Welded Wire Fence- Pros and Cons?

CreativeCowgirl said:

I'm planning on fencing my new chicken yard with 5' tall welded wire fence. The holes are 2" x 4". What are the pros and cons of this type of fencing?

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chickengeorgeto said:

Why not explore other wire options like 1 X 2 inch welded wire. An attack by a determined predator like a German Shepard with time on his hands can breach 2 X 4 wire by breaking a few of the welds. In my opinion if you want to go 6 foot high the best option is 1 X 2 inch welded wire 3 feet high topped by 2 X 4 welded wire for a total of 7 feet tall. However if you intend to keep fat fowl, a.k.a. duel purpose breeds only you or your 6 foot + hubby will ever be able to use more than about the bottom 3 feet of the pen. Also a tall pen will pose health problems for heavy fowl in the form of bumble foot, or other joint problems arising out of an 8 -12 pound bird landing on a skeletal structure designed for only a 4 to 5 pound chicken. The only alternative I see is to install an elevator and then train your birds to ride it.

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HEChicken said:

.... I truly did not understand your comment about a tall pen being hazardous to the health of a large bird. That could certainly be the case if they were jumping into the pen from the top of the tallest part of the fence but not many pens are designed to encourage that. I also didn't understand your reference to a skeletal structure designed for a 4-5 pound chicken! ....

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chickengeorgeto said:

I was thinking about where a chicken sleeps. They sleep on a roost and when a chicken gets out of bed they hit their bed room floor running. Many duel breeds are unable to fly more than a foot or two vertically. However their instinct still tells them that the highest roost pole is the best (safest) roost pole. If there is a way for them to go higher to roost then they will find that path. Then when such a chicken flies down from the roost their delicate joints and bones bare all the stress. This can often result in injury. Bumble foot is one such injury.

Do be advised that I doubt that there will be little if any thing green in a 14,000 square foot area if there are 100 + chickens eating the vegetation growing there in. For your sake I hope that I am wrong, but I don't think that I am, wrong that is. This is especially true in a place like Kansas.

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barbjess said:

Thank you so much for the pictures and details about your gate. We put half of the fencing up last weekend and will get the rest of the fencing up tomorrow then I will get the gates up during the week.

One gate will be attached to a chain link fence post that we lined our t-post/welded wire fence up with just like you did with the existing wood fence-- it will be made with 2 by 4 with some fencing attached across it and now with your instructions I see how to attach it to the post using the screw eye over the male hinges and I like the idea of being able to lift the gate off completely for easier access with the wheel barrow. The double ended clips to attach it to the welded wire is so much better than my plan to use a rope to tie and untie.

The second gate is going to be between t-posts only and will only be used when I need to get the small tractor into the area so not often. Until I come up with a better plan, I may just make a "gate" with the welded wire fence with one side of the welded wire in the gate area attached to the t-post and the other end of the welded wire loose. I will use your idea of the double sided clips to keep it closed.

Many thanks for your help!

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HEChicken said:

If you look at "My Coop" page you can see the chicken yard I did using this exact same fencing (5' high). My thinking was:

1. My flock was going from a free range situation to being contained, and I didn't want them to be penned into a tiny pen that would be nothing but dirt or mud most of the time. So, I created a "yard" for them that is 240x60. They still have grass to forage and tons of bugs, plus a tree right in the yard, so they still have the feel of free-range, yet are not pooping on the back deck.
2. I've seen chickens get out of fencing that is too solid, by jumping up to the top rail and then jumping down the other side. I figured the "flimsy" top of the welded wire and t-posts would keep them from getting out that way (I was right - they've never gone over the fence).
3. Although this type of yard is not predator proof, my coop is Fort Knox and they are locked in it at night. Since most predators come at night, I hoped this would eliminate most of my predator risk. (I had a fox get in in the middle of the afternoon about 3 weeks after moving my flock to the new place. I eliminated the fox and have had no further issues with predators since.)
4. I have two very chicken-safe dogs who sleep in the yard at night. Although they are not LGD's, my hope is that their presence will [continue to] deter would-be predators from hanging around at night.

The cons:

The wire spacing is too large to keep chicks in. I currently have a batch of month-old chicks who can run right through the fencing. So, I had to set up a dog pen in the yard, the chain link of which is reinforced with chicken wire to keep the little guys in. The chicks spend their day in the dog pen, and each evening I go out around 6pm and let them out of the dog pen for some supervised time with the flock. So far, the flock has been very tolerant of the chicks and if it weren't for the wire spacing issue, I would allow full integration now. As it is, I will have to wait until the chicks are too large to fit through the wire.

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