Tpost and fence design advice needed

[JRast]

Hey ya'll
Ive been browsing the forums for the past week or so and have gleaned alot of great info!!
My name is Jesse and i really appreciate it!
Im putting up a budget run for my Novegens and Freedom Rangers, and hope for some feedback,
We have raccoons and possums around here, i was planning on putting up a 7 ft Tposts , 2 ft in the ground with 6 ft poultry wire (budget build) either 1 ft underground or 1 ft laid flat to discourage digging, for a 5 ft tall fence/run.
my question is, should a pay the extra dollar for 8ft t posts and put a line of barbed wire at the top to discourage climbing intruders? my "run" will be too wide to "cover" with anything.
Thank you for any advice!

 

[cavemanrich]

#1 question,,,,,,,, will your chickens have a coop, or are you going to keep them in a run only??
If you have raccoons, they are able to bite thru chicken wire. Chicken wire will keep your chickens in, and will only slow down raccoons, and opossums. If chicken wire is all you are able to put up, can you also install a HOT WIRE??? That would be a good way to keep those predators out.
If your chickens will be in a secure coop for the night, then the chicken wire run should be OK.
I don't think barbed wire is very effective. There are some other crafty solutions where peeps used PVC pipes to create a roller type barrier , that worked very well.
Here is a video of one installed on top of a chain link fence. You can use same concept if you installed it between T-posts. The animal just cant get over top, because the pipe rolls around.

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and

 

[archeryrob]

If you want to discourage climbing over Get those yellow insulators for Tee posts and run one at the bottom, maybe 6" - 8" off the ground, and one at the top of the welded wire fence. Run an electrified wire on both. The bottom will be hard to get through welded wire, but you might be able to bend it open where they are. The top just slide down to the wire. 48" should stop any jumpers.

The bottom can discourage digging and they can't get over the fence as they have to crawl over the electric wire and get thier butt shocked badly. If you make an apron I would go for 2' and I have cut 48" 2x4 wire in half length wise and use that for the apron. The best security is locked in a coop at night.

With out aerial netting a redtail or something like that will eventually figure it out and make a daily dive into the pen until you block him.

 

[Percheron chick]

Barbed wire is ineffective in this scenario.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Not sure where you are located but you probably have a lot more potential predators than just raccoons and possums. All of us do.

I use a philosophy of a predator resistant run for the day while locking them in a predator proof coop at night. This has its risks, practically any predator will be out and about during the day as well as at night. I've seen bobcat, fox, coyote, snakes, dogs, mink, and skunks out during the day. I trapped a raccoon at lunchtime. I even saw a possum eating at my compost pile around 1:00 on a bright sunshiny day. I'll admit I did not expect to see that. But most are more dangerous at night. Human activity usually makes them more cautious during the daytime.

Larger predators can tear chicken wire. Not possum and most raccoons but big boar raccoon or a coyote can. Most of the time it's a big dog that is the one that tears it. They can also tear some hardware cloth. For those that need photos I'll include a link. Quite often though it's not the wire that is torn but the connections come loose. The gauge of the wire makes a difference.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1105056/dog-vs-hardware-cloth#post_17001519

As far as I'm concerned there is no perfect wire. The lighter the gauge the more easily it is torn. The heavier the gauge the larger the mesh holes, often large enough for a critter to get through, plus it gets expensive. There are trade-offs with all of it.

You never know how good your protection is until it is tested. You might go years before it is tested.

Chicken wire will offer protection against many critters. My story about chicken wire is where a man on this forum years ago raised chicken for show. He was also a certified APA judge. He kept his grand champion chickens behind chicken wire for decades without any problems. Then one day when he was gone two big dogs showed up and killed his flock. Wiped him out and broke his heart, he loved those chickens. He said he was too old to start over. There is no telling how many foxes, possum, raccoons, small dogs, or other critters that chicken wire stopped over the years, but against those two 100 pound dogs it was not good enough.

I consider barbed wire pretty worthless against any predator. They ignore the barbs. Concertina wire might be different for some predators but you are on a budget build.

Possum, raccoon, fox, bobcats, and many other critters can climb. A regular fence is not going to stop them. A fence can slow them down which make sit a little more resistant. If you properly electrify the fence it does a really good job of that. But it has to be set up properly.

You can use T-posts for your intermediate fence posts but you might find you need decent posts for corner posts and gate posts. Braces or guy wires can help. You are not trying to keep cattle or horses in, just chickens, but corner posts often sag just from the tension in the fence, let alone wind load or an animal leaning on the fence.

I don't know how big an area you are actually talking about. I built my main run using 2" x 4" welded wire. That keeps bigger critters like dogs or coyotes from going through. It is mostly covered but there are ways climbing predators could get in, partly just coming over my coop. I also put an apron around it to stop digging predators. Some of that apron was hardware cloth left over from the coop build and some was that 2x4 welded wire. I also put chicken wire around the bottom 18" or so of the fence. That was more to keep baby chicks in than trying to keep critters out but it would help with that.

I also got some 48# tall electric netting from Premiere1. That enclosed an area about 45' x 60'. It doesn't stop flying predators but is extremely effective against ground based predators, even climbers. I know you are on a budget build but you might want to price it out to compare to a real fence, gate and everything.

It will be interesting to hear how it goes when you raise your laying flock and Rangers. Most people that try to raise Cornish X with regular chickens only try that once. Rangers are a little different. But if you plan to regularly raise Rangers it might be worth thinking about planning two separate brooding areas. At least think about how you could do that.

I don't know the right answer for you. We all have different circumstances, predator pressures, and risk tolerance. No matter what you build you might be OK for decades or you might be wiped immediately. But the stronger you build the more likely you are to go decades.

 

[JRast]

Thank you, everyone, for your replies.
I pan to have 10 layers that will yes be locked up in a coop at night, my 50 broilers, however, I want to lock them up but if an electric wire across the top of my fence would deter predators then that seems easier then building housing for 50 chickens.
is it better to have a poultry wire apron of 2' or dig a trench and have my fence go beneath the soil 1'? also, to run a hot wire atop my fence/run, do I need to reserve an entire 1 ft top of my t post for it? ( 6 ft of tpost out of ground with only 5 ft high wire)
Thank you so much!!

 

[aart]

is it better to have a poultry wire apron of 2' or dig a trench and have my fence go beneath the soil 1'?

Apron.... but something more than the typical poultry wire(twisted hexagonal 'chicken wire').

Good examples of anti-dig apron installation.
If rodents are prolific, burying the apron ~12" would be good.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wire-around-coop.1110498/#post-17093528
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/new-coop-project.1169916/page-2#post-18481208


Oh, and.....Welcome to BYC! @JRast
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[JRast]

im looking at some "red fence welded wire"
is 2"x4" squares of a too big?

 

[cavemanrich]

im looking at some "red fence welded wire"
is 2"x4" squares of a too big?

2 x 4 squares are fine, but if it will be for the tractor where you keep your broilers all the time, you need to do this;... and reason why.
Attach a smaller mesh netting, or hardware clothe on the bottom portion about 18 inches up. (18 inches is 1/2 of common size of rolls) Chicken wire is OK, but not all ideal. This additional barrier is to prevent raccoons from reaching into, thru the wire and garbing chickens as they sleep at night.
When you are on a budget, I know that 1/2 inch Hardware clothe does get pricey.