Inexpensive Yet Safe Run Ideas

[FunClucks]

My husband bought me a 20x10 greenhouse that has an excellent PVC frame, a few years ago. He bought it around July - when they go on sale and only paid $220 for it - regularly $500. I did not like maintaining a greenhouse, and I needed another run so I took the cover off and covered the entire top, sides with 1/2 inch hardware cloth and after fastening below, continued along the ground 2-feet for an apron. I was considering using clear polycarbonate panels on top (I saw this guy do it on Youtube and it looked nice, but, I didn't do the best job making sure the hardware cloth was not sticking up. It is very secure, but, where it needed to be cut - I didn't do a good job. So, I went with a solar resistant tarp, and because I wanted more rain protection, I put a canopy over it to extend 2 feet longer than the sides.

I used house wrap (feed bags will also work as it's the same material oftentimes) to cover the areas where hardware cloth poked up. That way it didn't put holes in my transparent tarp. You can use Uposts or Tposts of various heights to secure the tarp over the greenhouse or hoop coop - this will give more ventilation and help catch breeze on hot humid days.

For one of my coops, I extended the tarp almost straight out from the top of the coop, and made a 3 ft overhang using 7 ft Tposts. Nice to walk around the coop and store stuff where the rain can't get it. I'm less than 6 ft tall, so it works.

 

[GCrumb]

My Dad, in wanting to help, had suggested a hoop building but it’d be huge- and because of the winds we get in the Fall and Winter, I (maybe not logically) am worried about it not being secure enough in the ground. He also suggested finding dog kennel panels on Marketplace, but I’d have to cover the fence with hardware cloth.

Mine doesn't weigh much, is metal frames with 1" square cage-mesh around the bottom two feet and chicken wire over the rest, and is not secured to the ground. After some number of years I might invite eight people over to pick it up at strategic points and move it, so I can make a garden bed where it is now. We get heavy winds. Something with a more solid wall or roof I'd secure by bolting it to steel t-posts driven deep.

Facebook marketplace and Craigslist often have interesting price differences and the market for secondhand stuff always has major local differences. Here, if you're patient, you can get all sorts of free or nearly-so metal frames -- carports, sun-shades, pergolas, trampolines. But dog-run panels are not cheap.

These are fun, but overpriced: https://makerpipe.com/ Or maybe it's a fair price just because they've the right fitting for whatever you want. There are ones like these that fit chain-link fence posts and top-rails but not as many types and those rails are more expensive than conduit.

 

[AnchoredHomestead]

My Dad got sick of waiting for a Marketplace deal and ordered a 10x19 run from Amazon. He foot the bill for that. So now I need to reinforce with hardware cloth (fully) and bricks. What is the best cost effective way to do this? Where have people found best deals on hardware cloth for that amount of space? This is turning into an expensive project quickly!
Are there other options of making it daily secure than hardware cloth? Electric fencing? What’s the opinion on that? Since they are locked into the coop at night they’d only be in the run in the day. Am I gambling their safety in the day if we do something other than hardware cloth?

 

[AnchoredHomestead]

Mine doesn't weigh much, is metal frames with 1" square cage-mesh around the bottom two feet and chicken wire over the rest, and is not secured to the ground. After some number of years I might invite eight people over to pick it up at strategic points and move it, so I can make a garden bed where it is now. We get heavy winds. Something with a more solid wall or roof I'd secure by bolting it to steel t-posts driven deep.

Facebook marketplace and Craigslist often have interesting price differences and the market for secondhand stuff always has major local differences. Here, if you're patient, you can get all sorts of free or nearly-so metal frames -- carports, sun-shades, pergolas, trampolines. But dog-run panels are not cheap.

These are fun, but overpriced: https://makerpipe.com/ Or maybe it's a fair price just because they've the right fitting for whatever you want. There are ones like these that fit chain-link fence posts and top-rails but not as many types and those rails are more expensive than conduit.

Do you have predator issues with that set up?

 

[NatJ]

My Dad got sick of waiting for a Marketplace deal and ordered a 10x19 run from Amazon. He foot the bill for that. So now I need to reinforce with hardware cloth (fully) and bricks. What is the best cost effective way to do this? Where have people found best deals on hardware cloth for that amount of space? This is turning into an expensive project quickly!
Are there other options of making it daily secure than hardware cloth? Electric fencing? What’s the opinion on that? Since they are locked into the coop at night they’d only be in the run in the day. Am I gambling their safety in the day if we do something other than hardware cloth?

If it does not have hardware cloth, what does the run have? That makes a big difference in what you need to add.

 

[AnchoredHomestead]

If it does not have hardware cloth, what does the run have? That makes a big difference in what you need to add.

It has wire mesh I think he said…so chicken wire?

 

[NatJ]

It has wire mesh I think he said…so chicken wire?

Chicken wire will slow down any predator, but will not completely stop most of them. A raccoon or a big dog might only be delayed for a minute or two, because they are strong enough to rip through quickly. A small dog might take longer to rip through the chicken wire, or it might just run back and forth and bark. A bird of prey might completely give up. A cat that was just mildly curious about the chickens might settle for staying outside the pen, instead of trying to rip through (but some other cat might be more determined, and get in anyway).

Yes, hardware cloth would work fine. It is a good option, that works agaist most predators in most cases, but it is not the ONLY option. Other options depend on things like what predators are in your area, and how long they would have to try to get in.

Electric fence plus chicken wire can work in some cases. The electric fence can zap any animal that tries to rip through the chicken wire, so they quit instead of ripping through. The chicken wire keeps the predator from running right over or through the electric fence, and it keeps the chickens inside the electric fence (because the fence does no good if the chickens are outside it!)

Depending on the size of predators, sometimes wire mesh with large holes and strong wires can be a good choice. 2" by 4" holes will keep out a dog or a fox, but of course a weasel or snake can go right through and a raccoon can reach through.

If you have a dog that lives in your yard, you have to keep it out of the chicken pen, but it might chase off any other animals that try to get in. Or your own dog might be the biggest predator. Or your dog might ignore a predator. It depends on the dog.

If you are always home, you could also consider a motion-sensing alarm that tells you if anything is moving near the chicken run. Most small predators, and some larger ones, will leave if you come outside. Of course, they might come back again and again, and you might get tired of chasing them away; and this does not work if you need to be away from home. So it's not a perfect solution, just one more possibility that might or might not work.

That's all the ideas I can think of right now, but I'm pretty sure others also exist.

 

[nuthatched]

I use tennax deer fencing and existing trees as posts. Still about $300 for the fencing.

 

[GCrumb]

Do you have predator issues with that set up?

I haven't.

At night the birds are shut into coops that are pretty predator-proof. They're inside the run and so far nothing has tried to rip in.

There are some stones and pavers around the run but digging under it would be pretty easy. Squirrels keep doing so. I'm sure a weasel (even the bigger kind that's larger than a stoat, and we have them around) could squirm in, and a skunk might manage it too. I would not trust this set-up with automatic pop-doors, one morning it'd open and let the predator in the run into the coops. But we haven't found anything in the run when we let the birds out in the morning YET.

Chicken wire is enough to stop birds of prey, which are the major thing in the neighborhood.

A raccoon can rip through chicken wire, but I don't think he can rip through chicken wire when he has to stand up on his hind legs and press himself against the cage-mesh to reach the chicken wire part.

I don't think foxes or coyotes could get through. A bear or a large dog might.

There is almost always somebody home, the run is near the house, there is a collie dog who keeps an eye on it and sounds off about intruders.