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.

 

[msmidwick]

I have had chickens off and on for 30 years. We got real tired of predators taking my chickens and ducks. We have a 'fortress' now as my daughter calls it. Chainlink walls and top. 2' hardware cloth surrounding the outside of the walls so they cannot dig under my fortress! I understand Mother Nature and all that, but I am responsible for these birds and I cry every time a raccoon or possum, or bobcat, coyote gets one day or night. They are secure now and we can sleep at night!!

 

[AuntiePatriciaUSA]

The first thing I did when I started building my coop was to lay down hardware cloth. Then I added lots of small smooth rocks over it. Why? Because I've seen several varieties of snakes in my yard - and in my old coop - the nesting boxes, even. My land is riddled with holes from gophers, moles, voles, snakes. My new coop is cattle panels curved over 8'X8' 2x4s, then covered with hardware cloth. The door is covered with hardware cloth, and the places where hardware cloth pieces/panels meet are secured with a sturdy aluminum wire inserted into both pieces, then twisted with a wrench until very tight. I have three locking carabiners on the door which go into eye-bolts. I feel very good every evening when I tuck them inside, knowing they can't be touched by 'hostile forces'. I've lost WAY too many chickens to be casual about their safety. They are only two months old but they too are very careful about their own safety.

 

[GardenDmpls]

It may be that domestic animals have been bred to become more vulnerable to predators, but even wild animals are preyed upon. Predators are eating wildlife for most of their meals. Whether you are raising domestic chickens or wild pheasants or guinea hens, they are going to be preyed upon unless you give them some protection.

 

[Campshappy]

I have a coop without a run so we are constructing one ourselves. In our area (Long Island NY) there are lots of predators--raptors, racoons, possums, fox, etc.

My assumption is that hawks are the only thing I am worried about during daylight hours. If that is a good assumption, I feel like I do not need to wrap the run on the bottom with hardware cloth. Just the sides and top. The birds will get closed in their coop at night.

If I am wrong and the other predators pose a real risk in daylight, then I should wrap it in hardware cloth...right? Is it best to just wrap it anyway?

We have had owls in the morning.. one picked the lock of my silkie/ baby enclosure and we found him in there mid morning scared of the tiniest bantam rooster I ever had. Little Millie fleur frizzle. That being said we have lost many during the day to foxes and I have come back from just a walk or picking my daughter up from school to find plastic dipped chicken wire ripped and I have photographic evidence wasn’t ripped just before. No clue what ripped it. Around 2 pm

 

[Folly's place]

Many critters can tear chicken wire, it's useless using it to protect poultry.
Mary