Dog / Fox Proofing a pen

Lorelei · **Posted:** Sun Nov 30, 2008 9:51 pm

Sadly this week my "gentle" Boxer got into our new chook pen and killed 2 babies and my best layer. :cry:

It was horrible and I am still not really on speaking terms with my dog! His motivation was to get some scraps I put in the pen, but obviously chickens flying everywhere in fright was too exciting for him and he decided to have a go (he has been with the chickens before and never done this, so it was suprising and awful at the same time). He did not eat them but did enough damage to kill them. Poor things ...
Anyway - I need to dog proof my pen - basically he has dug under. I know you can put a footing wire on the pen somehow - the pen and wire fence is already up so I can't dig the wire in - but can if anyone has any hints on how to make it dog proof from here that would be great. I lock them up each night in a full wired bottom cage, but if I am not home during the day it seems I can no longer trust my dogs to break in.
What have others done?
I have seen some rocks concreted at the base on some pens? Do you also put a footing wire under?
Any ideas appreciated!

County Lodge · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:19 am

Lay some chicken wire down around the outside of the pen in one piece per side under the ground about 20cm deep. Try edging some under the upright fence as well. Worth a try and not too much trouble.

debbieo4914 · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:10 pm

Hi Lorelei - sorry to hear about your chookies!

Chicken wire will work, or if you can't dig much you can use sheets of steel mesh laid on top of the ground, inside and out. Mine is actually laid under the edges of the pen also, as the pen comes apart and can be lifted, however even if you just lay large enough sheets of it around right up against the edge - inside and out - no dog can dig through that. The one I used is a solid welded mesh with about 40mm squares.

If you can't edge it in under the fences you might need to secure it with tent pegs or similar so the dog can't move it. If you have it on the floor of the pen also, though, it won't be able to access the chickens once it digs under.

Good luck getting something sorted out.

Deb :-D

debbieo4914 · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:15 pm

Or..... another thought, and this will use less mesh.

Make a boxer-sized cage out of the same mesh and put said dog inside the cage and let chickens out!!

(I am just kidding!)

Lorelei · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:31 pm

Deb - Believe me, don't think i had not thought of that! :lol:

In fact - we are probably going to get a kennel run for our beloved boxers now!

Sad thing is I used to be able to let the chickens out to free range with the dogs! Don't know what went wrong .... :cry:

Thanks for your ideas guys - sounds like I should be able to come up with a pretty simple solution. Cheers.

Lorelei

Sallysitter · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2008 3:03 pm

Hi

We have layed chicken fencing down after the pen has been built with the fence already up so we hired a dingo digger and scaped the dirt away around the already built fence. Then we layed the chicken wire down and attached it with these clips to the fence that was alredy up (therefore double layering the bottom of the fence. Then using the digger scrapped the dirt back over the new wire (now under the dirt). We have also put up an electric fence around the yard. Have had no problem with foxes or the dogs. The dogs only tried once and have never gone near the fence since. When the chooks are out the dogs are chained up unless we are outside with them to keep an eye on things.

D-girl · **Posted:** Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:51 am

weld mesh would be Better then chicken wire berried because foxes are quite strong and it will last as long as yeur chock pen

Ben's chooks · **Posted:** Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:06 am

also after a while it will rust in the ground.

Hero · **Posted:** Sun Dec 28, 2008 7:19 am

Some electric fence around the pen will help also.

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