Runs - Burying wire vs enclosing the bottom

[bobbieschicks]

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That's a great run - very much what I was thinking about doing - especially the sand part. Did you have the overlapping areas of the hardware cloth secured together as well or is that not necessary? I thought about zip ties to connect the overlap but I'll skip it if I can.

 

[oneofseven]

Quote:
Off the subject, but thanks for the mealworm info.

 

[debid]

Our soil is full of huge rocks. I went with an apron method. I used a roll of galvanized wire and basically sewed it all together -- apron to walls and the overlap at the corners. Mine extends out 2' because I cut a 4' wide piece of fencing in half to make the apron. I put it on top of the ground where there are rocks and dug down a couple of inches where there aren't. I used some big metal staples I'd made from scrap pieces to hold it down while I buried the fencing. I then covered the dirt areas with the dirt I'd dug, the low areas got some extra fill dirt, and the rocky areas are covered with more big rocks. It turned out pretty natural-looking and once the vegetation grows back, you won't be able to tell it's there at all.

There's no keeping snakes out for us. I let the chickens range and leave the coop door open pretty much all day so it seems pointless to try to keep them out. Instead, the coop is on legs and I mounted the nest boxes to the wall so a snake will really have to work for an egg. The chick issue I solved by using a separate brooder box that was snake-proof until they were too large for a snake to eat. In the future, I'd like to let a broody raise a batch so I'll build another mini-coop for that and make that one more secure.

 

[henovergal]

Thank you everyone.

You all made valid comments and gave solid advice. Shortly after I posted, dh and I realized the dirt bath would have been an issue, but we hadn't yet gotten to the potential difficulty of keeping the wire floor from becoming a cleaning issue.

Many thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

[CupOJoe42]

Question about the apron for people with a walk-in run....

What do you do about the front of the people walk-in door entrance to your run? I understand you have an apron of hardware cloth all around the outside of the run, but if you have a people entrance to the run, how to you make an apron there if the door opens and closes? Hopefully this question makes sense. I'm not talking about the pop door for the chickens to enter the run from the coop, I'm talking about the door you would use to enter the run.