Run Expansion Advice

[Tooshay89]

This is where we bought all of our black coated hardware cloth:

http://www.wadavidson.com/

I have some pens that are ten years old. The coated wire on the vertical surfaces is still in perfect condition. The wire on my tractor roof hasn't fared quite so well: the PVC has gotten scraped off in places and the wire below has rusted. But that wire has been exposed to the full sun for a decade, so I guess that's the difference.

Thanks so much! We're about 2 hours south of Jacksonville, so we could probably just pick it up and save shipping. It's still about $1k in wire, but really it's only $350 more than the non coated wire, so I'd rather have the coated.

 

[Jack Speese]

I've found "turkey wire" to be a good compromise. Hardware cloth is ideal but it is expensive and I think very hard to work with. Turkey wire has bigger mesh (fine for adult birds) and is cheaper, lighter in weight, and easy to work with, and it is a lot more durable than chicken wire and won't rust like chicken wire. Making a hardware cloth skirt is an excellent idea. If you have chicks, it will keep them in.

 

[aart]

I've found "turkey wire" to be a good compromise.

What exactly is "turkey wire"?
Wire gauge and hole shape and size???

 

[21hens-incharge]

I've found "turkey wire" to be a good compromise. Hardware cloth is ideal but it is expensive and I think very hard to work with. Turkey wire has bigger mesh (fine for adult birds) and is cheaper, lighter in weight, and easy to work with, and it is a lot more durable than chicken wire and won't rust like chicken wire. Making a hardware cloth skirt is an excellent idea. If you have chicks, it will keep them in.

Is it this?

http://www.greschlers.com/48-turkey-wire-per-ft/

 

[aart]

Is it this?

http://www.greschlers.com/48-turkey-wire-per-ft/

Ah, same as someone else suggested.

 

[Tooshay89]

Official run expansion started today! And the best part is, we hired our fence guy to do it, since he actually knows what he's doing... and me, not so much. I ended up just ordering regular hardware cloth for the entire run. I really wanted the black PVC coated HWC for aesthetic purposes, but with almost double the cost, it just wasn't worth it.

The "final" design is a total of 50 x 50 run space, including the covered run that's already there. At 10 sq ft per chicken, I told my husband that I could theoretically have 250 birds! He about fainted before I told him my coop only holds about 20 birds total. So that was fun.

I'm hoping it'll be finished by this weekend, and I know the chickens are going to really enjoy the extra, safer space.

 

[aart]

So that was fun.

Will it have a roof..solid or mesh...around those trees?

 

[Tooshay89]

Will it have a roof..solid or mesh...around those trees?

No roof, I bought this thick aviary netting from Stromberg's for the top. I had a lesser quality netting above the temporary run expansion before, and we cut slits in it to go around the trees. It worked pretty well. Lots of zip ties.

I'll have to do some research, but maybe an electric wire close to the top could provide some extra protection as well? I'm not sure.

https://www.strombergschickens.com/product/1-Inch-Heavy-Duty-Game-Bird-Netting/poultry-netting

 

[aart]

No roof, I bought this thick aviary netting from Stromberg's for the top.

So, mesh roof!

 

[julskinka]

Hi! I've been following along because I'm currently designing a run expansion that looks similar to yours - down to needing to go around a tree. How did yours end up? Can you post some final photos?

Cheers!