Fencing question

[jjsw]

And how valuable are your chickens to you. Is it a $200 rare breeding stock that is the source of your income? Will your 5 year old child be inconsolable if something happens? Are they meat birds you will butcher anyway? Beloved pets? Simply livestock for production? Everyone has different relationships and expectations from their chickens.

They're just 4 golden comets we got for eggs and for the experience. Nothing fancy but my 4 year old would be a little upset if something happened. What I don't look forward to is walking in on a snake after eggs in my coop. I would really like to avoid this.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you have the budget for it, do hardware cloth all the way up the side. If that's just too much, apron out a couple of feet of hardware cloth and go up the sides a few feet, to help deter predators. The idea is this stops things like raccoons from simply reaching in and tearing out a chicken, and to deter rodents from sneaking in at the edge of the perimeter or trying to dig in. Most predators can climb so if that's a huge fear it might be worth going up higher, but for my set up it seems just having it towards the bottom is enough (because if a bear shows up, I'm not running out there to confront it!)

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Another option is to employ electric fencing......a strand or two around the base of the perimeter about four inches up is a great deterrent. Most predators nose around a bit figuring out how best to get I , nose meet hot wire.