No wire fencing required for chicken run?

[teddyjames]

Hope someone can help.

My backstory: I'm 67yrs old. Kinda desperate. I have always worked for myself and never had a "real" job. I have been poor all my life but it's not been too bad overall, even though I have no retirement, a money pit for a car, and don't own this trailer that my nephew lets us stay in for free. (Thanks Joe) I make ends meet on $550 per month with a little bit added in the form of government food assistance. We visit the local food banks but we get more black beans than anything. The occasional can of tuna or spam comes in real handy late in the month. Currently my family of four can not afford to eat the whole month. We resort to eating ramen the last week or so before my benefits come in. In order to try and not starve the last week of the month, we have decided to try and raise some chickens to help supplement our diet in the form of eggs and meat. We have some locals who will donate a some birds. I have some wood scrap that might be enough to make a coop. Problem is that wire fencing is so expensive! I'm afraid we are going to have to do something else.

Is there any way to give chickens room to peck and eat grass and stuff without using a wire fence? How did the pilgrims do it some 300 years ago without wire? We have to have something strong and covered because there are dogs, hawks and coyotes all around.

 

[GCrumb]

@teddyjames

Like people said, they free-ranged poultry. And might actually have set a child to watch the birds all day, like the goose-girl in fairy tales.

But the answer to your question of what'd they use instead of wire mesh, is: wattle.

It's woven willow-whips or branches. There are some medieval illustrations of hen-houses (cute little domes) of it, and fences surrounding them.

 

[nuthatched]

People Who owned chickens hundreds of years ago accepted their losses.
Pallets are generally free but it would have to be 2 high.
How are you planning to feed your birds?
A $17 bag of feed (not scratch) should last about a month for 8 hens- giving about 5 eggs a day, 140ish eggs a month
, considering that eggs are about $5 a dozen, that's slightly cheaper than the store.
And no, unless you have roving flocks of feral chickens in your area, you likely can't let them eat solely off the yard and not feed them and expect decent meat growth and egg production.
Cournitux Quail might be more what you're looking for, they mature faster, laying eggs in about 10 weeks instead of 22 for chickens. They hit butcher weight about then too.
They take less space, they stack, they're a bit quieter than chickens too.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/coturnix-quail-1.48549/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-every-part-of-your-quail.76213/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-process-your-quail-including-gory-pictures.75834/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/quail.32/
Welcome to byc, hope this helps. :]

 

[AidKD]

You should be able to find pallets for free, you just have to look in the right places. Try building a fence out of old pallets to keep them in. As for a covering, you could take the slabs from the pallets and place them about a foot apart from each other so the hawks can't get in.

 

[GCrumb]

Yikes! Folks, please do not suggest poaching. Rabbits, by the way, also have a season (Nov - Feb) and require a license.

@teddyjames -- Around here there's a lot of streambeds choked with willow-wands and I could make a lot of wattle for the cost of my time. Just remember that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. It is simple and easy to do but darn hard to do well and your first segments will probably be all cattywampus but will still work.

It did occur to me that the guy 'round here who buys scrap-metal hates wire mesh, because it wraps around and tangles up the grindy machine's toothy drum bit instead of getting chopped up. If he gets a load of scrap with a roll of wire snuck into it, as happens a lot, he's peeved and would probably give it away free.

 

[Toothpick]

You should start small. 3 or 4 birds. Make sure you can feed them and keep them healthy enough to provide you eggs. Chickens can be kept in darn near anything. I think most of what you will find here are folks that love building out their runs/coops just as much as they love their birds. But you can’t afford that. So start small. Check your local Facebook marketplace for someone giving away a coop for free or dirt cheap.

Pallets are nice and all but they are what….4ft?? A chicken can fly over that easily.
This is 20 bucks on Amazon. 7.5ft tall, 100ft. It will hold the chickens in but will do jack all keeping the critters out. So shoot/trap any critters you see in your yard. If your chickens are truly a source of food then critters be damned. Stake it up with tree limbs, plastic garden stakes, around old tires, around the pallets, whatever you can find.

https://www.amazon.com/KLEWEE-Netti...ywords=poultry+netting&qid=1685339981&sr=8-10

A few birds will be easier to contain than a flock of 10. Let a broody hen hatch some and your flock will grow with little investment on your part. Eventually you will be eating the birds and eggs. You can feed them table scraps, or garden scraps. I don’t feed mine cracked corn at all. They are table scraps and layer feed. It’s about 17-20 bucks for a 50lb bag, lasts about a month, maybe. But if I couldn’t afford it then I guess they would eat table scraps and whatever else I could find. Chickens are resilient, you’ll find they require very little to keep them alive. We all just go nuts with care, food, coops, runs, etc because we have the means and it’s fun to talk about and see what we can improve on.

But if you truly are as tight on cash as you say you are and you really want to get some birds then a dog cage will work. I mean….where you think store bought eggs come from? Chickens in 1x1 cell blocks, if that. It’s not ideal but surviving on 500 bucks a month isn’t ideal either. Don’t be ashamed to do what you have to do to provide yourself and family with sustenance. There’s a reason chicken meat and chicken eggs have always been the cheapest in stores. They can be a very cheap source of protein.

 

[teddyjames]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll try and answer as many as I can.

Could I see a picture of where you're thinking to keep them?
Its not hard to picture a country scene with dirt roads and fields. This field just happens to have lots of people staying with lots of dogs. Its very rural with sights of bears, deer, opossums, raccoons, hawks and rabbits not unusual. Deer daily, bears we spot about twice a year, raccoons and such are always out and about eating all the table scraps the neighbors leave out. I must have lots of protection.

But the answer to your question of what'd they use instead of wire mesh, is: wattle.
I'm actually thinking of doing this since I will be locking them up nightly.

I just have to say that in the long run, raising your own chickens for meat and eggs and having your own garden is gonna be cheaper in the long run.
Yes, I have done some re-calculating. 10 chickens (9 hens and a rooster) We can get birds no problem. I will let a few hens (if they go broody) hatch off some chicks for the frying pan later on. I look for about 1/4 lb of feed per day per bird supplemented with whatever I gather up for them. Think worms, bugs, grass, garden scraps etc. 100lb of corn should do good per month with some mash and other good stuff added in.

I have been killing birds for food my whole life. Not to be too graphic but I usually chop off the head with a hatchet and let it bleed out under a wash tub to keep blood off everything. (they really spray and flop around) I then dunk the carcass in boiling water for a few min to loosen feathers. Pluck the bird and burn off pinfeathers with a burning paper bag. Using a kife i start at the tail and split the bird up to the bottom of the breast. With one action of the hand I pull out all innards. Lungs, heart, gizzards, liver, guts. Then I either quarter it up for the pan, or leave whole for roasting. Its really simple for me, been doing it 50+ years

But if you truly are as tight on cash as you say you are and you really want to get some birds then a dog cage will work.
Yes. I know its possible but I'm not into torture. I know a local who keeps hens in separate 2x2 crates. They are miserable. I'd rather eat the stray dogs than do that.

Also, what’s your location? If you are close to me I’ll hatch some eggs for you. I’m sure anyone else here would do the same.
Thanks! I'm in south-western West Virginia. Getting birds are no problem and usually these types of groups are pretty helpful in this aspect. I have the birds covered

The amount of predators around here is insane. We have them all. There is no way chicken wire or any wooden fence going to protect them. I will have to secure them every night. The price for the good stuff (mesh fabric) is way too high. I will check out some of the internet sites like Offerup but this area don't use sites like facebook or craigslist because nobody has internet. If it wasn't for the gap in the mountains in direct line 20 miles away to a cell tower, I wouldn't have it. Yes that is how far out in the sticks I am.. lol.. Good day all!

 

[teddyjames]

I hope this question does not offend anyone, but, uhm, if you are out in the sticks with lots of deer and rabbits, why not eat a deer or rabbit and skip the chickens?

because right now you don't know if your killing a buck or a doe and could be killing off two fawns along with the doe. And if you get caught killing a deer out of season, its a huge fine and possible jail sentence. Thats why..
and if you kill a rabbit in the summer when they have rabbit fleas, it can and will make you very sick.

 

[teddyjames]

Ok,I am on disability myself and get a tiny amount of food assistance. My advice, watch Craigslist and FB Marketplace for old chain link dog kennels. Sometimes people have them for almost nothing. Then get basic chicken wire to start with and put across the top with a tarp over it. As you can get the hardware cloth and wrap the chainlink run with it.

That is exactly what I did and have slowly gotten it better predator proof over the last couple years. I have now moved it all up against a storage shed and made it better. The first picture below is how it started,the second is last winter, and the last is my pallet coop I made.

I also used wood pallets to build my chicken coop. They were free, only thing it cost me was the time, energy, and screws to build it.

I have 4 chickens, and I buy 50# of layer feed for $18 and it lasts 2 to 3 months, I also feel them veggie scraps...and I get 2-3 eggs a day.

sounds about like me.. birds of a feather........... actually things are looking up! I lucked out and got a job installing a fence that will probably pay for materials for a very nice coop and run... Chicken mansion here I come!

 

[fat brown hen]

still don't make me understand how they kept chickens.

I understand they might shoot all the critters that might try to kill a bird.. they can't be on watch 24/7 I think they just had so many that it didn't matter if 20 got killed.. were 2000 more to take their place..

Chickens roamed free among other livestock like goats and pigs. People were outdoors most of the day working the farm and tending the animals. Coyotes hadn't migrated east yet, but settlers were ruthless about eradicating predators like wolves and bears.