Fencing

[Birch66724]

Hi! I am looking to add and a pen/run to my chicken coop. I have 7 hens, and they already have a 11' by 5' run, with a 5' by 5' coop.

(looks a lot small in this picture though...?)

We recently moves to this property, and just got several loads of dirt in for a garden, measuring 16' by 24' approx. which is to be fenced in as well

The plan is to have the garden fence share a wall with the chicken pen, and open the garden up to the chickens in the off season.

So my questions are:
How tall does the fence need to be?
What size should the chicken run be? ( not including the garden)
What material? ( not looking to spend more than $200 preferably, and in the words of my mother, "not look 'trailerparkish' ")
How worries should I be about aerial predators if the hens have a roof to run back under?

Sorry for the long list! I am a new chicken keeper and this is my first coop expansion of many I bet.
Thanks!
-Birch66724

 

[rosemarythyme]

How tall does the fence need to be?

I'd say 6' for two reasons. One, it's high enough that most older chickens won't routinely fly over it and two, if you decide to cover it at any point, you really want the run to be tall enough to walk into. If you or your family are over 6' tall, you might want to go even higher.

What size should the chicken run be? ( not including the garden)

For your flock, at least 70 sq ft. More is always better, especially if you think you might ever add more chickens in the future.

What material? ( not looking to spend more than $200 preferably, and in the words of my mother, "not look 'trailerparkish' ")

I personally like the look of welded wire on a wood frame, though you'd want need to add hardware cloth or smaller opening welded wire to the bottom few feet and aproned out to stop raccoons from having easy access, and to hopefully deter some other common ground based pests and predators. I have chain link with hardware cloth, but I think chain link is more expensive.

How worries should I be about aerial predators if the hens have a roof to run back under?

As I don't know your area I don't know how prevalent the birds of prey are. Assuming there's some activity you'd be better off covering the run in some manner. The cheapest option would be to add netting over the entire run, a more secure and weatherproof option would be to roof it.

 

[Birch66724]

Thank you for replying! Would they easily be able to fly over a 4 foot fence? I have never observed them flying that high

 

[rosemarythyme]

Mine have flown over 6' before. As my run sits in the center of the yard, the escaped birds simply wandered around the perimeter of the run until I could put them back, but for many setups that could mean ending up in the neighbor's yard!

 

[Birch66724]

Haha true! I am also lacking in neighbors, but I understand!