Huge Chicken Coop

[SueT]

What does that do?

Electric poultry netting is moveable w built in posts, so you can easily move chickens to fresh grazing. I have a friend who has been using it for years. It's only the 42" high, but they don't fly over it. The first year she trimmed wings, and they got used to thinking they can't fly. New additions to the flock have just gone along with that assumption. If you Google electric poultry netting, you'll see what it looks like....

 

[DuckPro]

 

[BYCforlife]

View attachment 1100086

Yup. Electrified chicken wire was my best example.

 

[perchie.girl]

Oh,
Don't they die when they get zapped?

Oh no... The voltage is in milivolts only enough to sting.... Thats what the job of the fence charger is.... to deal out teeny tiny little zaps.

deb

 

[Shadetree Stan]

...I find that the light gauge chicken wire, 1 in, is great for overhead netting on my 50'X50' run. I placed 3 strategically located 8' T posts and support the overhead netting with fencing wire strung from perimeter posts to center posts. My perimeter fence is 6' welded wire in two 3' lifts...it was a bargain or I would have used chicken netting for it all. Our predators are coons, possums, feral animals, hawks and owls. I live trap and/or 22 caliber control. Snakes are allowed to eat eggs with pins in them.

 

[WVduckchick]

Oh no... The voltage is in milivolts only enough to sting.... Thats what the job of the fence charger is.... to deal out teeny tiny little zaps.

deb

I touch mine...on purpose!... every few days, just to be sure its still working. it's not much more than the jolt from rubbing your socks on the carpet, then touching someone's nose

I also walk the perimeter with clippers to cut any grass/debris that may touch it and ground it out.

 

[MrPepers]

I'd suggest hardware cloth like everyone else. Your chicken wire may have worked for now and it's true that it is way cheaper (I was even planning on using it for my new run before this thread!), but if/when a predator breaks down your chicken wire and gets in, you'll just be losing your poor chickens, and your chicken wire. In the end, a waste of money on the wire, and (this feels so wrong for me to say! ) on your poor chickens since they could all be wiped out in minutes. They could be fine for 10 more years with chicken wire, but the second a predator really wants one of your chickens and your roo, guinea fowl, or you aren't there to alert you/chase off/kill the predator, you're going to at least lose a couple.

I hope you understand that hardware cloth isn't invincible and a predator can still kill all of your birds.

 

[MrPepers]

hey could be fine for 10 more years with chicken wire, but the second a predator really wants one of your chickens and your roo, guinea fowl, or you aren't there to alert you/chase off/kill the predator, you're going to at least lose a couple.

That is what the chicken wire is for. To stop predators when I can't.

 

[chippysmom]

Here is our outdoor pen. It has posts at the gate and the corners. One side of the pen is our greenhouse. Our "soil" is actually rock, and to dig a hole for a post takes hours, so hubby used t-posts. The fencing isn't chicken wire but it wasn't horribly expensive. We have woods all around us with lots of predators. I did see a coyote run up out of the woods and into the fence, I guess he couldn't see it, with his eyes on our chickens. On top we have bird netting held up with string, we've tried many types of string and none of it lasts very long, but it's fairly easy to replace. Mainly to keep out hawks. I ran the bird netting along the long side and then tied them together. A 55 gal drum with a nest box inside and a few places to get under when raining. Let me say that the birds (we only have 5 out there now) go across the yard to a coop at night but we are trying to figure out a way to get a small garden shed in there to use as a coop so we can have all our chickens together in one spot. We don't get much snow but that can also cause the bird netting to collapse. I'd say the pen is 36x 20. My tips is that unless you intend to walk around in your large pen a lot, you really don't need to have it very tall.

 

[Leighe]

View attachment 1103182 Here is our outdoor pen. It has posts at the gate and the corners. One side of the pen is our greenhouse. Our "soil" is actually rock, and to dig a hole for a post takes hours, so hubby used t-posts. The fencing isn't chicken wire but it wasn't horribly expensive. We have woods all around us with lots of predators. I did see a coyote run up out of the woods and into the fence, I guess he couldn't see it, with his eyes on our chickens. On top we have bird netting held up with string, we've tried many types of string and none of it lasts very long, but it's fairly easy to replace. Mainly to keep out hawks. I ran the bird netting along the long side and then tied them together. A 55 gal drum with a nest box inside and a few places to get under when raining. Let me say that the birds (we only have 5 out there now) go across the yard to a coop at night but we are trying to figure out a way to get a small garden shed in there to use as a coop so we can have all our chickens together in one spot. We don't get much snow but that can also cause the bird netting to collapse. I'd say the pen is 36x 20. My tips is that unless you intend to walk around in your large pen a lot, you really don't need to have it very tall.View attachment 1103182 View attachment 1103183 View attachment 1103184

Well, for me being able to walk upright is important. My coop is in my large pen and I need to clean it, collect eggs and when it rains they have to stay in there, or to check chickens. I had a run that I had to bend into to get in and then stay bent....this ol' gal can't do that anymore, lol. If I had little ones around I could send them in .