Welded Wire Fence- Pros and Cons?

[CreativeCowgirl]

I'm planning on fencing my new chicken yard with 5' tall welded wire fence. The holes are 2" x 4". What are the pros and cons of this type of fencing? Will it be sufficient? I have heard horror stories about chicken wire so I didn't want to use that. Obviously the holes are big enough that a weasel may be able to slip through or a coon could climb up it, but hopefully my flock will always be inside the coop at night, so the coop will protect them better than the fence. Your thoughts on this?

 

[OR4-hmom]

If going to double fence I would suggest the smaller wire on the inside of the run. Chicks can get stuck between the two if they can squeeze through the larger openings.

 

[HEChicken]

I'm planning on fencing my new chicken yard with 5' tall welded wire fence. The holes are 2" x 4". What are the pros and cons of this type of fencing? Will it be sufficient? I have heard horror stories about chicken wire so I didn't want to use that. Obviously the holes are big enough that a weasel may be able to slip through or a coon could climb up it, but hopefully my flock will always be inside the coop at night, so the coop will protect them better than the fence. Your thoughts on this?

If you look at "My Coop" page you can see the chicken yard I did using this exact same fencing (5' high). My thinking was:

1. My flock was going from a free range situation to being contained, and I didn't want them to be penned into a tiny pen that would be nothing but dirt or mud most of the time. So, I created a "yard" for them that is 240x60. They still have grass to forage and tons of bugs, plus a tree right in the yard, so they still have the feel of free-range, yet are not pooping on the back deck.
2. I've seen chickens get out of fencing that is too solid, by jumping up to the top rail and then jumping down the other side. I figured the "flimsy" top of the welded wire and t-posts would keep them from getting out that way (I was right - they've never gone over the fence).
3. Although this type of yard is not predator proof, my coop is Fort Knox and they are locked in it at night. Since most predators come at night, I hoped this would eliminate most of my predator risk. (I had a fox get in in the middle of the afternoon about 3 weeks after moving my flock to the new place. I eliminated the fox and have had no further issues with predators since.)
4. I have two very chicken-safe dogs who sleep in the yard at night. Although they are not LGD's, my hope is that their presence will [continue to] deter would-be predators from hanging around at night.

The cons:

The wire spacing is too large to keep chicks in. I currently have a batch of month-old chicks who can run right through the fencing. So, I had to set up a dog pen in the yard, the chain link of which is reinforced with chicken wire to keep the little guys in. The chicks spend their day in the dog pen, and each evening I go out around 6pm and let them out of the dog pen for some supervised time with the flock. So far, the flock has been very tolerant of the chicks and if it weren't for the wire spacing issue, I would allow full integration now. As it is, I will have to wait until the chicks are too large to fit through the wire.

 

[horsekeeper]

Lots of predators lurking around and mine has been safe so far. Built of landscape ties with 2x4s to hold 3-foot fencing. I put 1" chicken wire on the inside to keep the chickens and ducks from getting within reach of the outside fencing. Not too expensive to do it that way and I figured racoons have sort of short arms.

Something was digging under and reaching in to swipe the duck eggs that were laid next to the fence, so I attached scrap fencing to the bottom of the wire on the outside with zip ties - problem solved.

It is 6-foot high and on a hillside. The hardest part was diggin 2-foot holes in the clay and rock to anchore the posts spaced 8-foot apart. Then put down ties laid on trenches filled with crushed stone and everything was braced and solid.

I may start working down the hillside in 8-foot increments next year. Have to keep the top covered because we have a bald eagle family just down the road and lots of hawks.

 

[HEChicken]

@barbjess I am so sorry - I totally forgot to post the photos of the gate I promised you. I was fortunate to have a large post already in place when we moved here. In fact, we based our chicken yard fence on the fencing that already existed so we lined it up to meet this post. In the photo below you can see the last t-post in our row of welded wire fencing. We positioned it to allow a gap large enough to not only walk through but to pull a lawn cart or wheelbarrow through when cleaning out the coop. Then we simply attached our gate to the post that already existed. As you can see, we built the gate frame from 2x4's. To the frame we stapled a section of livestock panel. In this photo, the gate is in the full open position.


We used gate hinges to attach the gate to the post. While with most livestock gates, the hinges are positioned so that the top one points down and the bottom one points up, to prevent the livestock lifting the gate right off the hinges, because this was just to keep poultry in (and critters like skunks, possums, foxes, coyotes and raccoons out), we didn't feel there was a big risk that any of these animals would be able to lift the gate off its hinges. Therefore we positioned both hinges facing up which allows us to easily remove the gate altogether if we need to.

Here is the gate when closed. The chickens and ducks are able to get through the squares in the livestock panel, so we can leave it closed most of the time, which prevents our egg-eating dog from getting into the chicken yard during the day to steal eggs.

However at night (after eggs have been collected) the dogs are locked into the chicken yard to keep predators at bay. I use two of these double ended clips to attach the gate to the welded wire. I felt two was more secure against something pushing in over or under a single clip.

I hope this helps - let me know if you have any questions.


ETA: I forgot to mention that we used a screw eye in the gate that slips down over the gate hinge.

 

[Jacob Duckman]

If you look at "My Coop" page you can see the chicken yard I did using this exact same fencing (5' high). My thinking was:

1. My flock was going from a free range situation to being contained, and I didn't want them to be penned into a tiny pen that would be nothing but dirt or mud most of the time. So, I created a "yard" for them that is 240x60. They still have grass to forage and tons of bugs, plus a tree right in the yard, so they still have the feel of free-range, yet are not pooping on the back deck.
2. I've seen chickens get out of fencing that is too solid, by jumping up to the top rail and then jumping down the other side. I figured the "flimsy" top of the welded wire and t-posts would keep them from getting out that way (I was right - they've never gone over the fence).
3. Although this type of yard is not predator proof, my coop is Fort Knox and they are locked in it at night. Since most predators come at night, I hoped this would eliminate most of my predator risk. (I had a fox get in in the middle of the afternoon about 3 weeks after moving my flock to the new place. I eliminated the fox and have had no further issues with predators since.)
4. I have two very chicken-safe dogs who sleep in the yard at night. Although they are not LGD's, my hope is that their presence will [continue to] deter would-be predators from hanging around at night.

The cons:

The wire spacing is too large to keep chicks in. I currently have a batch of month-old chicks who can run right through the fencing. So, I had to set up a dog pen in the yard, the chain link of which is reinforced with chicken wire to keep the little guys in. The chicks spend their day in the dog pen, and each evening I go out around 6pm and let them out of the dog pen for some supervised time with the flock. So far, the flock has been very tolerant of the chicks and if it weren't for the wire spacing issue, I would allow full integration now. As it is, I will have to wait until the chicks are too large to fit through the wire.

couldn't find the fence pic on your media page, but looking at the other pics.. you are living the chicken dream! nice!

 

[Pullet Surprise]

We have used it for the "day pen", not the "secure pen & coop" and it has been fine. It would depend on the preditors in your area and if you are around to check on them. Depending on how securly it's anchored, dogs (depending on size & breed etc.) may or may not be able to crash through , climb over or dig under. That's my concern during the day. But, it has worked well for what we are using it for. It's better than chicken wire.

 

[HouseMouseHens]

We are using it for the walls of our run, as well as under the gravel and sand on the floor of the run. But, we are also getting hardware cloth in the 24" wide size and running it along the bottom all the way around the run so nothing can reach in and grab a chicken. The run will have a roof on it since it rains so much here. We cannot afford to use hardware cloth for the entire thing, since our run is 10ft x 14 ft.. that would be like $500! We live in the city, but there are raccoons and opossums, as well as feral cats and our 18 month old Aussie Shepherd, so we are making it as secure as we can possibly afford to. We have a toddler, so we are generally home before dark each day, and the coop is secure, so I am not too worried. Our neighbors free range their chickens in their backyard all day while they are at work, and they havn't lost one yet. We are actually thinking we may forgo the hardware cloth and just use boards all around the bottom screwed to the posts, since we have to do at least 8 inches of board around to hold the sand in anyways... Might as well just get wider boards and do it that way.

 

[CreativeCowgirl]

HEChicken, I read the page about your coop, and it looks great! It seems like you had the exact same reasoning that I did when purchasing the welded wire fencing. The fence may not keep everything out, but hopefully the coop will, since they will be inside at night.

 

[HEChicken]

I will look forward to seeing pics of it when you are done!