Im getting peafowl. problem: ive never had them and know nothing about them. please help.

[MeepBeep]

I love your fencing- where did you find 12 gauge wire fencing with the small holes?  And  how did you secure your netting to the building?

You can get 16 gauge 1" x 1" or 1" x 1/2" at Lowes, I was looking at it recently to re-do the windows on my coop building...

http://www.lowes.com/pd_52247-16418-840086_0__?productId=50029250

http://www.lowes.com/pd_52347-16418-840093_0__?productId=50029252

That or try a local livestock swap, around me there is always some cage builder there that also sells the heavy gauged tight mesh by the roll...

 

[Garden Peas]

You can get 16 gauge 1" x 1" or 1" x 1/2" at Lowes, I was looking at it recently to re-do the windows on my coop building...

http://www.lowes.com/pd_52247-16418-840086_0__?productId=50029250

http://www.lowes.com/pd_52347-16418-840093_0__?productId=50029252

That or try a local livestock swap, around me there is always some cage builder there that also sells the heavy gauged tight mesh by the roll...

That's good stuff -- but 12 gauge is HUGE



Dylan's Mom -- was that stuff really hard to work with? How wide were the rolls? What on earth did you lift them with -- they must have weighed... a lot? My hand hurts when I cut even little wire mesh ... what did you use to cut it with?

 

[Garden Peas]

Well, I looked it up, I guess it's only about 100 lb per roll, so not TOO heavy

Not as bad as chain link, I suppose (which is definitely not good critter fencing) -- that always takes a couple people just to pick up the darned rolls...

 

[Trefoil]

Well, I looked it up, I guess it's only about 100 lb per roll, so not TOO heavy

Not as bad as chain link, I suppose (which is definitely not good critter fencing) -- that always takes a couple people just to pick up the darned rolls...

Where did you find it? I've looked all over and 16g was the best I could find in 1", and that only in 48' tall. We have weasels so I have to either use 1/2" for the first couple of feet or overcoat it with 1/2".

 

[DylansMom]

I love your fencing- where did you find 12 gauge wire fencing with the small holes? And how did you secure your netting to the building?

We got the wire from Riverdale Mills, in MA. We ran a cable along the side of the barn thru open eyelet hooks for support, the netting is ziptied to the cable. In the winter we will get snow load on the barn roof and by doing this we can lift the cable out of the eyelets and slide it away from the wall until the snow slides off.

This is similar, but I think mine was 72" tall and definately 12 gauge. They have their own website and lots more variety than they show on ebay. I called directly and ordered it 2 rolls weighed over 800 lbs, so it is very heavy duty.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-5x3-12-5G...05&prg=10778&rk=6&rkt=6&sd=171182192511&rt=nc

 

[DylansMom]

To prevent the netting from sagging, many people will use coated cables or rope attached to a center pole going out to a corner post of the pen. My current pen does not have cables or rope to help hold up the netting, and I can see why it is better to have that extra support. After a few years now my netting is low in some areas and fine in others. Also consider if the pen is right under a tree. You will get so annoyed removing sticks off of the netting. The oak tree next to my pen is always shedding sticks and the corner of the pen is covered in sticks and I can clean it one day only to have more in the netting the next day. I love the tree so it isn't like I would just cut down the tree.

Yes they will. I don't know if my raccoon issue was from them chewing through or if the post had already rubbed a hole in the netting for them to enter through, but they came in and killed a fully grown peacock. In total I have lost 3 peafowl to raccoons since I have been raising peafowl. I still think that netting is good even if raccoons can chew through it, so that is why I think my best option is surrounding the pen with hot wire.

The above photo shows the use of cable or rope to help hold up the netting.
I second the part about getting knotted netting instead of knitted. I think if knotted netting rips it isn't as big a deal like it would be if knitted netting rips. Some people do use knitted netting and say it lasts long too, but far more people recommend going with the knotted netting and the large scale ring neck pheasant breeders use knotted netting and with the massive netted flight pens they build, they ought to know what they are talking about as far as netting goes.

Dylansmom did you concrete the wooden posts into the ground?

Yes we had to, our wire was 400-some pounds per roll, to support it the posts had to be cemented in.

 

[DylansMom]

And can you tell us what the dimensions are, and how tall the pole center support is? Are those diagonal support wires supporting the netting?

Your pens are awesome!

Thanks, center pole is 8' I think, the runs themselves are 20' x 30', each out door pen serves 2 indoor pens. So there are 2 doors that open into each outdoor area, sometimes they have to take turns being out, but I wanted a larger area rather than a bunch of small areas. Diagonal cables are supporting the netting, but we are still seeing a bit of "Sag" in one spot so we will have to tighten that up. Birds seem to love the areas so I am pretty happy with them.

 

[KsKingBee]

Thanks to everyone involved, this is turning into a very helpful thread for a lot of people.

 

[DylansMom]

That's good stuff -- but 12 gauge is HUGE



Dylan's Mom -- was that stuff really hard to work with? How wide were the rolls? What on earth did you lift them with -- they must have weighed... a lot? My hand hurts when I cut even little wire mesh ... what did you use to cut it with?

Somehow I missed this here at the bottom!

My hubby owns a sheet metal business, so he is very used to working with all kinds of metal, and he has all the tools needed. He used some sort of handheld cutting wheel to cut each section to length, height was 72". He used our bobcat to move the rolls and when a piece was ready to go on, him and a neighbor fella were able to lift them into place and use some Gigantic industrial strength stapler to attach them. Can you tell the "how" of all this is not my area of expertise!

I design and purchase materials, he assembles. I accept pen building and repair as birthday and Christmas gifts, works out well as he hates to shop.

He said it wasn't bad to work with and because of the PVC it was easier on the hands than regular wire.
What did we lift them with?..... 2 Strong men.
Just say 400 pounds for 100', longest sections were 30' .....so 120 lbs. max weight on 1 section.

 

[casportpony]

 


I love your fencing- where did you find 12 gauge wire fencing with the small holes?  And  how did you secure your netting to the building?

We got the wire from Riverdale Mills, in MA. We ran a cable along the side of the barn thru open eyelet hooks for support, the netting is ziptied to the cable. In the winter we will get snow load on the barn roof and by doing this we can lift the cable out of the eyelets and slide it away from the wall until the snow slides off.

This is similar, but I think mine was 72" tall and definately 12 gauge. They have their own website and lots more variety than they show on ebay. I called directly and ordered it 2 rolls weighed over 800 lbs, so it is very heavy duty.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-5x3-12-5G...05&prg=10778&rk=6&rkt=6&sd=171182192511&rt=nc

Curiously, how much was shipping?

-Kathy