chicken moat, anyone else have one?

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Awesome!

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Very Nice!!

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I thought water too when I first saw the thread . It's a cool idea ! Aren't those plastic owls strategically placed supposed to scare off chicken hawks ?

I love the Chicken Moat! Personnaly, I would build it 6 feet high, 6 feet wide, with good durable material to last longer. Perhaps 60 years ago, I started my first chicken flock in a small Texas town. We were dirt poor and I had come to realize that in order to improve the availability of good food, I needed to raise chickens and garden. At the age of ten I built my first chicken coop from old vegetable crates obtained from the grocery store. My first flock was created with a setting Banham hen obtained from my grandmother. The chicks were bahnams and she sat on 10 eggs. As the chicks started to hatch, I went to the local feed store and traded two jars of honey from my hee hive for 12 Rhode Island Red chicks. During the night I placed the RIR chicks under the hen and she raised the entire 22 chicks as her own. I allowed the chickens to free range throughout our yard and they kept the insects under control and I do not remember any major problems with damage to my garden. We ate fried chicken, blackeyed peas, squash, onions and tomatoes. I felt very successful as a ten year old kid. I wish I had known about the moat idea.

I'm hoping to revive this thread! Does anyone else have pictures of their chicken moats? I have a fairly large garden, that I am still putting in. The deer fence is slowly going up, and once that is in I am hoping to just get away with inexpensive chicken wire on the inside to do more of a tunnel, or "chunnel." I don't have chickens yet, and my very first ducklings are scheduled to arrive TODAY! So excited. But anyhow, my husband finally consented to allowing me to get ducks... and persuading him to let me make the leap to chickens may take a little more time. But I'm really liking this idea of a chicken moat! I'm wondering how wide it would need to be. Would 2 feet be wide enough I wonder? Right now my raised boxes are about 3 feet from the fence. Going 2 feet would still allow me to move around the boxes for harvesting of veggies.



I took this picture yesterday, I am in the process of putting down more cardboard and straw for the year. I didn't put down enough last year and I had grass poking up through, otherwise NO weeding! yay. Anyhow this picture shows the post my husband got up.


There is actually 2 corner posts up. They are 10 feet tall! They were all out of 8 footers so they gave us the 10' ones at the 8' cost. The wire fencing is 6' tall I believe and then we will run boards lengthwise between the posts to cap it off and fill in the gap. I used plastic deer fencing last year, and just may need to do that again this year if my husband isn't able to get in the other 17 posts before May!

It would be so neat to have some attack chickens patrolling the perimeter and keeping me company when I go out to garden. I would love to see others who are successfully using this set-up or similar one.

I've had a moat in place for years - my advice - make it big enough you can go in it. They lay eggs in the run, or are injured and stuck in the middle of the run - you can't get to it. Also - if it snows where you are the chicken wire tunnel may collapse if not given enough supports.

faykokoWV said:

I've had a moat in place for years - my advice - make it big enough you can go in it. They lay eggs in the run, or are injured and stuck in the middle of the run - you can't get to it. Also - if it snows where you are the chicken wire tunnel may collapse if not given enough supports.

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Making it strong enough to support a snow load is definitely something I should consider- thank you! Our last 2 winters have been very mild, but that is not usually the case. I was thinking though that if I did make them smaller it would really cut down on cost. Maybe something that was a little more movable, and sections that could fit together, or be easily moved. Hmmm... making them bigger and more permanent would have its benefits too.