Quote:
OH.. this is like Dinner Impossible. Yanno, Chef Robert gets 2 hrs to make a 5 course dinner for 300 folks. He gets a coleman camp stove, a cast iron skillet and 300 bucks -- 8 commercials later .. he's a smashing success
I can do that -- err.. .. at least smashing is easy.
I have questions - are you Radio Shack?
Big enough and Safe enough - are both relative. Size is almost always limited by money. I'm sure if I asked folks if they could have afforded a bigger run, would they have built it bigger - and we'd get a resounding YES! So I think for you, size is based on your current set of materials. Now that size has been established (sorta) let's talk about 'safe enough'.
What are we protecting your birds from? Chicken wire is designed to keep feathers in/out - but will NOT stop most animals that have fur. Must go to welded wire to get protection against the most common predator, the domestic canine. As Jessica said, what I did at her place was a hardware cloth apron, bent at right angles for about the first 2' of the run, extending about 18" out into the grass. The lawn will grow up quickly over the wire and it will disappear, but animals will not be able to dig under your fence. From the hardware cloth on up, I use 4"x2" welded wire. Use good fence staples, or a pneumatic staple gun to make sure Racoons dont just pull it down.
So - how to use the fence boards to make the supports. Hmmm.
Do you want to be able to stand up in the run? (You should say yes)
Using the boards to make a box to work as a post is probably a working idea. If a table saw is available, I'd probably rip the boards in thirds and stretch my materials even further. Make good use of angle bracing if you go with such an approach.
Another idea would be to purchase a few 2x4's for the primary supports, and use the boards, as is, for your bracing.
Or better yet, build a coop out of the fence boards!
Dave
Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU for talking about chicken wire vs. dogs, and the digging issue!!! SO many people use chicken wire and feel they've made a safe pen, and it makes me worry for them. We used hex head screws and wide washers to secure the wire to the posts and I've been SUPER happy we did because we've changed the configuration twice in 2 years. It's so much easier to take these out rather than any kind of staple that sturdy enough for this job. Please note folks, if YOU can pull out a staple with relative ease, so can animals!
I like your idea of using the fence boards for a coop. I did something similar with 5/4" deck boards. I thought they were dry enough, but they'd been laying outdoors all winter and in May they were still damp. After building a coop wall, making sure they were very snug together, 2 months later there were sizeable gaps between them. My advice would be to lay them in the direct sun, off the ground ASAP to dry them super well!
