Thinking about egg chickens

[PeckPeckChick]

Round the sides of the coop put chicken wire so nothing can dig under

 

[TwoCrows]

You can go with 1/2 inch hardware cloth. It will do the job nicely and comes in larger rolls.

We use railroad ties like crazy around here. Dig deep enough to lay a tie in level with the ground and in some circumstances, we put another tie on top of that one. Things dig when they can feel air moving. They don't just randomly dig. So make sure you don't have any open areas along the ground into a coop or run, or they smell the air and start digging. If you access to large rocks, you can line the outer edges with rocks. We do this as well around every coop and aviary. Nothing has ever tried to mess with piled up rocks.

You can also make a skirting around your coop and run with hardware cloth. Extend it out a foot or so and cover with dirt well. Things usually dig right up against a fence or wire. This way they will hit wire and hopefully quite messing with it.

 

[jerabu]

The groundhog here dug through my foundation - which is constructed of rock where he did it. He avoided the newer cinder block portion, but he did go 3 feet down to get into the crawlspace, more than once (we have filled holes with more rocks and dirt. Next step is cement with wadded up hardware cloth set in it.)

Not sure if it is just a psychotic fearless animal, or if it might be radioactive.

The skirting idea will probably work best. There are railroad ties in the back of the property we were going to pull out, because they make a bit of a terrace we really don't want. Going to rake the soil down into a slope. Can re-purpose those ties into construction materials for the run. Had nothing better to do with them, and they aren't rotted out.