Two questions about coop, run, please

[flopsy]

Hubby, grandsons and son-in-law have started building our coop (mine and SIL . . . oops, actually our chickens' coop

). Did I read somewhere that the roosts need to be flat like a board? What are your roosts made of?
Also, when building the run, we must but up to a chain link fence on two sides. We will use poultry wire as hardware cloth is just took expensive in this economy. What can we use on those two sides of the pen (and there are two huge trees with huge roots in the immediate area) to keep predators from digging in? Hubby thought about a small trench with tin down in it and up the side of the run. Please, help us with this. The other two sides, we're gonna dig down and rung wire out to stop digging, I think. But up against the chain link, what can we do?

 

[bigzio]

Yep, it's best to turn the 2x4's on their side to give the birds a wider place to roost.

One option for the sides that need protection from digging would be the cheap concrete patio blocks for about a dollar each. It would help to deter the close digging next to the fence.

bigzio

 

[patandchickens]

Or big rocks or big chunks of concrete rubble, if you have access to a source. ("Big" like you can still lift it but only one piece at a time, that sort of size

)

Just clarifying -- is your fence chainlink and you're putting chickenwire over top of the lower portion to prevent reach-through?

Or do you mean that the chickenwire (poultry mesh, whatever you wanna call it) will BE the fence, nothing else involved? (Which is rather perilous, possibly *extremely* perilous depending on your predator situation)

Have fun,

Pat

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Alright, so I'm dense! I don't understand for SURE what "...turn the 2x4's on their side..." means, i.e., which side? A 2x4 is 1 1/2 x 3 1x2, so will the chickens' feet rest on the 1 1/2 side or the 3 1/2 side? Thanks

 

[patandchickens]

On the 3 1/2" side

Pat

 

[GlacierNan]

The chickens feet should rest on the 3 1/2 " side.
I always thought their feet curled around the roost,
nope they don't

They hunker down and keep them warm with their feathers in the cold.

Isn't this a great place? I can feel my brain expanding every day, pretty soon I'll have feathers poking out of my ears

 

[joebryant]

Thanks, Pat and Glacier Nan, that answers a question that I've wondered about for over a month. That really makes sense, and it's especially good to know why, e.g., being able to "hunker down" to keep their feet warm.

 

[flopsy]

Quote:
Pat, 1. How deep should the rocks, rubble be? 2. The poultry mesh will be running along the inside of the chain link. We wanted to keep it right up next to the chain link so there won't be a wasted space between the two fences. That's why I was asking about how to keep predators from digging on those sides. Thanks, y'all!

 

[NickyNawlins]

I've heard of putting the really tight chicken mesh down under the whole run and securing it up the sides too then burying it so that the whole run is secure. I might do that with mine.
Oh thanks for the idea about the 2x4's i've never heard of that but I think I'll do that for my chickens too.

 

[patandchickens]

With rocks or rubble, the best thing IMO is to get some of them deep enough that there's some dirt atop them to help hold them down, but to mostly concentrate on having them come out horizontally from the fence for several feet.

Uh, I probably did not explain that very well -- I mean, like, you want them distributed over an area up to ~3' from the base of your chicken fence, and at least some of them should be dug in maybe 9" or a foot deep. It depends a bit on how big the rocks/rubble pieces are... if they are so big a predator will have real trouble moving them, you don't need to put them as deep as if they're lighter weight, you know? Just sort of use your best judgement.

The main issue with depth is just to keep them from being removed bodily by something that's digging -- your main insurance is having them extend far enough out from the base of the fence that a digger gives up before getting into the pen.

Sorry that is so poorly explained, but I am just braindead today

I know a lot of people say 'bury chickenwire or hardwarecloth'. I am really skeptical of the value of that, because even galvanized wire WILL RUST underground... if it starts out very heavy gauge, like what chainlink fence is made of, then it will take a lot of years of rusting before it's flimsy enough for anything to get through... but finer gauge wire, even galvanized, tends not to last real long underground (especially if you have gravelly or rocky soil). As soon as the galvanized coating gets scratched, rust sets in and spreads to the whole thing.

JMO,

Pat