Wire top

[Mervin]

Here are a couple of ideas I've been toying with for my run. So, I've been thinking about putting a single hot wire and the bottom and one at the very top, in addition to chicken wire. The flock will be secured at night, so my biggest concern is neighborhood dogs during the day when we're not around, thus the hot wire. My other concerns are hawks (and eagles). I really can't roof the whole thing. What I was considering was making a 6-inch square grid out of fence wire on the top. I'd think 6 inches would be enough to keep most birds of prey out, but I was looking for some opinions on it.

 

[Dogfish]

This is what I did.

I just added some cross members to make it easier to run chicken wire.

Your thought on running fencing wire would work (I am assuming just wire, no ZAP!), but you could expand that grid to at least 1' or 2' square for birds. On electric fencing, we ran a single wire 6" up from the ground, and then another wire around the top of the framing. You have the right idea.

 

[Chicken Jack]

I agree with Dogfish. You have the right idea; once those dogs hit the wire they'll back off and shouldn't come back. As I'm sure you know, maintaining the wire's power will require your constant observation. My experience has been with laying chicken wire below grade and then either back filling it with dirt or cement. This has always worked for me and I didn't have the concerns with maintenance of an electric wire, especially if I was gone on a trip. My electric fence box would short out frequently due to branches falling on the line or someone or something hitting it; then there was the power source going out or the electric box going bad. There was just more effort with electric wire, for me, than with the buried chicken wire.