Logistics - is a fully enclosed run necessary?

[Whaler]

I dont have much experience, but I think its really up to the individual and how much you are willing to risk.
I have 4 hens in a fenced in area on the side of my house with no overhead protection. They get locked in their coop promptly at dusk and 99% of the time they are directly supervised when freeranging. We are in ky and have allll the predators plus errant dogs.
I am comfortable with this level of risk because I know my hens enjoy the extra space and freedom, and so do I.

I have browsed this board a lot and what I have seen is.... a chicken is never safe. Do all the fencing and skirting and electrifying you want, but a hungry animal will find the smallest weakness and exploit it. If not a raccoon or fox, it'll be a mink or a snake. If not that, it'll be an accident. If not that, it'll be a disease or a member of their own flock scalping, spurring, or plucking them.

If you are a one in a million owner it will be none of the above. But everything eats a chicken, and they are very prone to tragedy. Thats just my opinion. Do what you think is right.

Now that sounds like great advice....

 

[StinkyAcres]

Thanks everyone for your perspectives and experience. Some locals here have warned that if you do not enclose the run in hardware cloth that predators will dig, so I don't know if an apron is going to be sufficient. We'll have to cover with pine shavings to protect their feet. And while I cannot depend on free ranging consistently due to personal constraints, we do have a portable run that will act as a tractor here and there when we are outside and can be on the watch for and scare off raptors and daytime predators. And we may try free ranging after our property gets a proper fence.

Thank you all again for the feedback! happy to hear more

I'm sorry, but pine shavings will not protect their feet. Like I said, chickens dig, and they can dig big holes if they wanted, almost as deep as they are tall. If you insist on covering the floor with hardware cloth maybe bury it a foot deep, cover with pavers, then place dirt and run litter on top.

 

[Tib]

A 2 foot 1/4" hardware cloth apron around the enclosure covered with something - I prefer drainage rock/concrete rock as it's pretty cheap and easy to get in bags. I would not mesh or rocks under the run itself, you're going to have a much higher chance of foot problems doing that.

And they dig like crazy, mine have dug down over 6 inches which is below the exterior apron.

If something wants to rip through that stuff after digging through the rocks, not much was stopping them. I have a hard time removing it with tools. The drainage rock is pretty good at settling and staying put too.

 

[chooki]

If you use wide enough wire mesh/hardware clothes apron on the outside of the enclosure, i.e. 3.3 feet/1 meter wide, you should not have any problem with predators digging through, unless you are not on the property for more than a few days at a time.

It takes time for predators to dig through that meter, if you check your coop regularly, you will see all the efforts that other animals make before they can get through.

I have seen some digging marks on the farm, but just underneath the fence and not more than half a meter. Rats dig tunnels to get in my chicken coop to steal the feed. They have enough time, because the farm is unmanned a few days at a time. Those tunnels are less than half a meter long - the bare minimum to get in (I use pallets together with wire mesh for the coop, so the coop wall is quite thick).

I have 0.8m wide wire mesh apron outside the coop, but the holes are too big, roughly 2.5 inch/6.35 cm by 2.5 inch/6.35 cm, rats can get through those holes. They normally choose a hole closest to the wall before start digging.

We have foxes and wild dogs in the area, none of them seem to show any interest in digging more than a meter to get to the chickens .. I mean roosters in that coop.

 

[ChaosMom]

I’ll repeat one thing that is counter-intuitive to many beginners, including me:

Do NOT put rocks, bricks, blocks, etc. along the outer edge of your apron. Digging predators start their holes at these obstacles, so they’re essentially a big sign that says “start here.”

If you feel that you must somehow weigh down the apron in addition to the landscape staples anchoring it to the ground, put the rocks etc right next to the run wall. A digger will start digging there, a few inches from the run wall, and immediately hit hardware cloth.