Cyclone Fencing Dog Run

[Autumn Leaves]

I'm looking into the future to try to find some economical/but safe ways to make a run for my chickens. I currently have a run with hardware cloth and lumber - but it is very expensive. And it looks awful.

For those who use dog runs made of cyclone fencing - how has it been predator wise? I know raccoons can reach through, do you protect the bottom few feet with a smaller mesh, or just run a hot line? Has anything gotten your chickens? How did you enclose the top?

Ideally I would like to have an 8X8 coop with two 12X8 runs, one on each side.

Predators in the area: dogs, coyotes, fox, birds of prey, cats, raccoons, skunks.

No weasels that I know of, no large cats and thank god no bears!

 

[Folly's place]

Many people use cyclone fencing effectively. Hardware cloth around the lower three feet, undiggable base, and a mesh cover, works very well. BUT it's still best to lock the birds in a solid coop every night. Weasels are everywhere, but seldom seen, and a really dedicated dog can climb over or destroy chainlink. My run (see in avatar) is far from dog proof, but covered for hawks, etc, and never meant as night time safety. Mary

 

[Autumn Leaves]

Sounds good, I'll invest in one of those automatic pop doors to keep them safe at night.

I'm pricing everything out to see how much I have to save up.

 

[georgiagail]

We run 3' hardware cloth around the edges of our dog runs. Attach it with zip ties. And, as has been pointed out, the chickens are locked in their coops at night.

The tops are enclosed with 3/4" PVC pipe every three feet (held in place with brace rail clamps found in the chain link fencing section of Lowes; very inexpensive) and then hardware cloth is run over this and attached to the side rails and pipe with zip ties. The first run we got "fancy" and did the hoop roof; all our others have just been flat roofs (faster!)

I don't know if what I've written makes much sense so I'll just post pictures of a few of the coops that we've done in our backyard and that might explain things better...





Gail

 

[drumstick diva]

Looks very good, do you ever have to worry about a snow load?

 

[georgiagail]

Snow is rare in Augusta Georgia. Sometimes ice storms which, while rare, bring down tree limbs like crazy. Last year we had a bad one. Big limbs on two of our runs, including the "hoop" roof. When these were removed, no permanent damage. The "hoop" bounced back up.



Gail

 

[Autumn Leaves]

Looks very good, do you ever have to worry about a snow load?

I was wondering the same thing - I hate living with snow.