Rural Gardening: deep litter & wire vs concrete predator repellent, 1 by rouxcrew

rouxcrew wrote:
I was just surfing and found this thread so forgive me for butting in but having had poultry for over 20 years in various situations I will suggest something that we do quite successfully. There are two ways to handle the digging problem. In the house, just rake away the shavings or litter and lay chicken wire down on the ground. Cover the entire bottom of the house. We use the 1" because snakes can't get through it, nor can the small rats. Cover with the litter or just leave it. It will work into the ground and will last quite a long time. Seems like at the old farm I pulled some out after about 10 years when we were getting ready to move (I was curious) and it was still mostly intact. By that time it was about 1" in the ground but we never used shavings either. Staple it to the sides to keep rats from pushing through there.

In our yard, we put 3' chicken wire on the ground on the outside of the fence, tied to the bottom of the fence and left it there. Within a month you really couldn't see it and could mow and weed eat with no problem. It stops the digging. A predator will try once or twice, close to the fence and when they can't get under, they quit. We never had a problem with rats in the bird yard.
Joy