yard wire: what do you use??

[rynegold]

So, I'm planing the yard to accompany the coop. I see all sorts of stuff being used. Mike and Tina of Honeysuckle Farms ...

http://honeysucklefarms.weebly.com/index.html

use chicken wire with a plastic coating... its $150 for a roll 6'x150' (a great price I think) from Mike; they're factory seconds. Nice stuff but I hate looking through it! Very restrictive. Mike seems to think the smaller the hole, the smaller the snake to get through it. I've found snakes of all sizes in places I least expect them so I'm not so sure that is a good rule of thumb. The stuff is hard to string tight. Looks saggy.

I like the welded wire (NOT hardware cloth) , galvanized, w/ 2x4 inch holes. Bad choice or good? These people are in my backyard.... Houston. They will make/have everything albeit expensive. A 6'x150 roll is like $255.


http://www.marcospecialtysteel.com/...ep549-cqpj9b&gclid=CLar3-jDyagCFapl7AodxFPwsQ



It sure looks better. I was also thinking of using batting cage mesh over the top versus wire; more room for humans, some cheaper, and easily replaced. Arched over 1" pvc, it would allow a lot of head room.

http://www.cascadenets.com/barrier_netting.php?gclid=CKbj7uLFyqgCFZIf2god3xqBqQ


Wire of course is very tough and not that much more money but, alas, no head room.

thoughts?

regards, m

 

[Snegurochka]

You're going to hate this answer, but you really need both. If you just use the 2X4 welded wire, coons can reach in and decapitate your birds (not to mention rats coming in). But the chicken wire itself isn't strong enough to keep predators from ripping through (although personally I've used it for 15 years without any incidents.) You can layer them together if you like, or you can put hardware cloth on the bottom 2-3 feet to prevent coons from reaching in, and the chicken wire on the rest of the run.

The netting would probably be okay as long as you lock your run door every single night. I think it's easier to just make the top predator proof as well, so that if I'm out late one night, or it's pouring rain or something like that, I don't have to worry about my birds. I'm not sure how long baseball netting would last out in the weather.

My new run is going to be a 6 ft. tall dog kennel, with hardware cloth along the bottom 3 feet and chicken wire on the rest of it, including the top. If you keep an eye on Craigslist (or your neighbors' yards) you might get a really good deal, and then you won't have to worry about the welded wire at all, and you'll have plenty of head room.

 

[elmo]

It depends on what level of security (if any) you're aiming for in terms of the run. Some people free range and simply accept the fact that there will be some losses to predation over time. Some people build a run simply to contain the chickens (keep them out of other places in their yard) and simply accept the fact that a daytime predator like a big dog could get into the run, or a hawk swoop down into an open topped pen. Other people built stouter runs to keep dogs out, and cover the top of the pen with something that will keep out raptors. Still other folks try to build the run as tight and secure as possible, using welded wire throughout (and wire with small openings wherever there's a risk of reach through predation). People who build less secure pens often plan to lock their chickens safely inside a secure coop at night, every night, when predator risk is highest.

There's no single "right" way to do this, although I will say if you trust to chicken wire to protect chickens from night time predators, you'll either need to be very lucky or willing to accept losses.

 

[bburn]

Having suffered losses recently of three birds....here I go.

Listen to the people who tell you about welded wire and the need to make an apron around the bottom of the run. My DH would not let me do it. Now he is out of town for this third kill of one of my chickens and he is saying 'do it'. Something crawled/dug under and killed my broody hen and then ate all the eggs.

Anything that can dig under can probably climb up and over. Cover the top with something stout enough to prevent them from tearing it apart or holes large enough to crawl through. You can hardly dig a hole to plant a tree or set a fence post here. But after two solid weeks of rain anything can dig under!!! Just found that out and am waiting on daylight to see if I caught what got in my small corner pen. Not looking forward to going out there....at all!! Am not going to let my chickens out of their coops for a while today either. SIL and nephew are coming to help me.

We are digging out around all the pens and making the apron to go around it and burying it. THEN we are going over the top with chicken wire OVER the welded wire that has larger holes. Then around the bottoms of the coops I have galvanized steel (well metal of some kind) strips that you can use to make a flower bed that are six inches tall and 8 ft long and we are going to make a trench along the edge of the coops (that are buried already) and putting them in and then screwing them to the bottom of the coop so they cannot be raised up.

Our chain link fence is 5 ft in the big run. We put posts in the middle of the run that are probably 8 ft and we draped the welded wire up and over from side to side and secured it. That makes it tall enough that we can stand up except around the edges. But will add the second layer today to prevent anything from crawling up and over. The other run is a 7 ft. heavy gage chain link. We have layers of chicken wire over it and it is secure. However, around the bottom of that we will be installing the wire apron today.

I heard the rooster crow so they are probably safe this morning inside the coop.

I have had a really hard time sleeping since the first two were killed. Now this other one. The 22 is loaded and as soon as I get some coffee in me and get brave I am headed out there.

DO NOT let this happen to you. I cannot tell you how bad it makes you feel. They are mine to take care of and keep safe and I failed them. I have eggs in the incubator due to hatch this weekend. I have chicks in the brooder that are three weeks old. All this will be taken care of before it is time to put them out for sure.

Go read everything you can in the section on coop design as there will be lots of picture and stories of what people have done to keep them safe.

Good luck.....and start buying wire. It is going to be a long day at my house. But tonight I will sleep.