sue marsh Posted August 24, 2010 Share Posted August 24, 2010 Hi I am planning my walk in run which will be 32ft long x 10ft wide x 6ft high and was thinking of using railway sleepers around the edge, do you think these will keep a fox out? Sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken shack Posted August 24, 2010 Share Posted August 24, 2010 Foxes will still be able to dig under the sleepers, you should see the tunnels they have dug in my daughters garden. 1.You will need to go down with weld mesh for about 18inches (46cm) 2.Come out with the weld mesh like Omlet have on the runs. The disadvatage is that weld mesh is not easy to bend if you chose the second option. 3. Pave or concreat the in side leaving the centre free for a dust bath. Mr Fox can't dig his way through concreate. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MummyHen Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 My WIR is on sleepers infilled with paving slabs - very secure in my opinion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sue marsh Posted August 25, 2010 Author Share Posted August 25, 2010 Thank you for the picture, just the sort of thing I was planning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MummyHen Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 And the WIR then sits on the sleepers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plum Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Mine sits on sleepers on two sides and concrete in the middle. It is screwed down to the sleepers to make it secure in high winds. The sleepers are deep if buried in the ground but agree you need extra protections so slabs on inside or a line around the outside would do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janeears Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Do you need to screw the WIR down? I'd just assumed that it sits on top of the slabs / sleepers. Ours will (eventually!) be in a sheltered spot - will it be necessary? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sue marsh Posted August 25, 2010 Author Share Posted August 25, 2010 Thank you for the comments, looking forward to getting started WIR will be 30 ft long by 9 ft wide and 6ft high, going to have sleepers around the edge and pave the inside. It will also have a roof on. I have spent this afternoon looking around B&Q pricing up bits and making a list I am going to take my time with this and do a bit more research as want to get things right, looking to have everything sorted and a cube in place so that I an get some chickens in the spring Hope you all do not mind if I ask questions along the way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plum Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 We were just being very cautious. Since put a weathervane up and it hasn't moved yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercedes55 Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 We are still in the process of doing our WIR and we have used railway sleepers to sit the WIR on too. We have slabbed the inside, but might take up a few of the slabs in the middle for the hens to have a dustbath unless we can come up with a better idea. We are also going to screw the WIR to the railway sleepers too so that it is really secure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knackered Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 We have a WIR on sleepers, they are fastened down as it is very windy here. The sleepers were not dug in (too lazy) and inside is just soil at the moment but we do have slabs to put down on the inside edges. I check every morning for signs of fox digging but nothing yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercedes55 Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Are you going to be building your own WIR or having someone custom build one for you? The reason I ask is that we just had one custom built and as ours is also on railway sleepers none of the hatches line up, so we've had to put the Cube on blocks, which we didn't really want to do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...