Trees in run ?

[g_a_brand]

I would like to keep my 3 fir trees inside a covered run, ( I wanted them for shade for the girls ) I wanted to know if I cut 3 holes in the hardware cloth and ran a rubber membrane cone up the tree ( and atached to the tree ) above the roof and attached the rubber to the roof would that keep other critters out of the run? ( I think I have hubby convinced to try this )

We are still in the gathering stage for supplies, ( gotta love the barter system, we have been helping others clean up their yard and they have been giving us old lumber from torn down builings as payment )
We were are building a 8x12 coop , and apx. a 12x20 run, ( we only want around 15 chickens to start with) I also want to put a small fence around my veggies so I can put a few ladies in with me when I weed so they can eat bugs for me .
Would this work?

We started this past sunday on cleaning up the area that we are going to build on .
I wanted to thank you all for this site, Hubby and I have been reading alot of the posts and have received great advice from you all.

Gwen

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
It depends. If you are just trying to keep predatory birds out, it should work. If you are trying to hedge your bets against the (small) risk of things going over the fence during the daytime, it should help, and the risk of daytime losses to climbing predators is fairly low anyhow. However I would not trust it at all during the nighttime, so it would not at *all* substitute for having the chickens locked indoors at dusk.

If the trees' branches do not communicate with any other trees' branches (such that a raccoon etc could use them as a bridge to get in from having initially climbed some other tree), it might be worth pricing using just bird netting for the run top, and a couple electric wires on the run fence to deter raccoons. (This is not utterly secure -- all electric fences fail *sometimes*, for various reasons -- but then your arrangement is not going to be utterly secure either, b/c of the weak point aroudn the trees' trunks, so I'm not sure it's not about equal riskwise, and depending on how you were planning to do the run roof, it might be cheaper)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[CityChook]

Boy, I dunno. After going through raccoon drama last week, I am really leary of trees close to my coop. And one that practically acts as a raccoon ladder right into my run would keep me up at night...

That said, I have seen a couple of trees locally with a large (about 3 ft), flat metal "band" that goes all the way around the trunk to discourage climbing. If you decided to leave trees in your run, you might want to look into these. Just a thought. Good luck!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Just a word of warning - they only prevent climbing UP, not climbing down. And it is 'down' that you gotta worry about in your run. You would have to put flashing aroudn the trunks of all trees outside the run that have branches that communicate with the ones in the run, or that have branches that communicate with trees whose branches communicate with treees in the run, etc. And it can be a bit tricky to get the flashing really climbproof (the seam in particular) and not damage the tree in the long run. Not saying don't try it; in some situations it might be jsut the ticket; just, be careful.

I'd really like to see someone try a run fence where the top 2-3' is aluminum flashing. In principle it should be climbproof, provided attachments and seams are properly done. I ain't tryin' it myself because it would also have huge wind resistance and where I live it'd be a recipe for having the run flattened by the next good blow; but for sheltered backyards I wonder if it mightn't be useful, if perhaps a bit odd looking

Pat

 

[g_a_brand]

thanks for the good advice,

The trees in question are the only ones near the run, ( they will be almost in the middle of it ) and we will be locking them in at night, Im trying to figure out ways to put the roof on the run and keep the ladies safe without cutting down those trees.

 

[Grammahen]

I planted a rhododendron in our run. The girls (I’m still hoping they are all girls) will give it an occasional uninterested peck but love to climb under and take a nap. It provides great shade and they also love to peck at any bug that may fly in to rest on it. It flowered pretty too.

You can see it on my BYC page. https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=23582

 

[nzpouter]

plant fruit trees.. the chickens will have extra treat when they fall..

 

[CityChook]

Thanks for the clarification, Pat. It makes total sense and I hadn't really thought it through. I have been seeing the bands and thought, "Well, now isn't that clever?" But *falling* still gets a raccoon into the run, even if by accident...

I can absolutely understand not wanting to cut down the trees in your run. And I've seen lots of runs with trees in them. Just be careful, that's all.

 

[Emzyyy]

My neighbor's run has BIG trees in his run and his isn't even covered he puts his chickens up every night and the trees provide cover from hawks.

 

[RendonRoo]

Electric fence chargers and a little wire will keep the critters from getting into the run from the holes. just a thought.