shall I get chickens?

[Paulottie]

Light Sussex for me. I like to keep pure breeds. They are a good duel purpose bird (not that I could bring myself to wring their necks anyway) and pretty friendly. (although I don't handle them enough for them to be pets either.) An attractive, but not over vain, working bird.

[Eyren]

The other thing about your run is that it must be sturdy weldmesh, not chicken wire, as foxes can bite through thin wire

If you look at the pictures on the eglu website, you will see examples of fox-proof runs - they have "skirt" sections to thwart digging attempts:

Omlet UK | Product and Services | Eglu Cube | secure run

Chicken wire is great for keeping chickens, pigeons, etc off your crops, though. I bought a 25m roll recently and am finding a multitude of uses for it.