What kind of fencing?

[kittykorat]

I'd like to fence in the yard, but not spend a fortune..
I have an 8x4 coop, and 8x12 run, but would like to let the girls free range while I am outside.
We have a 1/4 acre corner lot on a busy street, so the biggest concern is keeping them from wandering into the road or into a neighbors yard.
I am not terribly concerned about predators because I would only let them free range while I am with them.
It might be easier just to build a chicken tractor...?
Opinions? Advice?

 

[teach1rusl]

Well...it depends on what you want it to look like. We needed to surround our 45 x 90 garden and went with deer netting. We used old round wooden posts that we had for the corners and in the center of the lengths, and a total of 10 green metal posts. We want to be able to move the garden every year or two, or I would have prefered the wooden posts for all the supports. The netting comes in 100 x 7ft. rolls, so I cut it in half to get 200 ft. I think I paid $13 for the roll. My SIL was over yesterday and I brought up working on the garden "fence," and she said "What fence?" She was about 30 feet away and hadn't noticed it. It's very discreet/unobtrusive. It's flimsy, so you have to pull it snug, but stong winds don't seem to affect it. So if you don't mind a green metal post every 15 ft. or so, it may work for you.

 

[mdbokc]

Love the deer netting fence...and so do my neighbors as they can still see the girls out and they enjoy seeing them.

Now you see it...



Now you don't......

 

[Humhill]

I figure there are 3 thigns to consider when building fencing. Function, Cost, and Looks
You just have to decide which is more important to you. Are you thinking permanant or temporary and moveable?
You can do welded wire with T Posts or with wooden posts. It's a decent looking fence, but not too expensive.
You can do the deer netting like teach1rusl suggested. Not as expensive, but what happens if you run into the house for a second to grab something and the neighbor's dog tears into it or pushes it up and goes under?
I do think your girls would probably prefer fencing over a tractor.

 

[cluckcluck42]

We are in the process of putting up deer netting for the same reason as you, keeping the ladies at home! It is great, much cheaper than most alternatives. We have just been stapling it to trees and will use the odd lumber where there are no trees. You can barely see it though, we are gonna put some bright pink tape around it lol.

ETA: our deer netting was 100 feet by 7 feet tall for 17 bucks. Two of these is making our chickens a verrrrrrrry large run. To make sure nothing can get under easily we are simply putting rocks and heavy boards and stapling the fencing to it. It might not deter a very persistant dog but we are usually home when they are out anyways.

 

[mdbokc]

I run some electric fence (electric fence posts with 2 wires) with the deer netting. The local dogs respect the fence. I did that once they came under the deer netting. End of problem and still almost invisible.

If I was on a corner lot, I would run the deer netting, if you use that, at the full height (6-1/2 - 7 feet), not cut it in half to gain the extra footage. You'll want the height.

 

[patandchickens]

I would suggest something visible and at least "dog-resistant". Even if you never ever ever pop into the house for a sec to use the bathroom or get a glass of iced tea, just being in the yard with the chickens is not enough to keep a loose dog from rocketing through (or over) a flimsy little fence and making off with one or more of them before you can do anything about it.

It would certainly be *cheaper* to do a tractor -- if you would use it under the same conditions (only with supervision) it could be reasonably large/lightweight/cheap and needn't have the types of features that cost $$ and weight (like, you might want a part of it shaded, but it needn't have a 'house' portion).

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat