Predator/Slaughter-proofing, hardware cloth vs welded/woven wire

[Folly's place]

It's a sad situation here. I know what happened to three of them; fencing disaster and one of my dogs where he shouldn't be. The first bantam and yesterday's Jersey Giant pullet just disappeared, and that's worse. A hawk could have taken the bantam baby, but the JG was a lot larger. Fox? They are all locked in, and I'm still looking for her. Time to reset the live traps. Darn!!! Mary

 

[Intheswamp]

So sorry for the situation with your dog. What happened with the fencing?....it might help others in avoiding the same situation.

Could be fox that got the other two...could be coyote or stray I suppose, even a bobcat...I'm not sure of your predator population where you are located.. This is what I'm afraid of at my place if I free range once I get my flock started. Up until a couple of years ago I felt pretty good here...no neighbors for a good distance. Then my sister sold some property that our mother left to her...which she'd let me known she wanted to sell it.

Now we get visits every month or two from two young labs out for a good time...I'm afraid eventually this may cause some trouble.<sigh>

Set those traps...
Ed

 

[Folly's place]

My dog, my fault! My back yard is well fenced; it's country, and backs up in part to pasture. Five ft. high 2"x4" woven wire, with electric tape above, and Invisible Fencing keeping the dogs at least 3' away from it. Really good! 6' chainlink gates. The front yard, however, to the front house door, is only Invisible Fence, and the dog wasn't ever adequately trained to it. So, when he bolted past my DH, who can't manage him so well, to talk to the IF guy who came to fix the NOT working IF, he just bolted to the field and got two chickens. Fortunately not two dozen, before DH got out there to get him in. More effort on my part in training, and all would have been fine. Chickens who get into the back yard where the dogs are, don't do well. I've been too lazy to actually chicken proof these shelter rescues, who are wonderful in every other way. Mary

 

[Intheswamp]

I gotcha. Sounds like a "perfect storm" situation with a dash of "Murphy's Law" thrown in.

Ed

 

[Howard E]

Mary......sorry to hear of your losses. At least the dog part is fixable. The rest, something to work on. As you know......it happens to the very best of us.

To Ed's suggestion..........if you don't want to double up on the two wires.......inside and out.......the wire I used on my coop openings is more or less souped up hardware cloth. It is 1/2" x 1" 14 gauge welded wire. Normal hardware cloth is 17 or 19 gauge.......much lighter stuff.

The 1/2" x 1" stuff is only available locally at a farm coop store........but in 24" and 36" inch widths and they sell it by the foot or by the roll. Pricy stuff, but it works.

This is what it looks like on the coop........

apron is the same, but 1" x 2" .......also 14 gauge welded wire.

This is the same stuff repelling borders.........



Had a discussion with a neighbor recently about their run. It was chain link fence only, but to keep out the sparrows, starlings and such, they also put up standard 1" chicken wire netting over the chain link. On more than one occasion, they have found that ripped up and off. If not for sturdy chain link behind it, and a concrete footing perimeter to keep diggers out (they have also attempted to dig under that) there would have been some carnage.

As others suggest, chicken wire may keep chickens in, but won't keep determined predators out.