Jem,
I have used a combination of "above ground pool surround discards and push in fence posts" for an area that could then be "netted" against a building that I use for a grow out pen.
I don't know if your chickens will be fliers or if the area will be used before their wings could be clipped if they are young. My experience is that mature chickens really "respect" a good fence and usually don't attempt to fly over if the space inside is adequate, even if they might be able to do so with effort. High fliers are a different matter (no more polish hens here!!)
I've used my five foot wooden privacy fence along two sides, and made a really big area by using just "push in" plastic fencing poles on a metal spike (not cheap) two other sides. I have even used cheap netting between the poles and just "pushed" the netting onto clips on the plastic poles---- really an "instant fence" if speed is needed, like to separate birds. This can be taken down and rearranged and put back up too. Here...if I am feeding inside such an enclosure... I have found it only takes a rodent a minute to put a hole in netting or plastic fence mesh at ground level if they want to get at food in a pen...and I can't mend the holes as fast as they can break a few strands of the plastic fencing/netting. On these "temporary fences" now permanent...I have run two feet of chicken wire at the bottom along to foil critters. a "hole" further up the fence does not create a door for chicks.
I grow bamboo....(the neighbors already hated me
) and even pretty thin canes make great additions to the "plastic fence poles" .. I zip tied stripped canes to fence poles to extend the fence post height by the canes...(to which I then zip tied the top of plastic fence netting) so that I had a four or five or six foot fence rather than a three foot fence. Using bamboo canes you can also use many fewer true fence poles by putting one or two halfway between true poles and zip tying them to the fencing materials. Luckily, I have wooden privacy fencing around about a half acre, and this is inside that....it certainly would not contain a fox, dog, raccoon or any critters who are not stopped by regular wire fencing.
Obviously, I have gone for "function" over "form" here....yeah...it is basically unattractive.
but cheap.
Edited to add this P.S. If you already have poles sunk and know what you want there....the bird netting zip tied to those poles would be great for a temporary solution, while you waited for the source of the kind of fencing you wanted to add to those poles...not necessarily even having to remove the netting as you made progress on the permanent fencing.
I have used a combination of "above ground pool surround discards and push in fence posts" for an area that could then be "netted" against a building that I use for a grow out pen.
I don't know if your chickens will be fliers or if the area will be used before their wings could be clipped if they are young. My experience is that mature chickens really "respect" a good fence and usually don't attempt to fly over if the space inside is adequate, even if they might be able to do so with effort. High fliers are a different matter (no more polish hens here!!)
I've used my five foot wooden privacy fence along two sides, and made a really big area by using just "push in" plastic fencing poles on a metal spike (not cheap) two other sides. I have even used cheap netting between the poles and just "pushed" the netting onto clips on the plastic poles---- really an "instant fence" if speed is needed, like to separate birds. This can be taken down and rearranged and put back up too. Here...if I am feeding inside such an enclosure... I have found it only takes a rodent a minute to put a hole in netting or plastic fence mesh at ground level if they want to get at food in a pen...and I can't mend the holes as fast as they can break a few strands of the plastic fencing/netting. On these "temporary fences" now permanent...I have run two feet of chicken wire at the bottom along to foil critters. a "hole" further up the fence does not create a door for chicks.
I grow bamboo....(the neighbors already hated me
) and even pretty thin canes make great additions to the "plastic fence poles" .. I zip tied stripped canes to fence poles to extend the fence post height by the canes...(to which I then zip tied the top of plastic fence netting) so that I had a four or five or six foot fence rather than a three foot fence. Using bamboo canes you can also use many fewer true fence poles by putting one or two halfway between true poles and zip tying them to the fencing materials. Luckily, I have wooden privacy fencing around about a half acre, and this is inside that....it certainly would not contain a fox, dog, raccoon or any critters who are not stopped by regular wire fencing. Obviously, I have gone for "function" over "form" here....yeah...it is basically unattractive.
but cheap.Edited to add this P.S. If you already have poles sunk and know what you want there....the bird netting zip tied to those poles would be great for a temporary solution, while you waited for the source of the kind of fencing you wanted to add to those poles...not necessarily even having to remove the netting as you made progress on the permanent fencing.
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