Poultry fencing advice

[pargyle]

Ours(currently 7 of them) have the run of our back garden for 3 hours a day. The back garden is about 20ftx40ft.. they turned it into scorched earth inside a year. They won't touch brambles, will demolish raspberrys if under 4 ft in height, gooseberry and blackcurrent bushes and most things green they can eat. The upside is there are no slugs, snails, or other creepy crawlies in the garden, and this year I'll have my veg patch fenced so I might actually be able to grow something

That's one of the reasons for building the tractor ... we love our hens but they are the most destructive creatures on the planet after goats ! They will eat just about anything green and their ability to render what was grass to bare earth is second to none .. Ours will eat snails and just about any insects they catch but they just kill slugs - obviously we have hens with more discerning taste buds ...

 

[Norf Bee]

Ducks are way better than chickens, they can be left to roam free in garden.
They eat slugs and snails, so natural pest control.
Less destructive but different care requirements.
People are able to keep chickens in 6x12 back gardens, you wouldn't get away with it with ducks.

 

[Karsal]

There could be the option to clip your hens wings which if done properly will stop them flying over stock fence.

I'm in the same situation with raised beds and tunnels with veg etc..
We use chicken mesh attached to stakes 5 ft high doubling the mesh to compensate for the hight.

I only ever clipped one of the wings on our chickens to leave them unbalanced.
They can't fly too high then

 

[Murox]

I only ever clipped one of the wings on our chickens to leave them unbalanced.
They can't fly too high then

Thats the right way to do it.

 

[enrico]

Just came across this which might fit the bill for some!!!
E
https://www.monstershop.co.uk/catal...-74740943&mc_cid=b807317a36&mc_eid=d570717601

 

[pargyle]

Just came across this which might fit the bill for some!!!
E
https://www.monstershop.co.uk/catal...-74740943&mc_cid=b807317a36&mc_eid=d570717601

I reckon a fox would be in there in about five minutes - it does not say what the mesh covering is but from the photos it looks to me as though it's some sort of chicken wire netting not fox proof mesh. You would need to replace or cover the bottom 3 feet with fox proof galvanised mesh and create some sort of barrier so that the foxes can't easily dig under the bottom of the run (flaps like my my hen tractor has or mesh sunk at least a foot into the ground). As a basis to start and modify it's OK - but you would have to spend another £100 to make it fox proof.

 

[enrico]

I was just thinking of veg patch temporary run. Not fox proof.
E

 

[pargyle]

I was just thinking of veg patch temporary run. Not fox proof.
E

Ahh ...for keeping the hens out rather than them in ! That would be very good - would also be a lot cheaper than some of the commercially available fruit cages ..