What a wonderful day here in the piedmont of NC - gorgeous blue sky and nice temps.
I spent this afternoon finishing up the top of the chicken yard. I'm paranoid about my dogs getting the chickens - especially until they are full grown.
AND, I got this incubator thing going now - awaiting my silky eggs from Jen this week, so it gave me the kick in the pants I needed to finish up the chicken yard.
You can see the yard in my avatar. I'll post pics of the finished product in the morning - it was too dark when I finished this evening to get good pics.
I have the chickNBarn, run and attached pen, where the girls are living now. They are quickly outgrowing that space. Before we went on vacation, I ran a length of chain link fence to divide the yard into a dog area and a chicken area. The chicken area is about 20' by 80'.
I didn't want the chickens to fly over the fence either into the dog part of the yard, the dog pen where my collies are OR out the back into the woods/brushy area. So, I took 3/4" PVC pipes and connected them 3 together to make a 30' length. Then I used those wire hose clamps to clamp the PVC supports to my fence posts to make arcs over the chicken area.
I used deer netting to run over the tops of the arcs and attached the netting to the fence, PVC arcs with cable ties. I also used cable ties to attach the lengths of netting together.
Total cost of the cover - about $60. I had to use 3 rolls of the netting (it was 7x100 feet), plus part of a roll I had left over from putting the top on the existing pen. I made 8 arcs.
Keep in mind, the intent of the netting is to keep the chickens IN, not to keep predators out. They will be shut in their coop at night. The netting is surprisingly strong, but would not keep out a determined pest.
I'll take some pics of the finished area tomorrow in the daylight. I'm very pleased with the results so far. Now, I need to work on moving the girls into the new coop and run over the next couple weeks while we are waiting on the eggs to hatch. Any successful hatched silkies will move into the ChickNBarn.
OK, here's the pics. You really can't see the deer netting over the top - it's just too fine a mesh to show up on the camera.
From far away so you can see the size of the pen.
A little closer up so you can see the PVC supports.
I spent this afternoon finishing up the top of the chicken yard. I'm paranoid about my dogs getting the chickens - especially until they are full grown.
AND, I got this incubator thing going now - awaiting my silky eggs from Jen this week, so it gave me the kick in the pants I needed to finish up the chicken yard.
You can see the yard in my avatar. I'll post pics of the finished product in the morning - it was too dark when I finished this evening to get good pics.
I have the chickNBarn, run and attached pen, where the girls are living now. They are quickly outgrowing that space. Before we went on vacation, I ran a length of chain link fence to divide the yard into a dog area and a chicken area. The chicken area is about 20' by 80'.
I didn't want the chickens to fly over the fence either into the dog part of the yard, the dog pen where my collies are OR out the back into the woods/brushy area. So, I took 3/4" PVC pipes and connected them 3 together to make a 30' length. Then I used those wire hose clamps to clamp the PVC supports to my fence posts to make arcs over the chicken area.
I used deer netting to run over the tops of the arcs and attached the netting to the fence, PVC arcs with cable ties. I also used cable ties to attach the lengths of netting together.
Total cost of the cover - about $60. I had to use 3 rolls of the netting (it was 7x100 feet), plus part of a roll I had left over from putting the top on the existing pen. I made 8 arcs.
Keep in mind, the intent of the netting is to keep the chickens IN, not to keep predators out. They will be shut in their coop at night. The netting is surprisingly strong, but would not keep out a determined pest.
I'll take some pics of the finished area tomorrow in the daylight. I'm very pleased with the results so far. Now, I need to work on moving the girls into the new coop and run over the next couple weeks while we are waiting on the eggs to hatch. Any successful hatched silkies will move into the ChickNBarn.
OK, here's the pics. You really can't see the deer netting over the top - it's just too fine a mesh to show up on the camera.
From far away so you can see the size of the pen.
A little closer up so you can see the PVC supports.
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