My Pea Pen - Irene Took Down!! *UPDATED W/PICS*

[new 2 pfowl]

Oh no!!
Is everypea ok?

 

[Yoda]

All the Peas are in the shed. You can see the beginning of the shed in the first pic to the right. It is black cause it has not been sided yet. We didn't know if I was going to keep the she in that place or move it so it didn't the vinyl siding installed yet.

I am going to patch the center pen and tie up the holes in the netting so I can let them out. It will hold for a temp fix. I am going to redo the outside wrap around pens cause most of the 4x6 yard timber snapped at the ground level. Gonna get 4x4x10s for the outside and 4x4x12s for the inside pens. This way when you look at the pen it will be 8 feet and the end and then 10 around the center and 12 feet at the center and work back to 8 feet on the other end. Gonna try to get cable so the netting won't demolish it again.

 

[zazouse]

WOW it's a shame you could not place them in that big red barn in the back of the photo.. that would be a pea heaven in the winter.. do they like to get out in the snow?

 

[Yoda]

Mine love to go out in the snow but which one is going to go out first LMAO!
The red barn is not on my property, it's on the horse farm behind me. That red barn is actually in desperate need of being demolished and rebuild LOL The only good part is the roof LOL. They feed the horses inside it and then release them. It use to be an old small cow barn so the stalls are straight in like you see for cows. My peas would tell you the shed is a palace compared to that LOL!
We did do a temp. fix on the pen. The center is up and the netting is zip ties back together so I let them out today. The breeder pens that wrap around the center pen only two are temp. fixed but they will all be replaced.
Where does one get the "wire" that they run across the top of the pens? or do you use something else? I am trying to figure out what I can use so when this happens again next year the entire pen will not cave in and get smashed. I will post pictures of my Temp. fix tomorrow.

 

[Trefoil]

Yoda- was (is) the netting knotted? I'm in Michigan and afraid of this happening. A lot of people say that the knotted netting doesn't hold the snow and I would like to believe it. On a much smaller scale I had this happen with poultry wire, but since I've upped the support I haven't had a problem. I got the cable at an auction, but you could probably get it at a farm store or directly from the manufacturer. It might be called guy (sp?) wire or twisted cable or something like that, how heavy you need it depends on how close together you are going to put the supports. I hope you have better luck in the coming years, you've earned it.

 

[connerhills]

Yoda ,, It is possible to get barbless barbwire which works good.. I use it on most of my pens . Comes in rolls like barbwire does... George

 

[casportpony]

At TSC http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/barbless-cable

 

[Yoda]

Yoda- was (is) the netting knotted? I'm in Michigan and afraid of this happening. A lot of people say that the knotted netting doesn't hold the snow and I would like to believe it. On a much smaller scale I had this happen with poultry wire, but since I've upped the support I haven't had a problem. I got the cable at an auction, but you could probably get it at a farm store or directly from the manufacturer. It might be called guy (sp?) wire or twisted cable or something like that, how heavy you need it depends on how close together you are going to put the supports. I hope you have better luck in the coming years, you've earned it.

Yes it is heavy knotted netting. We had a blizzaed last month and nothing happened to the pen and this time it was a wet snow. My news station said 3-6 inches which I am almost certain the net help for, but we got 12-13 inches and the net pulled everything inward and the outside poles and some of the cross beams on the pearches snapped like match sticks. I just have to figure out a way for the cable to hold up as well as the wood LOL

Thanks George!!!!
Thanks for the link Casportpony!

 

[connerhills]

Another peafowl farm that was hit by the snow.. go to Brad leggs site and look at his link.. Brad is about 175 miles North of me and we only got about 2-3 inches here ,, I think he said around 30 inches in 2 or 3 days... Wish I could help ..... George

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Yoda,first time I have really read this thread from start to finish. I understand your anguish first with the tree now with the heavy snow.I've been fortunate so far here and with this being the first winter season for my 50x50 area of 9 breeding pens I too was very concerned with some of the snow we had the past few months.We had several instances of freezing rain and at one point my top netting looked like a solid sheet of glass. I don't know,maybe it was because I criss-ctossed between all my poles as well as each perimeter of each square of wood posts,but even when we had all the ice my netting was not sagging in the least.There was noticable dips between the poles but not much more than 3-4"s was all.
As much as I dread it I think I will start building the west side aviary in early april.I was hoping to ward off the urge for expanding but thats not the case. If I were closer I'd help you rebuild.For some reason it's always easier to work on projects that financially show no reward but the inner peace we have with the end product is always priceless.