I'm going to pasture my young male chickens and perhaps our turkeys in our orchard. The orchard is surrounded by 10 foot posts with hex chicken wire and strand wire run through it to keep the deer out. This "fence" that previous owners built does not go entirely to the ground. It's approx 2 ft off of it. I realize the chicken wire is just about useless for most things except for keeping chickens in.
One option is to purchase fencing to complete the bottom of the chicken wire fence to the ground. I found an inexpensive 20 gauge wire that would work. This is mostly to just contain the chickens in the orchard from the rest of my free range flock. Those pastured chickens would be locked in a secure coop at night.
I'm not sure if the 20 gauge would even be strong enough to keep a dog out. But this would be the least expensive option. We have good 2X4 fence around the front of our property. But coming from the side is only barb wire until you get to our orchard deer fence.
My other option is to invest in some electric net poultry fencing from Premiere. I don't have the money to buy the solar charger this year. So the electric net fence would not be charged this summer. I'm not sure if that would be enough to keep the chickens in without the charge this year? They are large fowl so they don't fly easily. I know it won't do much to deter dogs. But with the movable electric net fence I could rotate the pasture area better.
Again the chickens will be locked in a secure coop at night. This is for day time pasture.
I'm trying to decide which would be the better way to go.
One option is to purchase fencing to complete the bottom of the chicken wire fence to the ground. I found an inexpensive 20 gauge wire that would work. This is mostly to just contain the chickens in the orchard from the rest of my free range flock. Those pastured chickens would be locked in a secure coop at night.
I'm not sure if the 20 gauge would even be strong enough to keep a dog out. But this would be the least expensive option. We have good 2X4 fence around the front of our property. But coming from the side is only barb wire until you get to our orchard deer fence.
My other option is to invest in some electric net poultry fencing from Premiere. I don't have the money to buy the solar charger this year. So the electric net fence would not be charged this summer. I'm not sure if that would be enough to keep the chickens in without the charge this year? They are large fowl so they don't fly easily. I know it won't do much to deter dogs. But with the movable electric net fence I could rotate the pasture area better.
Again the chickens will be locked in a secure coop at night. This is for day time pasture.
I'm trying to decide which would be the better way to go.
