Netting suggestion?

[affacat]

I have an area that I'd like to expand my turkey flock in during the day. It's a 'tunnel'/aisle about 10-15 ft wide from a structure to a chain link fence. When I let my turkeys out in it without any top coverage they often hop the fence into my neighbor's yard which is a problem because we then have to have my neighbors catch them and toss them over the fence.

My biggest issue is that the area will get a lot of leaves and such. I've used bird netting in the past and it always sags and has other issues especially when there's leaves and branches and snow. Turkeys are pretty big so I don't need anything fine like a bird netting, and would love something that the majority of leaves would just dall through. This is not for protection, I just want something the turkeys can't fly through. I realize anything I use will sag some but I'm hoping to figure out a way to minimize that to some extent so we can still walk in there easily. Building an entire structure seems like absolute overkill, but it's the only option I can think of but also not worth the time and expense versus other priorities.

Any ideas?

 

[Perris]

is the tunnel such that you could run a coloured cord down it from side to side, spaced so that the turkeys would be deterred from trying to fly between them?

 

[affacat]

is the tunnel such that you could run a coloured cord down it from side to side, spaced so that the turkeys would be deterred from trying to fly between them?

Yes, something like that is possible though I don't know if it would work? My fear is independent cables would all sag to different levels and it wouldnt end up working. In my head I see some sort of bird netting with a far bigger grid pattern, but my limited searching failed to find anything suitable . A good solution may not exist...

 

[affacat]

Does anyone have any experience with this?

https://www.gourock.com/KNNPB364.html

4 inch grid. That might do the trick.

 

[gtaus]

I have an area that I'd like to expand my turkey flock in during the day. It's a 'tunnel'/aisle about 10-15 ft wide from a structure to a chain link fence. When I let my turkeys out in it without any top coverage they often hop the fence into my neighbor's yard which is a problem because we then have to have my neighbors catch them and toss them over the fence.

My biggest issue is that the area will get a lot of leaves and such. I've used bird netting in the past and it always sags and has other issues especially when there's leaves and branches and snow. Turkeys are pretty big so I don't need anything fine like a bird netting, and would love something that the majority of leaves would just dall through. This is not for protection, I just want something the turkeys can't fly through. I realize anything I use will sag some but I'm hoping to figure out a way to minimize that to some extent so we can still walk in there easily. Building an entire structure seems like absolute overkill, but it's the only option I can think of but also not worth the time and expense versus other priorities.

Any ideas?

I use bird netting over my chicken run, but the mesh is too small for leaves, and snow, and that is a pain. My run is 13 feet wide. The netting sags a bit, but not too bad.

I have considered using 2X4 inch wire fencing and laying it across the top, but the weight would cause it to sag quite a bit. I would have to put some kind of T-post at the halfway point to reduce the sag. Or, make a taller pole and have the highest point in the middle and slop it down to the outside.

I know Amazon sells all kinds of bird netting. I don't know if they have large mesh netting like you want. However, you could make your own netting if you wanted to learn. I did that for a trellis out in my garden. Once you get the knack of tying the netting, it goes pretty fast. YouTube has lots of videos on making netting. You could make the mesh larger, or smaller, depending on what you want.

One sample video....

Amazon has a 2.4 inch bird netting mesh. That's the largest I found in a quick search. You might try searching for other types of mesh - but I don't know what it would be called.

 

[HeritageFan]

I (obviously) don’t know what the “sides” of this area are like, but, can you perhaps put some cattle panels between the sides to create a “safe(ish)” top?