Who uses welded wire fencing for their run? Tips? Tricks? Height?

[Branch Chickens]

So, we had our coop delivered last Saturday.

We bought it from a local who is done raising chickens.

I'm currently making plans for the run that we plan to create this spring, and I'm fairly certain we'll be going with welded wire for cost and ease of setup. 48ft. x 48ft. or something similar.
I have a bunch of questions, and I know there are lots of you who use ww for your runs, so I'm hoping you have some tips for me.

First off, the wire comes in several different heights, and I've been leaning toward the 5ft. one, since our chickens are all heavier breeds, not flighty. Will this be high enough? Does anyone use 4ft. or 6ft.?

The openings on all the wire I can readily find are 2" x 4". What do you do when your birds are small enough to fit through these openings or get stuck in them?

Do you cover your run with netting?

My mother has always used U-posts for her chicken fencing, but I see that T-posts are quite popular. Do you use one or the other?

What other tips do you have for putting the fence together? We still have a couple of months before we break ground, but I want to be able to keep an eye out for sales on the construction materials, etc.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give!

 

[jetdog]

Never used it but I know you will want to have hard ware cloth around the bottom against the welded wire to keep heads in and paws out, I would look into netting or a roofed off section of the run to keep any birds of prey off your chickens.

 

[Coopnana]

We used welded wire, but the coop is covered from top to bottom. We came out into the ground with it also to prevent predators from getting in and then rocks on top.

 

[scooter147]

So, we had our coop delivered last Saturday.

We bought it from a local who is done raising chickens.

I'm currently making plans for the run that we plan to create this spring, and I'm fairly certain we'll be going with welded wire for cost and ease of setup. 48ft. x 48ft. or something similar.
I have a bunch of questions, and I know there are lots of you who use ww for your runs, so I'm hoping you have some tips for me.

First off, the wire comes in several different heights, and I've been leaning toward the 5ft. one, since our chickens are all heavier breeds, not flighty. Will this be high enough? Does anyone use 4ft. or 6ft.? I bought the 6 foot. You will from time to time want to get into the run. This just makes it soooo much easier.

The openings on all the wire I can readily find are 2" x 4". What do you do when your birds are small enough to fit through these openings or get stuck in them? I raise my chicks in a separate building so when they graduate to the big coop they can't fit through. Two foot high chicken wire can easily be strung around the bottom and zipped tied if you plan on keeping young birds in the run.

Do you cover your run with netting? Yes I have netting over my run. If I didn't I wouldn't have chickens very long, numerous hawks in my area. I bought the deer netting at Lowes', relatively cheap. 7 ft x 100 ft for around $11.

My mother has always used U-posts for her chicken fencing, but I see that T-posts are quite popular. Do you use one or the other? I used landscape timbers set two feet into concrete. I found with the heavy gauge wire this holds up so much better over time. I had a run built with 2x4 woven wire held up with landscape timbers and trimmed at the bottom with landscape timbers that was still going strong at 10 years of age. However, a tornado in April of 2011 took care of that but I rebuilt just as it was with the same materials.

What other tips do you have for putting the fence together? We still have a couple of months before we break ground, but I want to be able to keep an eye out for sales on the construction materials, etc.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give!

 

[Sarevan]

I use welded wire on run, but our run is an A-frame because of overhead predators. Have chicken wire double tripled and buried around the edge covered with dirt rocks. Lower portion of run is also double up chicken wire holes offset under the welded wire to make a bit more of barrier. They may be able to tear the chicken wire but can't get in. I used 4' high wire as it is what I needed to cover the 8' sides of the run, had to cut it for length but better than wasting the taller wire.

(I have a bunch of chicken wire, ex thought it was awesome stuff I guess, I use it mainly for vines in garden or rock pillars now)

 

[aart]

Solid Tposts should hold up fine, make sure you match up the right length of tpost with what ever height of fencing you get.
I'd agree with 6' for ease of walking in it (tho not sure how you'll span 48' with netting for overhead protection...and netting and snow don't mix well) and for an extra measure against them flying out.

Think about and apron for both coop and run.


I used 2x4 welded wire for both walls and roof of run.
because of hawks:

 

[scooter147]

Netting and snow can be an issue. I just keep a old broom by the gate in the winter and couple wacks brings the snow down. A little retightening maybe required. We have had a lot of snow this winter but most of it has been that dry snow and it does not stick to the netting like the wet stuff.

 

[aart]

Netting and snow can be an issue. I just keep a old broom by the gate in the winter and couple wacks brings the snow down. A little retightening maybe required. We have had a lot of snow this winter but most of it has been that dry snow and it does not stick to the netting like the wet stuff.

OP lives in Maine...and like me in Michigan probably has 2-3 feet of snow still on the ground.

There was a guy in Minnesota used netting successfully this year.....lots of different kind of netting out there, difficult to evaluate it and pick the right kind.

 

[tatertot]

Subscribing

 

[Branch Chickens]

OP lives in Maine...and like me in Michigan probably has 2-3 feet of snow still on the ground.

There was a guy in Minnesota used netting successfully this year.....lots of different kind of netting out there, difficult to evaluate it and pick the right kind.

I have to laugh because...this winter. Sheesh. We still have between 1 and 2 feet on the ground. There would be more, but we had a nice little warm up about a week ago. Then back to cold.

I hadn't even given the snow a thought with regard to netting. Thanks for mentioning that. I wonder about the netting because my mother (she lives across the street from us) has only used it once in her 15 years of keeping chickens, and it ended up just being a bother. I wonder if snow played into that. Her biggest losses have been to racoons and local dogs, so those are the critters I'm giving the most consideration to. I see a hawk from time to time, but not many. Probably more eagles than hawks.