Chicken run and Predators

[fishpond]

Starting to construct a run for my 1st foray into keeping chickens.
I know I have a female fox in the area as I see her some mornings gliding through my garden. She does have an occasional wood pidgeon/collared dove andd does her bit to keep their numbers to an acceptable level so its never been a problem up until now.
This got me thinking about enclosing the run with a electric fence.
Problem is, I have a rescued dog (terrier) with a very nervous disposition(unless its the postman or she can sense a rat), and I wouldn't want her touching the fence even once (I would need to carry her into the garden for months afterwards if not for years). There is also a hedgehog about.
So after much deliberation -------
Why not build the run as planned with a electric fence around the perimeter,but then put a picket fence around that(say for arguments sake 1.5 feet away) This second fence need only be 18" high.Tall enough to stop my dog, boards on picket fence close enough together to stop hedge hog.
BRILLIANT
It would work, wouldn't it ?-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Then I changed the design of the run, and that idea has been shelved for now.
But is this feasable?
I may come back to it later.
This is hard work, all this thinking!

[MaureenHall]

Sounds a good idea to me

[Nicos]

I think you might find the fox would jump onto the picket fence to make it really easy to clear the top of the electric fence.
I've got about 8 feet between my fence posts and electric fence .
Many hedgehogs can get under gaps of less than 2"...and a fox could dig down underneath any fence quite quickly although I've not so far heard of one digging beneath an electric fence.
( we have 5 foxes in our back field and my 4ft electric fencing has kept them out so far.)

.....how about a thin wire, fine mesh fencing instead of the picket fence. Nope- won't look as pretty but hedgehogs wouldn't be able to get through it- and fit'd be too thin for foxes use it as a launch site??

[vicky]

I think a fence would work. Also if you seperate the chickens from the garden you can let them free range (obviously when you're there!) without destruction of plants.

[Glutton4...]

We also have foxes locally; my Mum saw one in the paddock yesterday. I have electric netting round the grass run, with an extra wire about six inches above, just in case. It is held up by the tall plastic poles that are used for separating horse paddocks. The other enclosure is 'Heras' type (building site) fence, with four strands of electric wire around the outside. Foxy won't go near it, and anything small can get under it. Including a blimmin Moorhen that has taken to living on Layers' Pellets.