run door/predator question

[midwife mama]

So I'm planning my run design and materials, the space is already more or less defined by existing structures, and I'm thinking about how I am going to bury my fencing deep to prevent predators. I think this is wise since I live in Montana and we have plenty of arial as well as land based predators. But in thinking about the door design I run into trouble. What is the point of burying all my fencing only to have a door that opens out (and cannot contain buried fencing). I need to have a door into the run because the coop does not have a person sized door leading into the run and I need to be able to get in there and clean, play with the chickens (kids) etc. There must be a simple solution to this dilemma that I am overlooking? THANKS!

 

[rubyrogue]

Run hardware cloth behind and under the door the prevent digging then when you open the door you will have to step over the wire but the door sits flush with it.

 

[Humhill]

You can also put a couple boards under the door, so it's raised off the ground a little, then attach the wire to the boards. That way, you have something solid to step over rather than wire.

 

[Doopy]

I get the feeling that you feel that the hardware cloth of fencing must be buried in the vertical position. 'taint so. Under my gate into the run I have a 3 ft. x 4 ft. piece of chainlink fencing laying flat on the ground. About 1 ft. is inside the run and the rest (about 2 ft.) is outside the run. My gate is 4 ft. wide. This fencing is covered with about 2 or 3 inches of top soil and grass is growing just fine. No body would ever know the fencing is there until they try to dig down into the soil just outside the gate. A predator would have to back up about 2 ft. away from the gate to start digging. They don't have that much smarts. You can apply this concept all the way around your coop and run. And you don't have to use chainlink fencing either. Galvanized hardware cloth works very well. Does this clear up any confusion?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

What is the point of burying all my fencing

There's really no point in burying any of it.

A piece laid flat on the ground will stop digging just as well as a piece buried 2 ft deep, and stops them BEFORE they actually dig the hole.

Just put enough dirt on top so grass will grow up through it​

 

[goldnchocolate]

Quote:
Having the door raised up, a bit, is also good if you get snow in the winter. It gives you more clearance to open it when the snow/ice is built up.

 

[elmo]

I was worried about the same thing. In my first run, I built a wooden sill all the way around on the inside of the door frame so that the door fits tightly inside it. Then I put a latch on both the top and the bottom of the door.

My second run has a similar approach, only this time I used a higher door sill on the bottom. You can see pictures on my BYC page.

Oh, and I do have an apron of wire in front of the doors, laid flat on the ground, just as I do around the rest of the runs.

 

[sillybirds]

I made a threshold for my run door out of a piece of landscaping railroad tie. To that I attached the apron, made of the same galvanized fencing material as the run, which extends outward from the railroad tie threshold, as it does all around the entire run. You can't see all of the apron at the doorway as it's covered by concrete stepping stones at the entrance. (Note: the second railroad tie which is above the threshold itself was placed there later as the chickens were digging all of the dirt from the hillside run and it was pushing up against the door.)