No wire fencing required for chicken run?

[kdatavoice]

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.

 

[NameIwish]

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. You can collect seeds from your first garden and never have to pay for seeds again, and hatching your own eggs from your own chickens is also gonna save you tons of money cause then you won't have to keep buying pullets. Also, I would go with something a little more than just cracked corn. Cracked corn by itself won't provide enough vitamins and nutrients for your hens to continue laying. But, it could work depending on what kind of foraging you'll have for them and if you're willing to mix some stuff into the corn.

Cracked corn's fine and works with free-ranging hens - has for ten years or more. However, back when eggs were only bringing in $3/Dz with 10 birds or so, it cost us more than that to produce a dozen - 50# cracked corn was $9.50.

The bags are good for construction, however, they can be taken apart to form sheets of plastic that (stapled to and supported on purlins about a foot apart) can actually serve in place of tarpaper to roof in a structure. We have a 24ft wood crib done that way (with a cheap HFT -free- blue tarps as the 'final' roofing material. Have used them on the walls of the coops to close off teh screen sides in Winter and to seal off the foam insulation on a garage door they would (otherwise) peck apart - do your hens like foam? They can also serve as 'floor covering' over the wire floor to hold the wood chips and poop 'till time to clean it all out. They're washable, too! And, the chickens? They don't care what keeps 'em dy.