Chain Link Fence and Chicks

[NoSpringChick]

Does anyone know what age you can put chicks in a chain link fence run, so they aren't able to walk through it?

My chicks are 4 weeks old now and I don't want to have to put another type of screen across the chain link fence.

 

[Davaroo]

Near adult. I wouldnt think less than 3 mos.

 

[NoSpringChick]

I guess I'll have to break down and line the fence with hardware cloth? Anything else I can use cheaper?

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Probably.

1" Poultry netting would work in the absence of any real predation, and is cheaper.

That stuff they make water control dams and sand breaks from around contruction sites would work, and might be scrounged up - er, "recycled" from somewhere.

Even Coroplast or plywood scrap would work until they grew - this is just temporary.

 

[chicken_angler]

I have a chain linked fence run too. I put my chickens out there at 8 weeks and they cant get through it. I would have had them out there sooner but the coop wasnt ready. Goodluck

 

[arlee453]

My birds all go out into the grow out pen at 6 wks. two sides of the pen are chainlink fence and they can't get out at that age.

At hatch they are kept in an inside brooder for a week or two. Then they go out to the large brooder made out of kennel panels lined with 1/2" hardware cloth. That brooder is inside an outbuilding with a concrete floor.

Then around 6-8 wks depending on space and weather they go out to the grow out pen which is in a corner of the chicken run. By the time they are ready to go from under the brooder light, they have always been too big to get through the chain link fence.

 

[keljonma]

We have large/standard breeds and at 4 weeks, the chicks can't get through the chain link. I know because we use chain link fencing around our blueberries.... (If you don't fence your chicks, you gotta fence the gardens.)

The BIG problem will be that any predator looking for lunch will find a way in..... What a raccoon or opposum can do to a chick stuck against the chain link fencing is not pretty.

For safety of your chick, I would personally use 1/2 or 1/4 inch hardware cloth at least 4 feet high around the chain link. And don't forget to bury some at least 6" below ground level to keep out the digging predators..

 

[swampducks]

Mine are 6 weeks old and can't get through the chain link. I've got barred rocks and guineas.

 

[Davaroo]

Well were getting lower on the "weeks of age" scale, the further this goes!

I put nothing past these birds, if experience is any teacher at all. Ive had largish birds (at least to me) scamper handily through all sorts of what I thought were chicken tight enclosures. This includes chain linked mesh.

I dont know what breed you have, you didnt say. but I'd err on the side of caution and take nothing for granted.

 

[LynneP]

The big problem is predators getting in at them. Roof?
1/2" openings? Your run could be upgraded by covering with hardware cloth.