Building a portable pen with electric

I like to let my chickens free-range, but I am noticing an issue. They really like to hang around in areas I don't want them hanging around in--the porch, on the cars, in the goats' feeders, the vegetable garden--and they ignore areas that would be really good foraging ground--the compost pile, around the hay stacks, under trees... So I'm thinking of making them a good size portable pen that I can move them around in, so they will stay out of the places I don't want them, and actually get out there and find food and get their lazy butts away from the grain bin, where they sit half the day hoping for a handout.

I know people are using electric netting with portable corral kits. That netting is super expensive though, so I'm trying to come up with something homemade. I have most of the parts from a portable electric horse corral, but it is made for six strands of electric wire, and I just don't see that holding chickens in, especially bantams or young birds. If I were to take the wire and weave verticals between the six strands, so it is sort of a net that they can't get through, could I hook the charger up to that and have a homemade electrical wire net? Or, what if I wove a non-conductive something through it to make a netting between the strands? I could make the pen that way without the electric, but I think it would be nice if I could hook that up too (I've got a battery powered charger) for extra security. I'm guessing that probably would not work, but it's a crazy thought I had. I have little money but tons of time and wire.

 

The garden is fenced, but they fly over it, the fence is only meant to keep rabbits out. (Wing clipping is not an option, not on such a large number of birds who need to be able to fly to escape danger) The land belongs to my in-laws, who want it left completely natural and do not want permanent fences put up. Not to mention the expense of doing so, to fence them out of areas they don't belong would cost many hundreds of dollars and many days of back breaking labor to set solid fence posts. Even if I had the go-ahead from the in-laws, why would I spend so much money (which I don't have in the first place) on a place I could move out of hopefully within the next year or two.

Nothing you can make is going to work as well as the real thing

Maybe. Maybe not. Lots of people tell me that about raising my own food, it won't be as good as what I can buy at the store...Hasn't stopped me yet.
It doesn't have to be "as good" as long as it WORKS. I just want to know if it will WORK. My ugly pallet chicken coop might not work "as good" as one built professionally that cost hundreds of dollars. But it WORKS. My chickens are healthy and comfortable. I don't have much money to buy things right now, I think I own a total of $15, and who knows when I will get more? When money is that tight, you really start to think about doing more for yourself than just buying everything ready-made.​