Free range or enclosed run?

[Ripeberry]

I've spent all day digging up our old wire mesh run as two of the supporting wooden posts had snapped as as everything is under tension you can image the mess!
I have a temporary solution for housing the chickens and put them in the old aviary for now.
But i just want a stronger solution and was thinking of using trellis (square type) panels 5foot wide and 6ft high and having a "skirt of mesh" at the bottom to stop rodents burrowing in from the bottom and to stop the chickens digging their way out!
Do any of you use trellis as fencing?
I would love to have them freerange but as a childminder i'm supposed to keep the area the children will be using free from contamination and also i don't want them in the veg patch.

Hi Ripeberry - at this time of year, the chickens won't do much damage in the veg patch - they will just eat bugs and pests. Apart from Swiss Chard or Kale, there isn't much growing.
If you were my childminder, I would not be worried about the contamination - I would want you to take the children out and teach them about chicken welfare. This is just my personal view and I do realise it doesn't fit in with the Euro-loonies.

I would love to have them running around where they liked. My neighbour 3 doors down has 5 chickens roaming free in the garden and she has 6 cats and 4 dogs there as well.
The dogs do "play" with the chickens and sometimes pick them up but they don't get harmed.
Just wish i had more space for them to roam!I've only got four by the way, a bantam silkie cross Maran and a Maran hen and then an Aracuna cockerel and hen. Strange mixture!