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Saw a backyard coop off Route 9 in Rhinebeck that made me rethink my whole setup
Stopped at a farm stand near Rhinebeck last Saturday and the guy selling tomatoes had his coop right there in the open, maybe 20 feet from the road. What got me was the hardware cloth. His run was wrapped in it, top to bottom, and he had an apron of it buried about a foot deep around the whole thing. He told me a fox had come through two summers back and cleaned out a neighbor's flock that only had chicken wire, and after that he spent $180 on the real stuff and never lost a bird. I use chicken wire myself, mostly because it came with the coop when I bought it used, and I always figured the run was solid enough since nothing has gotten in. But standing there looking at his setup, I could see where a raccoon could just reach through mine and pull a hen apart, no digging needed. He said the apron was the part people skip, and that's the part that matters if you've got diggers. I went home and measured my run, and now I'm looking at redoing the whole thing before spring. Anyone else switch from chicken wire to hardware cloth, and did you bury it or pour a concrete lip instead?
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lisa_bennett8h ago
Read somewhere that buried apron beats concrete for most coops.
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