Gardens & Coop design questions

[roerinaci]

Good Morning..I came across an article about incorporating 2 gardens with a chicken coop..there would be a garden on each side of the coop and I would rotate each growing season with chickens inside 1 garden and growing veggie in the other..my question is should i still put the extra fencing <Hardwire> under the parameter being they would only be there during the day and the fencing around the garden can that be a regular garden fencing with netting on top to keep hawks out..My coop would be completely prededor proof with hardwire and elevated with a chicken run under the coop..Am I on the right track ?? Any advice or suggestions

 

[ECBW]

The buried hardware fabric is to prevent predators digging under and thru your fence rather than chickens digging their way out.

It is a great concept. It also requires additional resource to build the enclosures. Mucho dinero if the enclosures are large.

Depending on your flock size to land to garden ratio, you may not need to invest to that degree. My small flock of 5 to 9 does not consume enough to dent the vegetation on my 50x100 lawn and surrounding woods.

 

[roerinaci]

Good Morning Yes my 2 gardens would be 20x30 If i used coated galvanized wire with netting over the top and the buried hardwire would that keep the predators out during the day..my concern is if they would be safe with my idea..

 

[lazy gardener]

I assume you are burying the wire either vertically down or horizontally out about 18" around each of the run/garden plots? And you are NOT using chicken wire? What size mesh welded wire are you using, and how high will the fencing be? For the most part, your plan sounds good. However, weasels are capable of getting through any 1" opening. They are serial killers, and will kill during the day. That being said, it's totally impossible to keep a flock entirely predator proof. A determined bear can not be stopped. The important thing is to reduce your risk to a level that you can tolerate and that will fit within your budget. If you shut them in their coop every night, you will go a long way toward keeping them safe.

 

[roerinaci]

Thank You for your response..yes they will be locked in every night..No I won't be using chicken wire to me it's just to thin..Didn't know about weasels during the day Thanks for that tidbit I'm researching my options now for my fencing..This idea is not completely free ranging but I'm a little leary of completely free ranging ..We're looking to move to NW Georgia and I'm doing my research Oh yes I will be burying the hardwire as you said..

 

[kristipwith3]

I have two pens that both have access to the big garden and I rotate my flock from pen to pen to let the ground heal and give them something new each day. On hot days, they have them both. My girls were too little in the spring to go out into the garden but now they can. I sure appreciate their help with the bugs (I organically garden) and helping me eat all of the tomatoes that I don't need anymore.

The two runs and garden are fenced with Garden and Orchard wire from Red Brand Co. at Farm and Fleet (TSC or Rural King has it too). It is really small on the bottom and gets larger towards the top and is 6' high. When they were little, we added another layer of chicken wire to double up the holes they could fit through - if they really tried to get out. We didn't bury any of the wire but did plant a lot of plants around the border and raised the beds a bit. The garden alone is 5,000 square feet so to add more fencing would be too much. If we have any day time problems, we will add a low hot wire to just the coop runs.


With this set up, they chickens will be free range-ish but safe the majority of the year.