Predator Aprons: How to Stop Digging Predators for Good

Most keepers armor the walls of their run and forget the ground. Foxes, coyotes and dogs rarely climb; they dig. And they always dig in the same place: right at the base of the fence. That habit is exactly what a predator apron exploits.

What an apron is

A skirt of half-inch hardware cloth attached to the bottom of your run wall, bent outward at 90 degrees, and laid flat on the ground extending 12 to 18 inches out. A predator walks up to the fence, starts digging, hits mesh, moves along the fence, hits mesh again, and gives up. Almost no predator is smart enough to start its tunnel 18 inches away from the wall.

Why it beats burying

The classic advice is to bury mesh 12 inches straight down. That works, but it means trenching around your entire run, and in rocky or rooted ground that is a weekend of misery. An apron delivers the same protection lying flat on the surface: no trench, and you can retrofit it to an existing run in an afternoon.

Building it right

Use the same half-inch galvanized hardware cloth as your run walls. Attach the top edge to the run frame with screws and washers, not staples. Pin the flat section down with landscape staples every foot or so, and let grass grow through it; after one season it is invisible and mowable.

Do not forget the doors

Aprons protect the perimeter, but the run door and the coop pop-hole are still openings. Latch the run door with a two-step latch raccoons cannot work, and close the pop-hole every night, automatically if you know your own evening discipline.

For the pop-hole, that is what our timer-controlled automatic door is for.