Chicken Run

[chickenboy44]

Hello all-- for my chicken run should I put Chicken wire on top of my fences of it to keep out predators?
I have seen some people put wire and some without it.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

You can do either. Wire on top is better of course, but it is up to you. How big will your run be? Do you have a lot of predators in your area?

 

[pdirt]

Depends upon your predators in your area. I've heard stories of hawks and owls flying into the coop and attacking chickens, but I think those are rather rare. We free range ours and have not had predator problems except when they were chicks. Lots of hawks/eagles around here.

We have two runs...the main one is smaller and covered with metal roofing. The much larger one is covered in aviary netting...not so much for predators but to keep them in the fenced run for when we don't want them free ranging.

 

[Gray Farms]

Personally I would cover it with wire. Better safe than sorry in my opinion.

 

[teach1rusl]

Will you be shutting your birds inside a contained housing at night? If not, I would definitely make sure that your run has secure wire over it.

If you have a lot of hawks...or if any of your chickens are breeds that fly pretty well, you would probably benefit from a wire ceiling in your run too.

But if hawks aren't an issue, you don't have flyers, and your birds will be well secured inside a safe housing at night, then a wire run ceiling might not be needed???

 

[chickenboy44]

Yes, we have Hawks and I probably put wire over the run.