Keeping Out Predators!

[Matejka]

Should cloth be placed on the sides on the bottom of the pen? if the application is the bottom, how do you rake the area clean?

A hardware cloth "apron" goes on the outside of run. Generally up the sides then out and pinned down or buried 18 inches or so.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/hredirect2.php?c=5629704

 

[CalBickieMomma]

I also recommend hardware cloth and also sink it in about a foot beneath the bottom of the perimeter of the run (and coop if you can - I cut some about 18” deep and dug a 12” trench on the inside of the coop - it sits on dirt - and staple gunned the remaining 6” against the wood frame). Sinking it in the ground will help prevent predators from digging under. I also hog ringed everything well and patched up any holes or cracks in the wood with cut pieces of hardware cloth. The only things that have gotten in have been mice and gophers.

 

[Carwile Chicks]

Thx for the great questions. I will take pics and post once I have everything.

 

[cmom]

Since you will have a small flock the suggestions you have been given are good. Everyone is different with different situations. I maintain around 200 hundred birds so those ideas don't work for me. I have electric wires around my coops and pens, concrete under the gates and good heavy duty netting covering my pens all due to losses from predators in the past. Lessons learned the hard way. Good luck and have fun...
http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/tips-for-protecting-poultry-from-predators