Aviary Netting

[Chris623]

After much head and chin scratchin', I've decided about the only way I'm gonna "keep 'em down on the farm"

is to install an aviary netting over the entire top of my chicken pen. I've given up thinking I can keep the population count up and let them free range. (too many predators out here in the woods) And having already experienced the joy of free ranging, I can't seem to keep them in a pen. But I've a concern. I live in Central Oklahoma, where we frequently experience ice storms. I use similar netting on my fencing and have never noticed any problem with ice, but never in a horizontal installation like the tent over a pen. Has anyone had experiences with ice and aviary netting being a problem?

 

[panner123]

I tried netting one time. Worked O K until it snowed. It all came down. If you have a large area to cover, try this first. Instreasd of covering, place chicken wire on an angle away from the fence outward at the top. This works the same way as chicken wire at the bottom. So your free range chickens have a yard that looks like this ]. The predators can't go under and they can't go over. At least they haven't when I have used this. I have watched a coon go up the fence and try to go out the top piece, only to fall off. After a couple of trys, it just walked off. To much trouble I guess.

 

[kartking22]

As a resident of Northeast Wisconsin, I may have a few suggestions.

1st- Buy a good sturdy netting. Woven netting is cheap but I found that racoons can rip through this very easily. I would suggest knotted netting over woven.
2nd- Determine what size netting that you need. 2" knotted netting will allow more rain and snow to fall through without accumulating and weighing down the top net. Although you might think that this would be my choice, I opted for the 1" netting because of the predatory owls that spook my birds and cause them to fly. The birds get their heads caught in the 2" netting which gives the owls a free partial lunch or they just hang themselves.

My coop has supports every 10 square feet to keep the weight of the snow from tearing the top net. Posts with and old hub cap nailed on top keeps it suspended and free to move if snow builds up in one area more than another. Don't ever secure your netting other than around the perimeter of your coop or run. Let the top be free to take up any weight on top or possible bird flying up into it.
The only time that I have problems with my netting is when we have heavy wet snow. With the supports, I am able to go into the coop and bump the netting until the snow falls through.

Not really sure if Oklahoma gets as much snow as I do but you can use my example as a "most extreme" situation.

I always like to be one step ahead of weather and predators. A few extra dollars spent to ensure the safety of your birds is less than the cost of losing them and replacing the cheap stuff with what you really need. LOL. I found this out the hard way. I hope that you don't need to.

 

[sbates]

I used the black plastic deer fencing for the same purpose. Have some pics here. http://www.swampyacresfarm.com/home/chickens
The "openings" are big enough so that I don't usually have much of a problem with ice and snow. Once in a great while, if it is wet/rainy, then gets cold the net will ice and collapse in a section or two. But it is a quick fix to wire tire it back up. This happens maybe twice a winter. I think if I put more supports this could be prevented entirely. Anyway, this still seems to work great for my needs.

 

[poultrygeist]

I also found the 1 " netting on-line and used it this way!

 

[Wifezilla]

Nice set up!

I used deer netting. I had to throw together an aviary really fast and that is what I could find locally. I didn't need to build it because my ducks can fly or anything (they are Welsh Harlequins...they fly like bricks

) but because a hawk hand found us and beheaded 2 of my girls. So far no more losses.

 

[PetersonD]

Poultrygeist,

Nice setup! What company did you get your netting from?