Fencing

KelBelle

Chirping
9 Years
Aug 15, 2010
110
0
99
We plan to fence in a large area for our chickens. I am going to guess it will be about 1/2 to 3/4 of an acre or so. They are currently free ranging in the yard and tall grass. They are locked up safely at night. Since they are locked up every night, do we still have to dig down and bury the fencing as well? The main reason we are going to fence in is to control what they have access to and restrict access to others in "their area".
 
We did not bury ours but made an apron on top of the grass out about a foot or more and tacked it down with garden stapels and when the grass grew up through it it pulled it down tight like strings holding it down.We also lock ours up at night and have only chicken wire so it keeps them in but anything that wanted in could get in,so far we have been lucky we did put aviary netting on the top because of the hawks.
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That sounds like a good idea. Though, I think my husband might divorce me if I try and get him to do that for 1/2 to 3/4 of an acre. LOL I guess I am unsure of what to do. Our chickens are eight weeks old. Their coop is in the lawn, but very near to the tall grass. They seem to really like both areas. So far, we haven't lost any by free ranging. We have seen hawks on at least three occasions checking them out. Oddly, they just left after few minutes each time. I am sure this has to have happened more than just those three times since we don't park it in the lawn and stare at them all day.
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I am certain that we have nearly every night time predator you can have in Wisconsin here though so we made sure that nothing can get into the coop at night. I just don't see anything roaming during the day here though. I considered just leaving them to completely free range, but I am a bit of a worrier and am concerned that they might pick something up that way. *Shrug* I am open to any ideas on our situation.
 
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My chickens have occasional access to my small goat pasture, probably about an acre. It is fenced with field fence with 4" x 4" wire spacing, keeps dogs etc. out, and I have run a hot wire around the outside about 8 inches off the ground. Their coop/run is more secure then this of course and they are in the coop at night, but for the pasture it works fine. Many a dog has trotted up to investigate and gotten a good zap on the nose from that hot wire! They leave at top speed and are not eager to come back!
 
if you have a problem with coons..running a strand of hot wire along the top will help, any predator of that sort can jump above the bottom strand. but when climbing the fence, the top strand will stop the. the bottom is absolutely necessary for cat and canine type predators.
 

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