New Run Help

[Blackswan]

Hi fellow poultry lovers i am building a bigger run for my ladies it will be 6x6 ft panels all round with weldmesh and a wire skirt and paving slabs round the outside hopefully so far pretty foxproof but will i get away with chicken wire as a roof covering any thoughts please as to wether Mr Fox could climb up the panels and chew through the top and in :?:

 

[tygrysek75]

Hi I would use wire mesh on roof to as they will test this each time they come and heard that they can bite thru chicken wire.Just wached this so they really nee a smal gap to get inside http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJHkOoqI9Qo&feature=related
I had done mine durig summer and covered roof for winter with polycarbonate double wall .I have some pictures on the forum http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4240&start=10
Feel fre to look
Foxes can climbe and jump high up to 6 Ft ans some of them even more.I have constant visit in my garden so not taking any chances.

 

[Blackswan]

i am going to roof it in the near future just wondered if i can get away with the chicken wire till i do it nice idea on yours it looks good

 

[chrismahon]

Someone on the forum had chicken wire ripped off the roof of a run by a fox and either the coop pop-hole was open or it was daytime and lost all the hens. It will be a deterrent, but if you have a fox problem I would double cover it -two layers in opposite directions. Or use the stuff as Tygrysek which gives them rain shelter as well.

 

[Blackswan]

thanks for the help what about using chicken wire buried in the ground as a skirt or will it yet again not be strong enough

 

[cuwiar]

thanks for the help what about using chicken wire buried in the ground as a skirt or will it yet again not be strong enough

I'd like to know that too as we have dug in an attached skirt of bog standard chicken wire and an additional loose layer on top of that. The idea of the loose layer was if anything started digging they would come across that first and hopefully get into a tangle and decide it was too much effort to keep going??

 

[Chuck]

Chicken wire as a skirt has always worked for me but they can chew through the lowest grade of chicken wire elsewhere.
You could get by with chicken wire on the roof, especially if it's a higher guage but to be really safe, you'd need the mesh or a solid covering.
Foxes can jump and will use anything handy to give them a leg up.
Once it's done it's done & you can feel safe.

 

[Lucylou]

Someone on the forum had chicken wire ripped off the roof of a run by a fox and either the coop pop-hole was open or it was daytime and lost all the hens.

OMG I've got this over my run! I had 6'6" high sides to a walk in run until I had a fox attack (the devil came in over the top :evil: ) So then covered the top too. As its very large the polyprop type sheets would work out very expensive so might look at putting a second layer over it.

For mine the sides are dug 12" down into the ground & back filled with rubble then an 18" skirt around the outside. This was the best information on how to do it I could find at the time. Also if chicken wire is used it must be less than 1" holes & the thickest quality. If they can get their mouths in foxes can bite through the holes. Their teeth are like wire cutters. But the best thing is weldmesh.

 

[bantiekeeper]

Hi, I have 2" chicken wire fitted to a wooden frame with 3" profile pvc corrugated sheets fitted on top for the roof of the run which is 2m high . The run is 2.4m square. On the ground round the outside I have 16" slabs butting up to the sides of the run. (No wire skirt). So far so good for nearly 4 years. Also keep the area round the run clear and uncluttered so I can see any evidence of vermin straight away. Have not had a rat problem since starting. I do only have 5 bantams however, so fairly easy to maintain everything.

 

[Sue]

LucyLou are you saying a fox got over a 6'6" fence? Did the fox have something to help him over eg. something close to the run - branches or something? Just curious as my fencing is about 7' high, but it's in a garden, not an open paddock. It doesn't have a roof on it, so am now worried!! I was told a fox couldn't get over it.

 

[chrismahon]

They can climb up the wire Sue; they don't need to jump. Bottom had a very close call when he was younger. A very big fox just 10 feet behind him crouched ready to strike (all the hens were in runs and he used to go down in the morning and walk around them). When the fox saw me it ran off and jumped a 6 foot wall without touching the top -one leap and gone!

 

[Lucylou]

Hi Sue, We never quite got to the bottom of how it managed it. There is next doors shed quite near our fence but still a leap of about 1.5 mts over the gap. So we think it either jumped across the gap or climbed up the wire, but if it jumped it still had to climb out with the chickens.

My friends saw a fox chasing a cat in their garden & the fox literally lept over the 5' wall without even touching it.

 

[Chuck]

Earleir this year I had a fox jump over the stable door where inside is divided into pens 7'6'' high. To so this he had to come into the yard. I had plastic fruit netting covering the pens to keep the chicken in. I lost about 30 chickens in two of those pens as he must have climbed up the netting and went in through the plastic at the top. And out again ! It's a terrible sight to see thirty bodies stretched out.
I've never had a fox jump into the stables before, but I didn't have chicken in there until two years ago.
I've now made wire doors for the upper part of the stable doors attached to the bottom door so that I can't forget to close it.
The big outside pens have two strands of electric fencing surrounding and wire dug in around the bottom.
A determined fox is very hard to stop.