Anchoring Chicken wire to ground...tips?

[jed1154]

So i have my run up, and its all good. THe wire is about as tight as it can be for a 50x25 run, though its not as tight as id like it. Im used to stretching barbed wire and chain link, so to me, any wave it in it is too loose. Anyway, onto the problem at hand...the wire it attached to the posts at the ground, however, what is at the ground at the post is not at the ground 4' away. THe solution so far that i have is to bring up a few buckets of dirt with the loaded to get that area more lever. However, if there was a way to anchor it so that is ran the contours of the ground, that would really be best.

WHat do you guys do?

 

[SSO202]

If you have access to dirt I would just put dirt on top of it and plant some sort of grass/wildflower seed in it. You could also look for earth staples. They use them to hold sod or grass seed mats in place on slopes. Good Luck!

 

[jed1154]

Yeah, the dirt will be free. Its just that we are concerned it might rot the wire. However, i have chicken wire buried at my childhood home that is nearly 30 years old, and while it is rusted, it is not rotted.

 

[patandchickens]

Or, do like they do with chainlink fences and run a heavy-gauge wire along the bottom, tensioned as much as you can between posts. Either weave it in and out of the chickenwire or just attach the chickenwire to it with zipties or little bits of wire.

Or, add grade boards (preferably something rot-resistant) - they do not have to be absolutely ON the ground for this purpose, as long as they are close enough down that when the wire is stapled to the grade boards they'll hold it straight so it does not curl up above the ground, you know?

Or, attach an apron made of another piece of chickenwire or whatever (just sew it to the bottom of the existing chickenwire with wire or zipties, sticking out parallel to the ground) and weight it down in strategic places with rocks, pavers, broken up cement chunks, or use wire pins to pin it all down. The apron will help digproof your fence too.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[ericana]

i've got chainlink for most of my chickenyard, it is in separate panels of pipe frames with the chainlink streched on each panel. the panels are connected with these little connector brackets. this has dealt with most of the elevation changes very nicely, there was one small spot that i filled in with dirt.

 

[jed1154]

Thanks for the tips folks! I just filled in the areas with dirt, so that should take care of the problem.