6/20/2023 0 Comments Chicken wire fence around garden![]() Wood is a great natural source of fencing and may look very beautiful in a garden. Because chain-link is also costly, it’s best used in a dual-purpose way, so to speak, doubling as both your yard’s barrier and your chicken’s. Especially in suburban areas or close neighborhoods, a chain-link fence between your flock and the rest of the world will protect your birds from marauding neighborhood dogs and cats while also keeping your neighbor’s prized flower beds and immaculately mulched gardens safe from your bird’s ever-scratching feet. While not necessarily made for chickens, a properly erected chain-link fence can serve your flock well. Electric fencing may not be as aesthetically pleasing as some other options, but it’s very effective. It’s best to investigate solar-powered fencing options to keep electric bills down and have a reliable source of power. Of course, any electric fencing relies on electricity, so it’s susceptible to power outages and other related snafus. ![]() This fencing is ideal for homesteaders or urban farmers who want to rotate free-range areas or fertilize new garden plots. The net also needs to be properly secured to keep from forming gaps or sagging parts of the fence which larger predators could easily jump over. To keep the electricity from shorting out, it’s necessary to weed around the perimeter of the fencing on both sides. This type of fencing is ideal to keep out predators, such as foxes and coyotes, though it will not deter diurnal mustelids, aka weasels, which are small enough to fit through the fence gaps.Įlectric net fencing has a few shortcomings: It’s not entirely low-maintenance. It’s rather affordable and easy to setup, move and store. The best kind of fencing in this category for poultry is electric net fencing, a portable, electrifiable prefabricated fence. But when the birds get free-range time to pasture outside of the run, one of the following forms of fencing is recommended.Įlectric fencing comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes-and budgets. The entire run is as secure as a locked coop, and the chickens don’t require locking up each night. Some chicken keepers-including yours truly-prefer to use hardware cloth as the mesh on outdoor runs, creating a predator-proof outdoor space. In truth, hardware cloth is not actually fencing. At night, your chickens should sleep behind hardware cloth no matter where they roam throughout the day. Use hardware cloth to secure gaps bigger than 1 inch in diameter throughout the coop. Because it is a costly material, hardware cloth is best applied in and around the coop, and any coop windows should have a layer of 1/2-inch hardware cloth mesh lining the pane. ![]() Without a doubt, hardware cloth is the Lamborghini of poultry fencing, and its price tag reflects as much. For our purposes, we’ll use generalities in discussing cost, such as inexpensive and expensive, and focus on durability and effectiveness of the various fencing types. ![]() To get a feel for how much it can cost, check out “Estimated Costs for Livestock Fencing” by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. But it does have to be made of solid material and securely installed, which usually means you’ll have to spend a little money and either do a little work or hire someone to do it for you.įence pricing varies … a lot. If you’re purchasing fencing with the intention of keeping out predators, it doesn’t have to be beautiful. Let’s look at fencing from both sides of the fence-pardon the pun. What kind of fencing you need will depend on how you have arranged your birds’ housing and what kind of coop you use, as well as other factors, such as geographical location and what type of predators lurk in your neck of the woods. When it comes to protecting chickens-or protecting something from chickens-nothing does the job like proper fencing. ![]()
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