chicksandchickens
Chirping
I am loosing my mind to this fencing business. We are new in keeping poultry. Currently we have 5 baby ducks that live at night in the box in the utility room and during nice warm days outside in a cage / tractor that we have constructed. We can cope with the status quo for another two weeks, but they are outgrowing their brooder and starting to get their real feathers and so will have to move them into their coop soon. In addition to that we are any moment expecting a breeder to call us our chickens are ready for collection and we are still in the middle of our fence construction. We hoped to build around 30m perimeter run with wooden 100x100x2100 mm fence posts with heavier gauge welded metal mesh roll fence. Originally we aimed for 50x50ml holes, but all fences we are finding are either in 25m rolls (which would not be enough as a 1 roll and would become too expensive if we were to get 2x25m – this project is getting so very expensive already!) or we found an option of a good deal 12 gauge 75x75 mm for 50m. We have foxes and badgers living in the area and so we are hoping to add a net skirting at the bottom and a cranked outwards bracket with wires or netting on the top. Do you think 75mm holes would be sufficient to keep the chickens from escaping (we are to have quite large breeds like Orpingtons) and keeping most predators out? Many thanks for any advice!
We have built our fence now. 2.1m tall with additional climb-proof outwards 0.5m overhang and 0.5m outwards skirting covered with turf. The holes are 50x75mm, heavy gauge. The ducklings now live locked in the coop within the fenced run, but we would really love to start keeping their door open at night to avoid keeping water inside spoiling the bedding constantly. The heat should not be a problem anymore, I guess, since they are 8 weeks old. The fence looks mighty, but keeping their coop open at night still makes me nervous.
