Run/ wood choice?

[R Wind]

I'm thinking of making a bunch of 6ft by 3ft panels, using a wooden frame with overlapping butt joints and hardware cloth stapled on the frame. Think an old fashioned screen door, but maybe lighter weight. We'll make a good many and assemble them into a run attached to the coop.

Can I get by with 1x2's cut out of my old cedar fence pickets as the material for the frame? Do I need to use 2x lumber or double up the 1x2's or go to 1x3's?

What's strong enough?

Thinking t-posts but I also have a bunch of old 5ft long 4x4 posts.

We're trying to skip the painful learning experiences of losing our flock to predators by building sufficiently to begin with. But I also try to repurpose...

 

[21hens-incharge]

I used old fence pickets to cover the edges on this one. I recommend 2x4 for strength and durability for the construction of the panels. Pickets are great for covering the edges though.

 

[mowin]

My local home Depot sells 2x3. It's probably the smallest I'd use. If you plan on putting a roof on the run, I'd go 2x4 with 4x4 corner posts. I'd also use PT for the bottom board as it will be in contact with the ground.

 

[Silexian]

Cedar can be pretty brittle. It wouldn’t take a very hard accidental bump to break a 1x2. I would use 2x4s myself. Which would be less likely to split when fastening. Plus make a more durable lap joint.

 

[R Wind]

Thanks all for the cautions about using smaller bits of old cedar. We did hear you all -- stronger is better. Does anything I say below modify that today?

I didn't say, I was trying to make this run enclosure so we might disassemble and move it to a new location in future. The whole coop is movable in panels. (Would have to take apart the roof into two parts - coop and lean-to.)

[Photo is attached; while in progress. The temp support under the lean-to has been replaced with a 4x4 post and beam. I hope the coop itself is pretty secure. For the moment we've wrapped the concrete piers with chicken wire just to keep the chickens out from under there while they are out in the temp run.]

I wanted lighter weight panels to make this run -- but as I said, not predator-easy. (Plus, the big box stores are closed today on our first sunny day to work outside. We only have a temp run built with some chicken wire on greenhouse frames at the moment. I was planning to buy new thicker cedar fence pickets and rip them to make these frames. I do have a bunch of pallets with some pretty good oak in them. )

Meanwhile if I can't buy wood today, let me learn what I can.

I realize we'll have to make it dig-proof somehow, with a skirt or digging in a barrier.

If we were to sandwich the hardware cloth edges between two fence boards or maybe rip the fence boards and make a sandwich, and if we then are screwing the panels made this way into a 4x4 bottom plate or into a bottom plate formed of old bed rails to stiffen... what of all that might give me some panels to form a run against one wall of the coop today?

We haven't decided whether to:
-- make a covered run under the lean-to and put in a pop door on that side that's always open. Or to:
-- attach a three-sided and covered run over the current pop door.

Or some combination of that. We'd already co-opted the lean-to, installed a closed-edge pallet, and started to store trashcans of feed and bedding and fertilizing stuff.

We are thinking:
-- We'll put a different temp tractor over a new section of row garden and plan to transport chickens over there for the mo on good days to let them work the ground for us some and give them some entertainment and a change of venue.
-- So this is mainly for a safe place they can come and go from the coop by themselves.
-- We thought we'd move food and water out under this covered attached run.
-- We bought an electric net fence to enclose the entire coop and yard - but didn't realize we'd need a separate gate for the electric net fence.

 

[Acre4Me]

I think making moveable panels could be fine. We built some doors to the run with sandwiched 1x2 fencing between the wood and screwing then together. The doors are heavy. PT wood. We then placed posts every 4’, and sandwiched same wire between and then 18-20” deep. In your case the panels will need to be made, then the anti-dig portion added separate. Often, this is an apron that lays on the ground about 18”-2’ and goes up the side about 18”. Grass grows up between the fence and if it’s attached to the ground (landscape staples?) it should stay flat and can be mowed over.

Your panels will be strengthened with some kind of bracing, like a screen door would be.

Good luck

 

[mowin]

I'd definitely sandwich the HC, or use fender washer's with screws.

I'd put the run on the side with the pop door. If you put it on the backside, the run off from the rain might give you issues.

 

[R Wind]

Thanks again. Are deep flat ground-level aprons of wire around a run wholly reliable? [ I was looking at "CarolinaCoops.com" - ritzy coops -- and they use an apron on their installations. ]

 

[R Wind]

I'd definitely sandwich the HC, or use fender washer's with screws.

I'd put the run on the side with the pop door. If you put it on the backside, the run off from the rain might give you issues.

"Backside?" I meant using the area actually under the lean-to as an attached run. It's already covered, we'd just have to put panels on 3 sides, an anti-dig barrier, and open another pop door on that side of the coop.

If the lean-to is the best way to enclose an attached/covered run for their food and water and some freedom to come and go outside when we're not there to let them out, we'll make a different lean-to for storage. The lean-to was an afterthought just because we had the metal. But after it was there, I thought, it could make an enclosed run.

 

[mowin]

"Backside?" I meant using the area actually under the lean-to as an attached run. It's already covered, we'd just have to put panels on 3 sides, an anti-dig barrier, and open another pop door on that side of the coop.

If the lean-to is the best way to enclose an attached/covered run for their food and water and some freedom to come and go outside when we're not there to let them out, we'll make a different lean-to for storage. The lean-to was an afterthought just because we had the metal. But after it was there, I thought, it could make an enclosed run.

Well, I'm calling the tall side the front, the short side the back. I personally wouldn't put the run off the front as you would be enclosing the man door. Doing so would require you to enter the run to access the coop, unless there's a man door on the backside.

Yes, predator aprons are very effective. Predators with dig close to the wall and doesn't know to back up a foot or two.