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Post by wvterri on Apr 21, 2015 0:51:45 GMT
Okay, this section looked lonely without anything in it, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling.  As much as I'd like to let my chickens run wild around this place, I don't think it's going to be possible. I lost one roo within the first 24hrs of being here. A couple of days later, a hen and my other roo lost all of his tail feathers. I don't have the money, at present, to fence the whole property in. What would be a good fence to put up in the meantime? Or rather, I should say, what would be an easy fence for me and the kids to put up? They'll be on lock down in the outbuilding at night, but need something to keep them safe during the day. On a side note, what would be a ball park figure for fencing roughly 3 acres? |
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Post by Wendy on Apr 21, 2015 1:39:03 GMT
I do not recommend chicken wire. It is too thin & rusts through too quick to my liking. I used 2"x4" fencing that was 6' tall when I had mine fenced in. I rarely had any fly over that.
I can't comment on the figure for fencing as it depends on the posts you use & also the fence. I fenced our pasture with cattle panels which was more expensive than rolled wire. It keeps the goats in though.
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Post by Wendy on Apr 21, 2015 1:59:50 GMT
I use those for my broilers. They work great!
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Post by wvterri on Apr 21, 2015 2:22:49 GMT
I don't really want to have to mess with dragging a CT around the yard. I was kind of leaning towards cattle panels, that way I could reuse them someplace else later. I really don't know anything about putting up a fence though.
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Post by wvterri on Apr 21, 2015 3:52:55 GMT
I spent a lot of time looking at coops and pens before I ever jumped into chickens. Here's an "in progress" pic of what I built at my other place. Boy, I wish I had made it easy to disassemble now. I could have used it.   They're being housed in this building now and I want to put a fence around the front of it. Either that, or to the side, with an access door for their daytime entertainment/safety.  How hard is it to place t-posts? |
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Post by Wendy on Apr 21, 2015 4:59:16 GMT
Chickens will go right through cattle panels. That's what I have around my pasture & now that mine free range they walk right through those.
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Post by graywolf on Apr 21, 2015 13:43:30 GMT
We have a 4' tall electric mesh fence. Mostly to keep coyotes and wolves out. Works great and is movable. We have one solar panel and a 12 volt battery to run it. We got the fence and charger from Kenko.
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Apr 22, 2015 1:58:04 GMT
There's little point in fencing an area that large just for the chickens.
(Unless you plan on having a few hundred )
They will seldom go much more than 100 yds from their coop anyway
I'd use 2 X 4 welded wire as Wendy suggested. and build a run attached to their coop
Make it big enough to give the birds about 10 sq ft each, and just let them free range on the property during the day
If you plan to have small chicks, run some 1" poultry fence INSIDE the larger wire
For the larger perimeter fence, "field wire" (4 X 4 or 4 X 6) will keep larger animals in without being too cost prohibitive, although electric fence would be cheaper
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Post by wvterri on Apr 22, 2015 2:48:39 GMT
Free ranging during the day is how I lost a couple when we first moved here. I was thinking ahead on the acreage fencing as I'd like to get miniature goats in the next year or so. I really would be considered the crazy chicken lady if I fenced all of this in for just chickens!  |
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Apr 22, 2015 9:30:14 GMT
Electric fence is the cheapest and is very effective at keeping animals in and most predators out,
Cattle panels are too expensive to be cost effective, and mini goats could go through them in addition to having the danger of horns getting caught
You'll need to do some measurements before you can get an accurate estimate of costs, since the shape will make a difference in how much fence and how many posts are required
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Post by jamiecatheryn on Apr 22, 2015 14:19:16 GMT
My run is a box framed of 2x2's and 1x3's that is 12'x8'x8' walls covered at the bottom in chickenwire and the top and ceiling with plastic deer netting, just whatever I had around. Works nicely for my 7 chickens. One habitually escapes but the others don't, so she stays close to the flock. We have small to medium predators around but with a grown roo on guard they leave mine alone even when I let them all out in the yard or leave the coop open, and they only really once traveled off my 2 acre property that way. A livestock guard dog would do an even better job about predators of course.
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Post by Callie on Apr 23, 2015 2:08:30 GMT
I used the 2x4 welded wire for our chicken run. I covered the parts next to the ground with 24" tall chicken wire so the little ones couldn't sneak out while still small.
In protecting animals, it's often keeping something OUT rather than keeping something in that's the issue. You might keep your chickens in a temporary fence but will it keep the hawks and varmits out?
I found cattle panels worked well for our pastures. I was keeping sheep in and that's not hard as long as there is grass inside the fence. I put one post at each end of a panel and it ended up being cheaper than putting woven wire up due to using less posts. I couldn't keep wild cattle in with that distance between posts though. I could also do it by myself and not bug DH about it. (and no post hole digging)
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Post by Maura on Apr 23, 2015 19:58:02 GMT
Electric Netting will serve you well. Poultry netting is 4’ tall and the wires are spaced for birds. Chicks can get through the mesh though, and can get caught in it, so I wouldn’t use with small chicks. The el netting uses easily movable posts. You just move the posts to move the chickens to a new location. I really like this feature because chickens will tear up the lawn pretty well and soon there is just an are of dirt with no grass. You can also move them to higher ground when there is a lot of rain. Rotate them every week on average, just move the posts over a few feet to new ground. You can make a movable coop for them so they have cover and nest boxes where ever they go.
If you later decide to get sheep, you can keep the sheep contained with the same fencing, and rotate them along with the chickens.
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Post by claytonpiano on Apr 23, 2015 21:20:29 GMT
When we want to contain ours, we use Premier temporary fencing with a solar charger. It works great if it is tight and you don't have too much tall grass interfering. The rest of the time they free range our acreage, but after 6 years we finally have there perimeter of our property fenced.
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Post by motdaugrnds on Jan 27, 2016 16:00:51 GMT
Well, I would fence the entire 3 acres in because, letting chickens free-range can save a lot of money you otherwise spend on feed. (My flock of assorted birds are healthy with good meat on them and they've been free-ranging now for over a year, getting only about 1 bag of whole corn, 2 bags of cracked corn and 2 bags of pelleted feed each month.)
You really need to know what predator got your chickens. Only then will you know what type of fencing will keep that predator away. (With your entire 3 acres fenced, you could get a dog to live inside that fencing to keep predators away.)
If you're dead set on just fencing a small portion around your existing structure, that one you built looks really good. Can you not duplicate that with a few modifications for your situation?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2016 3:27:09 GMT
You didn't say what got your Chickens. We lost 3 to Hawks. There is no way you are going to fence a very large area to protect them from Hawks and Owls.
Rockpile |
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Post by farmchix on Jan 30, 2016 10:52:18 GMT
After watching a YouTube video of Eve from ATLF, I am going to have a CT to run my chix into the high tunnel. She says they love it in the fall/winter.
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