Very Frustrated>>>>need Help With Run

[Qi Chicken]

Ok, my husband has been working on the run for a week now and we can not figure out how to attach the hardware cloth to the posts to make an apron. Does it just lay flat under the ground or does it bend up and connect to the posts?? How high up does it go? He was going to use a 4x6 around the bottom to finish it but we can NOT get this right.

We have 14 8 foot posts buried in cement. I think we are going to kill eachother over this and I am at my wits end.

If you have step by step on how to do the apron with the hardware cloth and where to attach the welded wire PLEASE let me know how to do it.

 

[gryeyes]

The hardware wire works best if you bend it down the length of the roll amount you're going to use. The top half is attached to the run posts, and the bottom half lays along the ground. You can dig down about an inch and then lay the ground part down, then cover it with soil and/or rock or even concrete pavers.

The part you attach to the run posts is first stapled - JUST to hold it there while you're working with it! - and then you go back and use flat washers and screws to secure it tightly to the posts.

The only picture I have handy that shows the flat washer and screw stuff is this one, on my A-Frame coop, where the hardware cloth is attached around the bottom for the pen area.

But the hardware cloth is extended down and across the ground "like an apron" and covered with rocky soil and packed down.

What the apron does is frustrate a digging predator, which normally would start digging at the bottom of the coop or run, but would not move back two feet to tunnel through the hardware cloth barrier.

Hope that helps!!

 

[elmo]

There are different ways to do this. On my first run, I used Loxit rings to attach the apron to the vertical wire of the run. On my second run, I built the sides of the run in panels and simply extended the wire sides downwards, then bent the bottom outward before attaching the panel to the neighboring panel. That was actually much easier, and makes for a more secure run, I think.

 

[Qi Chicken]

Ok, thanks for the help. this is what we think we could do, let me know if it will work.

The posts are 8 foot landscaping timbers stuck in concrete. If we put 2x4 welded wire and attach it to the INSIDE of the posts from the ground to the top of the posts (6 feet). then attached to the front of the post 1/2 inch hardware cloth used as an apron folded under the ground 18 inches and going up the wall attached to the outside of the posts. We think this comes in 4 foot rolls so it would go up 2 1/2 feet about.

So there will be a 4 inch gap between the hardware cloth and welded wire. DH wants to put a 4 X6 around the bottom to make it look better. This would go ON TOP of the hardware cloth around the bottom.

Will this work? Will the gap inbetween the two fencings be a problem? We wanted all the fencing inside to make it look neater but that would involve cutting space for all the posts and bending it around them which seemed a little crazy.

HELP!!

Anne