Out foxing Foxy Loxy.

[Trio]

I live in a small country town, we have a back yard that has 8ft colourbond fencing on 3 sides and wire on the fourth that is mostly covered in ivy.
We have had many fox attack before and lost our 3 isa browns. Recently we have gotten 4 polish bantams. They are in the same coop but it has been upgraded to have wooden walls and a wooden doors. The floor is still open. I'm not worried about day attacks being in town, but those crafty foxes at night. If I cover the floor with chicken wire and leave a skirt of chicken wire say 40cm out from the edge of the coop would that be enough to stop them digging under? How fast can they chew through chicken wire? Would two layers of the wire be stronger? I lock them up every night.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I would use stronger wire for the skirt. It doesn't have to be hardware cloth, just a welded wire mesh similar to hog wire.
You don't need to cover the floor. That would prevent the chickens from scratching and if they did, they could end up with bumble foot.
Foxes around here are afoot during the day.

 

[Trio]

Okay I'll leave the wire out from the inside. I've never heard of bumble foot. I let the chickens out everyday to free range so protecting the run bit as well seems abit moot. But that coop part will be Fort Knox!

 

[Trio]

Just thinking pavers around the outside edge would look nice. And just dig the wire into the ground in between the coop and run. And at the back in the fenced yard. Hmmm.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yeah, the pavers over the wire would be a good idea. One of my coops is a similar setup. It's a repurposed chain link dog kennel with some bird netting attached to keep most wild birds out but there's a gap between its roof and the coop roof that raccoons etc. can get into but the coop is solid and they get locked in at night.

Bumble foot comes from a wound in the foot pad that gets infected and is difficult to heal.