Lay down anti-dig wire rather than bury it?

[CageKY]

I now live in the incredibly beautiful Appalachian foothills of northeastern Kentucky. We are in the wild and rugged hill farms of north Daniel Boone NF.
This means our new home and surrounding property literally had to be bulldozed, carved and jackhammerered out of crumbly rock. Even our soil, and I use that term loosely and generously, is clay...which means it's either 4 inch deep snot or concrete hard parking lot.

My point being: I simply can NOT dig any sort of trench around my chicken run to bury hardware cloth four inches, much less 12 inches, deep due to the obstacles mentioned (plus I'm old, tired and lazy), yet critters seem to find the soft spots and they sure CAN!

A neighbor just 7 miles away laid 3 ft high wire down on the ground around her run and covered it with barn dressing to age over the winter and then seeded it. She says she's had no varmint (or even mice) digging issues since doing that and it was easier than making pie.

Anyone else heard of this? I'm seriously thinking of giving it a go if no one can convince me I'm wasting my time or money.

 

[Toothpick]

I'm in the same boat. Middle Tennessee. Dig down a few inches and you'll run in to rocks. Hard red clay too. My new coop is 8x10 and the run will be at least 10x20. I wanted to keep out digging pests all around my coop and run but no way I want to try and dig 70-80 feet of earth up to bury the fence.

I saw where a fella folded his fence about a foot out and laid it right on top of the ground. Pinned it down with some stakes. Not sure how well this would work though.

Looking forward to the replies here.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do a search on aprons. You lay wire mesh flat on the ground about 18" or so all around and firmly attach it to the bottom of your run (or bend out the bottom). You don't have to bury it but putting a couple of inches of dirt on top will keep it laying flat and keep it out of the way of mowers and weed eaters. Usually that means take the turf up, lay the wire, and put the turf back. You can use hog rings, maybe J-Clips, or pieces of wire to firmly attach it so a critter cannot force it's way through.

The idea is that the predator goes up to the fence, starts to dig, hits the wire, and does not know to back up to dig some more. It's really effective. It doesn't take much of a dip in your ground for a critter to force it's way under a fence, it's amazing how little it takes. And this also keeps your chickens from getting out by scratching in the run and excavating an escape. This does not stop anything from climbing the fence but they cannot get under it.

 

[Toothpick]

And this also keeps your chickens from getting out by scratching in the run and excavating an escape

I've already had my chickens start this. In one corner of the run I'm seeing a big hole right next to the fence. Can't get under it yet, but it appears they have scratched it up for a dust bath.

 

[aart]

And this also keeps your chickens from getting out by scratching in the run and excavating an escape.

I've already had my chickens start this.

Mine dug under the outer apron by about 4-6" in a couple places. Had to put logs and lumber to block them. In several places I had used chicken wire on inside of run wall, another place I had to fashion HC apron inside run wall to stop them.

 

[User395221]

Yes, my apron is on the ground, not dug down. Most critters looking for dinner would start digging right up close, they aren't going to figure out that they could tunnel in if they started where the apron ends.
As aart says, you need to keep an eye on your "defences', adding additional fortification/patching up areas of weakness.

 

[Safety Chicken]

I'm at 10,000 feet high in the Rockies and our soil is, well, very rocky. We would have needed a tractor to dig a trench around our enclosure so I did exactly that, laid out 24" of hardware cloth and used zip-ties to attach it to the enclosure walls. Then someone offered some free left-over sod so I just laid that right on top of the wire. We have a motion-activated night-vision camera on the enclosure and we have a fox that comes through the yard almost every single night, so far in 3 months it has shown no interest in the enclosure at all, thank goodness. I call it their "salad bar."

"

 

[Toothpick]

Seems like this is an acceptable alternative to burying the fence. I wonder why the chickens are digging near the fence though? Surely it can't be to escape. Do y'all think they are simply after fresh ground?

 

[DrFeathers]

There is an ornamental maple tree shading my coop and run and the edge of my run closest to tree I had maybe 2-3" of dirt before I hit a wall of roots - I went that far down, then out a foot horizontal and piled on top a mix of heavy sand and soil and the. planted it so built up it is the equivalent of 6-8" deep on top of wire. No issues on our end. If you can't dig down, pile up!

 

[User395221]

I wonder why the chickens are digging near the fence though? Surely it can't be to escape. Do y'all think they are simply after fresh ground?

We didn't reach a consensus when it was raised in this thread. Maybe it's a bit damp/er, got more bugs?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chickens-digging-on-the-fence-line.1192906/