Temporarily excluding chickens from certain areas of yard?

[gophert]

I have 3 hens on about 1/3 acre of back yard. They free range about 6 h/day. Their wear and tear is not TOO bad, but they have some "favorite" areas that they are tearing up too much for my preference. Mostly they are making dusting areas. They have one good big area I am happy to give them for this but would rather they didn't make 50 more all over the yard. Has anyone had any bright ideas for ways to give areas of the yard a breather without constructing a permanent run? Maybe put something over the grass that still allows light in, or is there a a really easy movable fence system I could use?

Yes, I know I may need to make a run but I'd rather try something else first.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Use simple 4 foot high stakes. Strips of wood. You can string deer netting, a poly woven light weight netting to string between the stakes to cordon them off. Simple zip ties to attach it to the stakes. It works well.

 

[jomoncon]

I realized I needed some temp fencing when my 8 girls started digging up all my amaryllis bulbs. n A quick trip to Lowes got me 50' of 4' tall plastic fencing for around $10. Some wooden stakes & the new "fence" was up. I also had to surround the area around the fig tree when they developed a taste for ripe figs.

 

[BitsyB]

yes, i agree with the above posters. Good fences make good chickens (well at least chickens that don't tear up your gardens!) Miine are foiled by that 3'vinyl coated metal green stuff they sell at Lowes by the roll. Relatively easy to put up, and worth it so I can have free-range chickens AND some gardens.

 

[MommyMagpie]

I went and put a roll of that plastic fencing on my Lowe's wishlist......next spring I want to plant some grass seed in the backyard and if I don't contain the chickens they will eat it (yes I make sure to buy untreated seed, it doesn't germinate as well as the green coated seed, but if one of the girls eats some it won't hurt her). We have very little grass left and I would like to eventually have one corner that is poop free for my grill and a couple of chairs.

 

[idispatch4911]

I've got little poop-scaping issues to deal with also. I will have to try some cheapie plastic fencing but I need to access that part of the yard several times a day. Wondering about a gate too.... Any ideas?

 

[gophert]

Thanks for the ideas. My chickens don't seem to be very ambitious about flying (they are larger breeds and have clipped wings). I am wondering if something could work that I could (not easily, but) step over.

Where does one buy untreated grass seed? I was thinking about that. Not that I even care if I have grass, per se. Just something that isn't DIRT.

 

[jomoncon]

Quote:
With my plastic fencing, I've put hooks at one end so I can easily take it down to have access. The end of one fence is stapled to their run. The other end, where I want to have access, is my deck. I partially screwed in a long screw & then hook the plastic fencing into it. With the other temp fence, the angle was wrong for me to use this method, so I screwed in cup hooks & attach the fencing to those.

You've got to have attachment points at the top & the bottom cause they will learn how to push at the bottom to get through. This also requires a stake about 3' away from the end so that the entire fence doesn't collapse.