Should we put Hardware cloth floor of RUN???

[Mamatomany123]

@aart your thread is an eye opener my chickens did dig a lot but they filled the holes back in when they started digging eleswhere
My only concern with an apron is for the same reason others have said about having it under the run if you chickens don't spend all their time in the run and free range outside of it surely they run a bigger risk of hurting their feet I'm just a bit confused on which is a better option?

My chickens dont hang out around their run when they free range. They wonder the rest of the yard.

 

[aart]

did dig a lot but they filled the holes back in when they started digging eleswhere

They do!

and free range outside of it surely they run a bigger risk of hurting their feet I'm just a bit confused on which is a better option?

I don't free range but @Mamatomany123 has answered your question.

My chickens dont hang out around their run when they free range. They wonder the rest of the yard.

 

[MVchickens]

I highly recommend hardware cloth on the floor of the run! I covered the floor (and the walls and roof) of my 8x12 run with 1/2" hardware cloth and it has been great! No predator concerns, no rats, no mice. It is no problem to clean out with a shovel as the wire is tight enough for it to glide across (normally have about 6" of soil on top).

 

[FeatherLace]

I put chicken wire on the bottom of mine, and have so far had no problems. Have had two different dogs try to dig in and fail to do so, so I think its doing its job. I have hardware cloth on the bottom of my brooder in the heating area though to keep in a bit more heat at night, and nothing has been able to push through or tear through it to get the chicks either, so I'd say go for it

 

[candlearo12]

Hi there, building our coop right now. (Just posted on coop thread).

We are trying to decide if the run should have hardware cloth on floor then put 6” of dirt etc on top or just the apron on outside of run?

Thanks bunches!

You should be good with the skirting just make sure if you live around racoons, they really determined and can rip hardware cloth right of the side of your coop. I would double layer it.

 

[starlight849]

Hi there, building our coop right now. (Just posted on coop thread).

We are trying to decide if the run should have hardware cloth on floor then put 6” of dirt etc on top or just the apron on outside of run?

Thanks bunches!

I live in the woods of TN. Surrounded by 200 acres of forrest that I own and next to some of the largest nature preserves in the country. Needless to say we have all sort of predators... coyotes, fox, raccoon, bobcat, you name it. My coops are tarter dog kennels covered in hardware cloth... as far as on the ground, I did a skirt. Basically laid hardware cloth on the ground outside of the coop about a foot and a half out. Lay it right on top of the grass and you secure it with the loop type tent stakes... you can buy them from Walmart. Nothing can dig under because they will hit the cloth going down.... if you do it inside it may work but they would have leverage to push up.. after a years or two with the skirt, the grass will grow over it and you wont see it anymore..

 

[NatJ]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing as in the OP or use paving slabs but will probably have more like 8" of soil on top of it?

I think the paving slabs sound like a better idea than hardware cloth. You could still pile dirt on top. No matter how deep the chickens dig, there will be no wire to catch their toes or your cleaning tools. Also, they will never rust out the way wire eventually will.

 

[amk122284]

We are in the process of building our coop and run. The actual coop will be in our second garage fully insulated, concrete floor. The run is going to have an 8x1 board buried down 6 inches with 2 inches above to prevent predators from digging. We fully understand that a predator would eventually be able go get under but not before we would notice coop is directly out our patio door in the family room. We also have cameras that are frequently monitored that we will watch. We will not have any of their food left out either. I am hoping this will be efficient enough.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

I wouldn't. People get so worried about protecting their flocks they forget that they are eliminating things that chickens love and live for- like dust baths and digging in dirt.

Your coop looks like 10 times more safe already than most coops out there. At the end of the day, I think my chickens would prefer to live and die a bit young than live their entire lives laying eggs in a padded cell. Just saying.

Seriously though, you do what makes you comfortable. At the end of the day a chicken really doesn't know nor care. So whatever you do, you do it for you.

 

[anno1]

At my last house I dug out about 6-8 inches all around, put down hardware cloth (I'd use vinyl-coated as it will last longer) and then cement blocks for the coop and run boards to sit on. The hardware cloth came up and over the cement blocks and the vinyl coated steel wire I used to cover the run and area below the coop. Then I put hardware cloth around the run flat on the ground, two feet out, with rock on top of that maybe a foot out from the coop.

This time, my coop/with attached small run (whole thing is 5'x10', I think) is on 6"x6"posts, I dug out 6" so that the posts are flush with the ground, and I put hardware cloth in first so it wraps up around the posts. I have an additional run with a chicken door from the small run so I can let them out into the larger run when I want. It's 6'x30', and runs the length of the garden. I just have hardware cloth flat on the ground 2' out from that, with rock on it once again.

Since there is 6"-8" of dirt on top of the hardware cloth, they can dust bath and scratch, no problem.

I've had fox around my run a fair amount, but so far, hasn't figured out a way in (I'm knocking on wood now.)

Anything you can do to protect the birds is worth doing.