Netting over Run

[NewEgger72]

We are about to complete our coop and are now ready to start building our run. I plan to eventually have our girls free range but I do want to have a safe and secure place for when we are out of town and relying on others to keep an eye on our flock. I have seen pics of runs that have some type of netting material over the top to protect against the winged predators. What type of netting is this and where can it be purchased?

Secondly, is electric fence a good deterrent for digging predators? Rather than burying hardware cloth I thought it might be easier to put some hot wire along the bottom of the run. It seems to work very well at keeping my digging dogs in the backyard. Thoughts? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! I've used chicken wire over the run, and netting would work too. It won't keep raccoons out, but they are usually a problem at night. Electric really can't be very close to the ground without hitting plants or sagging to the earth. It also will kill frogs and toads who contact it, a very sad thing. Do the hardware cloth apron, with pavers over it, rather than digging a trench. Mary

 

[NewEgger72]

I think my main concern is of course the birds of prey. Our girls will be locked up at night when some of the other pesky predators make their appearance. I am super excited to get them into their coop.

I have never had an issue with frogs on my electric fence. Good point though. I was considering the apron instead of the trench and bury method.

 

[jenniferrose]

We just finished ours up this past weekend. We got some deer type netting at Home Depot and used zip ties to attach to the top of the chicken wire. Worked nicely. Our sides go up about 5-6 feet with chicken wire so we too were mainly worried about birds of prey.

 

[Mahlzeit]

http://shilala.homestead.com/Netting.html

That's where I got my netting a number of years ago and it has been great. Lasted through a lot of wet heavy snow where it was weighed down and as soon as I knocked the snow off it bounced right back up.

 

[Rowsdower]

I use "fruit tree netting". You can buy it at most farm stores/garden centers.