I really love my 3 hens and 1 rooster and want them to be as happy/comfortable as possible. Their coop is pretty small though and with the days being so short there isn't a whole lot of daylight when I'm home during the week to let them out into their run. What I want now is to have their run, a new 10x10x6 kennel, secure enough that I can just leave their coop door open and let them come and go as they please with no predator concerns. They will be completely on their own for at least 8 hours at a time so any predator that comes around will have all the time in the world to work at getting in so this thing would need to be very secure. What I currently have is just the kennel with a top that is only really meant for shade and a little bit of weather control. For now I've added deer netting to the sides of the top to make it secure against any flying predators. Around the outside of the kennel I have an electric fence set up that's around 2 1/2 - 3 ft tall (4 strands of wire). I'm already planning on wrapping the bottom 3 ft of the kennel in hardware cloth and to bury at least a foot of it below. I also want to further secure the top of the kennel - most likely by adding additional kennel fence panels to the top (under the shade cover) so that the whole thing will be closed. I'd really appreciate any tips/ideas on making this thing as predator proof as possible. I'd love to have real peace of mind when I leave and they're running around in the kennel.
I'm also thinking about upgrading the electric fence - does anyone have thoughts on if electric netting is better than wire? I'm at least going to add a 5th wire and take it up to around 4 ft...
Photo of current set up:
I'm also thinking about upgrading the electric fence - does anyone have thoughts on if electric netting is better than wire? I'm at least going to add a 5th wire and take it up to around 4 ft...
Photo of current set up: