our coop thread

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=509288

We're going to be adding 18 inches of hardware cloth flat on the ground (staked in flat on the ground) attached to the 2x7's that run the perimeter as well.

 

[romadfox]

I staked in poultry net and back filled with clay and big stones. The ground is litterally laced with tree roots too. I could barely dig the trenches it was so difficult. I am also using Solar Nite Eyes to scare off night time predators. You can see them at http://www.solarniteeyes.com/.