Predator-proof a backyard flock's coop and run with hardware cloth.

This household wants to keep a small backyard flock of hens, and the openings on a coop and run built with ordinary chicken wire keep birds in but keep nothing out: a raccoon, snake, or hawk can reach straight through the gaps. Half-inch hardware cloth on every opening, plus a buried or skirted apron so nothing digs underneath, is the single most useful technical fix in the whole system, and it has to be right before a single bird moves in.

Where

resident's own home near the town center, Groveton, TX (Trinity County; best-estimate location, exact street address not confirmed) · Open the map

Pay

$140 proposed

This packet is not funded yet, so this figure is a proposed price and not money waiting in escrow. If a buyer funds it, approved proof settles that price onchain. If nobody funds it, approved proof earns provable credit toward the work instead of cash. You see which before you claim, never after.

Proof

resident-permission record + local-ordinance confirmation + before/after photos + apron footage record + GPS

This is exactly what gets it approved. Nothing settles without it.

Level

intermediate

Open until

2026-09-13

Posted by

0x034F…6c89

The creator wallet. Its signature is what approves proof and settles the wage.

How this work is done

A documented method, so this packet comes out the same whoever does it.

Steps

1. 1. Confirm with the resident, and with Groveton city government or Trinity County (whichever governs this address) whether local ordinance allows keeping backyard hens (many Texas towns permit hens and prohibit roosters); do not proceed to any construction step until this is confirmed. Photograph the bare coop/run frame before starting.
2. 2. Measure every window, vent, and door opening on the coop and run frame and cut half-inch galvanized hardware cloth to fit each one, wearing cut-resistant gloves throughout (cut wire edges are sharp).
3. 3. Fasten the hardware cloth over every opening with screws and washers or heavy-duty staples, never lightweight chicken wire; along the run's perimeter, dig a shallow hand-dug slot a few inches deep (hand tools only, call 811 before any digging) and bury or skirt an apron of the same hardware cloth outward from the base so a digging animal cannot reach under the fence line.
4. 4. Photograph the finished hardware-cloth openings and the buried/skirted apron from the matching before vantage, and record the total linear feet of apron installed.
5. 5. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after any contact with the coop, run, litter, or compost, and wear dedicated boots or shoes for this chore that stay outside and never come indoors.

What counts as done

• Written or recorded permission from the resident
• Confirmation that local ordinance was checked before any construction step began
• Before photo of the unprotected coop/run openings
• After photo of half-inch hardware cloth fastened over every opening and the buried/skirted apron in place, with linear footage recorded

Proof is measured against these, not judged by taste.

The standard this serves

Edible Garden Cultivation. Edible garden cultivation is food growing done to the standards the land-grant universities have refined for a century: healthy soil in tested beds, the right crop in the right season, hand tools, patience, and records. Mastery looks like a Master Gardener's plot, beds that feed a family most of the year from a piece of ground the size of a parking space. Every gardener who reaches that point started with a single bed and a single season. This packet is that start: one bed built or tended properly, one honest note about what happened.