fencing advice

[llandry]

We have a decent sized back yard and i wanted to section off a portion for a free range area. Last summer was our first summer with our chickens and they destroyed my veggie and herb garden, some of my flower beds, and obviously pooped everywhere. I really want them to free range during the day though. I love it as much as they do.

I wanted to put up a fence so their coop and run would be enclosed in their own fenced off section. The purpose of this fence is not for predators so i'm not looking to cover it. They have a solid coop and an enclosed run for when i'm not home.

My husband wants to put up electric fencing to contain them. I was thinking more along the lines of the same sort of fencing material but that the electric aspect was a bit over kill. His concern is that the girls will just fly over a 4-5' fence. Won't they just fly over the electric fence too?

Any advice?

 

[flockoffour]

I had a similar problem, as well as a hawk attack, so I figured out a way to prevent these problems. I took pvc pipes and made a large cube-like structure, and then got garden netting and put it over the entire cube (you can make it very large) and then for extra precaution, I took chicken wire around the very bottom part so the chickens could not get tangled in the net. I will post a picture if I can find one, I hope this helps!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, the electric part won’t stop them. If they touch it with their comb or wattles they’ll get shocked but their feathers will insulate them. They would not touch it flying over it anyway. Electricity is great for stopping predators, not so much in keeping the chickens in.

Full-sized fully grown chickens can easily fly over a 5’ high fence, but I keep mine in 4’ high electric netting. They are just not motivated to get out. They are living animals. It’s hard to say exactly what any individual one will do. I’ve had hens that would fly out of a smaller 5’ high run every day once they learned they could get out.

A couple of things I’ll mention. If it is big enough, they will have less motivation to get out. I think mine learned to get out of the run when they were trying to avoid an amorous rooster that had them trapped on a corner. In a bigger run, they would have been less likely to be trapped.

The other is that it is pretty normal for chickens to like to perch. If the top of your fence gives them a place to perch, they could easily just fly up there. Who knows what side they will decide to hop down on? So don’t put a top rail that looks like a landing pad to them and maybe extend the wire a bit above your posts.

No guarantees but you can probably contain your chickens in an area like this with this type of fencing. The electric is great for keeping many predators out, but it really is not that effective on keeping the chickens in.

 

[llandry]

Thanks! You made some good suggestions to consider. I am going to section off a pretty decent sized piece of my yard. I'm hoping as you mention, there should be no reason to bother trying to fly out. I also only have 5 hens, no roos to bother them.

Thanks for the tip about a support bar. I agree that it would be calling them to "come roost on me!" i also never realized that their feathers would insulate them. Now that i think of it, duh.

You said you use the 4' high fencing though right?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had some that flew out of the 5' high run. Like I said, probably an amorous rooster.

I have no trouble keeping them in a 4' high electric netting. The area inside that netting is about 30' x 65'.

 

[llandry]

Thank you! I'm looking at about the same size area. Is there a difference between electric fencing and electric netting?

 

[blueseal]

I use the 5ft high 2x4 mesh galvanized welded wire for my chickens. lowes or home depot its around 50 dollars for a 50 ft roll. the only chicken that I have that will fly over it is my white leghorns if the get chased or spooked they can sail right over.

 

[jackhorn01]

I have New Hampshire reds and barred rocks in a run with 5' welded wire. They never even attempt to fly over it. That could be because my set up is overboard and huge, maybe they just don't have a reason to i dunno.

 

[jackhorn01]

Its 890 sq feet