[bloomer]

OK tasers hit me with your best suggestions...


I have to design and probably build the ultimate fox proof chicken run for a fellow taser...


I have ideas, they have ideas, but this has to be right, so i'm open to suggestions to add to my thinking...


This is a large run so it has to be practical to build...


Foxes are a known problem in the location and the chickens need a safe place to live...


So go for it...


So far on my list are anti dig mesh outside the run, and using wire mesh to full height to stop foxy chewing through it, the possibility of a hot wire round the outside? (how high would this want to be set?)


What else do i need to consider...


 

[Louise Gaunt]

Is it feasible to have an angled out bit at the top, a la prison camp, to prevent fox climbing over the top?

[Backinwellies]

Or do what we did at top ... saggy netting hanging loosely which can't be climbed.

[Bionic]

If the run isn't too big you could put wire mesh over the top too. My sister has one like this and I joked that it's more like a concentration camp. However, it is doing its job. The neighbours have lost their chickens but my sisters remain in tact.

[suziequeue]

Electric mesh round the outside of everything and switched on at night. I am assuming that the hens go out and free range during the day…….

[bloomer]

nope think bigger this is the perimeter fence that keeps chooks in and foxy out!!!

[Ideation]

Aside from all of the standard security measure, if I was being clever, i'd build in a fox cage trap, into the design, I had a mate who did it and its very successful.

Also had another who used Tamworth pigs for a similar application. . . . . with some success!

[AndynJ]

We have scaffolding netting over the top so if foxy gets up there which he can then he gets pretty tangled up, I have a long handled shovel half way between us and the run (came in handy this morning at 4.23am 1 less in the world to add insult to injury I buried it where I suspect they come onto our land.
Took 2 of us about half an hour to reinstall then another half hour for  me to patch the holes up no hens lost, 30 in that pen alone, so quite an investment.

Our run is 300mm x10mm mesh in ground, 2 x 6" kickboards then 1200 chicken wire so ours is only 1.5metres high but with netting on top, a lot of our neighbours for a mile have lost theirs, only about 4 of us haven't they all seem a bit more serious about their enterprises.

[shygirl]

drive past your nearest "free range" chicken farm and copy them.

[henchard]

I'd always thought of using second hand Heras fencing a bit like this guy has done

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/29-panels-Heras-fencing-200-the-lot-with-clips-/131175424494


It can then easily be moved.

If you're still worried about a fox getting over the top you could attach an electric wire around the outside top with an overhang adapting something like this

http://www.robinsonsequestrian.com/extended-insulator-rope-only.html

[kelly58]

Good idea henchard 

[Ideation]

Easiest way is heras fencing in a square on hard standing, with harris fencing on top.

[HesterF]

I had a big run done last September. It's 40m x 70m (enclosing our apple & pear orchard plus some veggies as well as the birds). Ours goes down 18 inch and at the bottom of the trench it bends out at 90 degrees for about a foot (can't remember exactly how far). It then goes up to about 1.8m height. At the top of each post we have an angled barbed wire holder so there is an outward overhang of two lines of barbed wire (space for three if you wanted to be even safer).

If you wanted to be even more secure, you could also run lines of electric fence around the outside. Lines are easier to maintain than netting and can give more of a jolt. We looked into it and the suggestion was one at low level - just a couple of inches above the ground, then one at fox nose level and a third higher up to stop them jumping over.

Think also about the wire itself. We went with a heavy gauge chicken wire (I think it's 18 gauge). The fencer said it was easier to stretch tight than weldmesh and it has worked well. However, a 14 gauge weldmesh would be even safer.

Also think about the gates. Our cat can get in and he gets in at the gate where we have to have a gap in the barbed wire between the strands that go across the top of the gate and the strands that go round the rest of the run. It's only a few inches and its right at the top of the gate but he can get in. At the bottom of the gate we have a section that can lift up and I think that's the only part that rats might be able to get in through as well - up the wire and then in through the hinge section of the gate.

We have a lot of foxes around - quite often see them around by day in the field above us - but not yet, touch wood, had a fox loss. However I suspect a determined fox could eventually work out his way in so all the birds are shut up into houses at night so there's not too much temptation to lure them in.

[ballingall]

I think if money was no object, I would use weldmesh panels, dug into the ground, and up to six foot high. I would also probably roof it. At the moment our chicken runs are 6 foot high with chicken netting, and the bantams have, I think it is pheasant netting over the top. Mostly because they could fly out if it wasn't roofed.....  If roofing, make sure you use larger gauge squares, lost a roof once in heavy snow as the snow caught in the smaller gauge netting and couldn't get through therefore all sat on top, bringing it down with the weight.


Beth

[Fleecewife]

nope think bigger this is the perimeter fence that keeps chooks in and foxy out!!!

What length of fence are we looking at?  It's not clear if it's a field or a large pen.