How big garden protection fence?

[Doc7]

I have a brand new “square foot garden” that is 4x8 not very big.

I have always free ranged my chickens 1-3 times a week for a few hours at a time. After chasing the first group into my property a couple of times, in 2 years they’ve never again left my 1.3 acre lot even when I’ve left them out from 9-5 on a weekend. It’s really been awesome, I love watching the hens work.

since building my garden I have been totally paranoid about letting them out. And because I need to put them away before going inside, when they do get out it’s while I am grilling etc so only for an hour maybe and they are not nearly as easy to lure back to the run with treats, because being outside Is now a rare luxury. Used to be shaking the corn can easily extremely easy way to get them back into the run and lock them up as long as they had 90 mins or so before I tried that.

what is the most cost effective way for me to build a portable fence, my garden doesn’t get enough sunlight for me to want to permanently wrap it in hardware cloth etc. I am envisioning something more like PVC and fabric netting that I just put out when I want the chickens to be allowed out. It has to go around the back trellis as pictured. How tall a fence do you think is needed just to keep them more interested in the grass?0

Thanks for any ideas, my flock will be very happy to be allowed out when I get home from work againin evenings and weekends!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My beds are fenced off with a 2 foot tall green fence. My main garden has a 3 foot tall welded wire fence surrounding it. My birds don't jump over these fences. They apparently need a solid fence top to hop to. Can't say it will work for everyone, but for me this has worked for 10 years now.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If all you are wanting to do is keep the chickens out you don't need hardware cloth. Chicken wire works great for that and does not cast much of a shadow. Deer netting or bird netting are a pain to work with, they get caught and tangled up on anything.

Making it that portable is an issue. If you look at Premier1's website they have posts you can move really easily, either mashing them in with your foot or driving them in with a hammer, depending on your soil. Last time I looked those were the green ones. You could use those and attach chicken wire with zip ties. They also sell a 50' section of 48" high netting on posts which would work really well for what you want. That's probably the way I'd go if you can handle the price and shipping.

How high does it need to be? I don't know. OHLD isn't the only one that says 3' works for them. But some people say they have trouble with 3'. I think if you are trying to keep them in a small area you need more height than you do to keep them out of an area as long as they have plenty of room where they are.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Are you wanting a portable fence for the chickens? It looks to me like if you wrap your garden in chicken wire it will be safe from the chickens when they free-range and that would be the simplest thing to do.

 

[Doc7]

Are you wanting a portable fence for the chickens? It looks to me like if you wrap your garden in chicken wire it will be safe from the chickens when they free-range and that would be the simplest thing to do.

portable fence for my wife or I to take it out of garage and put around garden when we want to let chickens out but not always keep it out (even chicken wire diminishes light to the garden , interfere with weeding, etc)

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sorry, I agree with @Ridgerunner. I can't think of anything lighter than chicken wire that wouldn't end up a tangled mess. DH and I made some cylindrical cages out of welded wire that we have put around little trees and a grape vine to protect them from the chickens. They have about a 3' footprint. We have just left them in place all season because we free-range daily. I don't think they would be convenient to take down and put up very often as your garden grows.

 

[Doc7]

I have a big ring I made out of hardware cloth that I put very young chicks in on grass sometimes. It seems to short to keep a chicken out but maybe if they never get in the garden in the first place they won’t see a reason to try to get over this? Here’s a terrible zoomed in photo of it but it might be close to garden size and is 3 ft talk but floppy-ish.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Honestly chicken wire is probably the easiest to use here. I just use garden stakes (weave it in and out of the holes in the chicken wire) and stake it in place. To access beds, just lift up one of the stakes and swing out like it's a gate. Once you're done, swing it back into place and stake it through the same hole.

Been "protecting" my pea beds like this with 3' high chicken wire for 3 years and no issue there. But I did have an issue with hens flying into other raised beds with 3' high chicken wire though, so IF the chickens realize they can get in by just clearing the fence, then it won't be sufficient to keep them out, but it took them over a year to realize they could get over it on those particular beds.

 

[Doc7]

This is what I came up with hardware cloth, sounds similar @rosemarythyme

Extra trellis netting in the backs about 18” behind the plant trellis so they can’t pick at those plants.

Like you said, the goal right now is just that they never realize how easy it is to get in and that there’s tasty stuff in there.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Like you said, the goal right now is just that they never realize how easy it is to get in and that there’s tasty stuff in there.

And if they do figure out they can get in there, some lightweight bird netting over the top long enough to deter them should do the trick. They don't particularly like bouncing off things like that.