Run Fencing Question

[colonel sander]

Ok here is my situation. I am in a urban setting with not to many predators during the day. I know there are coons around but they only come out at night when the girls are locked up safe in the coop. Anyway enough rambling and here are my thoughts. I am building a fence around the coop for them to have more room. I am tired of them thrashing my yard searching for things to munch on. So my thoughts are to do a wrought iron style fencing around this area. I sank 4x4s into the ground today and was going to use welded wire but I am getting tired of looking at wire. I am a fab guy and building the wrought iron is no big deal. But what do you think? I will try and do a space of about 2 1/2 in between pickets. I know the hens can gat a head through but I know they can not fit there whole body through. Fence will be about 5 feet high as there is a 6 foot fence already all around the property and no one escapes now unless I give them something to jump on first. All info is great info so let me know what you think! Thanks in advance

 

[KDK1]

Sounds like a lot of work to me... not to mention the expense, Steal/Iron is not cheap.

 

[kichohana]

Any welded wire fencing will do - and if you need it "fancier" paint the wire black. Black fencing tends to disappear more than metal-colored gray wire. I'm sure a wrought-iron fence would be great, but it seems like a lot of expense. I also did not want to free-range 'cause I know the girls will TEAR UP my yard! My chicken run add-on was built with 2x4's and welded wire. It is 5' high and 8' long panels connected to 4x4's sunk in concrete. Built the panels first. See pics on my page. The 5' high panels are great - have not had any escapees yet.

Good luck!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

A five foot wrought iron fence won't keep many predators out, and might not even keep the chickens in, not to mention it will cost a fortune

 

[Ole rooster]

I'm a retired ironworker and I can tell ya steel ain't the cheapest way to go. I would say also at 2 and a half inche spacing between pickets will let just about any predator you need to worry with in. You must have a boom truck to be able to handle the fence anyway. And all that welding, grinding and paintings. If that's not work then I've never had a job in my life.

 

[chicks4kids]

In my experience with various types of fencing, I have found that any fencing that they see as a possible "landing spot" encourages flying over or escape attempts. Even a surface as small as wrought iron I would suspect would do that very thing.

I have found that welded wire works best for keeping chickens in. I only use 4 ft. welded wire and that keeps them in when I don't allow them to free range. I think they stay in simply because they just done "see" anywhere to perch. I used to use kennel fencing with a top rail and soon found out I had to attach some welded wire above the top rail to keep them from jumping up onto the rail and hopping down...little sneeks

You could design a real nice welded wire fence using wood railing or fencing (but leave some fence up higher by about a foot) and if your eye focuses on the woodwork of the fence, the wire would just become less obvious to you. Heck, you could do the same with the wrought iron, but that would be alot of work I would suspect. But the key is to make sure that they can't jump the fence

 

[canesisters]

You could make some trial panels and send them to me. I think that 6 or 8 of um, about 4X6 would be just enough to get a good idea of how they'd work.
I'll let you know in a few months.

 

[StupidBird]

We used 4x4 pt posts on the corners and gate posts, and the pt landscape timbers (carefully selected for straightness) for in-between posts. 3 rail stringers from pallets. Didn't trim off the tops of the posts, they stick up another 18 inches to two feet. Later, I'll be topping each post with a birdhouse, and stringing chicken wire there. Behind/inside though, is stapled the welded wire, bent at the bottom to make a skirt. It was the best-looking, least expensive thing we could think of.

I'd show off the metal work in gates, custom fixtures, custom hardware. Angle brackets with fancy work.

Or, a decorative band of metalwork along the top of the fence

 

[colonel sander]

Thanks for the replys

I ended up building wrought iron panels. I only had to do 3 and had all the material at work ready to go. I ended up etching them with acid so they would rust real quickly. I screwed them into cedar 4x4s and capped them with a steel cap that I made and it looks great. Only problem had to put wire at the bottom as my little ones walked right throught the fence

When they get bigger it can be taken down. I did have one of the older girls fly to the top but a clipped wing and all has been good for 3 weeks now.

 

[shocksystems]

Can you post some pictures? I am having trouble picturing it, but I like the idea of the look.

Cheers!

Jim