predators digging under run door?

sydney13

Songster
Mar 11, 2010
1,364
23
204
Massachusetts
im going to build the run now and i will have hardwear cloth 1 ft under it but i was wondering if you cover the hole run couldn't somthing just dig under the door on the run? ive read to put the run door a few inches of the ground so its easy to open but couldn't something get through that? do you guys bury hardware cloth under the door or do you put a skirt around or just leave it?
 
I am getting ready to build a run too and my plan is to put down a threshold at the door of flagstone or pavers that can not be dug into. probably extend it out 24 inches and look kind of like a entry porch for the run.
 
I bury the long double celled cinder blocks across the threshold long ways down across all my run gate. Turn them so it's solid cement facing out and you're good. My gates come down to about an inch or less from the top of the cinderblock threshhold so nothing larger than a rodent can get in. My friend did a double row of blocks with the back row raised about 2 inches so her door closed against the second row of blocks and not even a rat could get in.
 
Just lay some hardware cloth or fence wire on the ground under the door so it extends a foot and a half or so on either side.

Cover with enough dirt so grass can grow up through it and they can't dig in
 
I have a welded wire skirt around my coop to prevent digging in, but at the door I have a yield sign buried slightly under the dirt. It's solid metal so nothin diggin in that, and it doesn't stick up and trip me like sometimes the fence does.

My original idea was to bury something (wood, tin, fence, pavers...) straight down, but I'm not so much for diggin and the yield sign idea was just one of those "idea moments" ya know. So far it's working
smile.png
 
Dig the hardware cloth in like you did around the rest of the pen and simply lay concrete pavers on top flush with the soil around it. Mount the gate with a 1/4 inch gap. You can always lower the paver if the gate sags. You can build a small paver row behind it to the gate stops there. May not be necessary.
 
I have hardware cloth buried underground all the way around with 2X6 put in outside of that underground to keep out predators. For the threshold we have the same 2x6 buried underground and it comes up just to the bottom of the doorway. It has never rubbed together with the door, but I like the idea of using concrete blocks.
 
Hello I put 2x4 bracing all the way around the run at the bottom including the door.you just have to step over the 2x4 to get in.it's just like a threshold.Then I dug a trench 18 inches down and 18 inches out and place the chicken wire down the in the trench and rolled it up and stapled it to the 2x4's at the bottom of the run so if any critter tries to dig under any part of the run it would have to dig 18inches down and 18inches back to get under the wire.I have had a couple diggers but they gave up after about 12 inches down.Good luck!!
JIM&LINDY
 
I've thought about & will probably bury wire around my coop & run as well.. but I've wondered... how long do you think, that wire will last.. before it rusts away to the point that it's useless?

Thanks!
 

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