Poultry fencing advice

[Jimmy]

Looking for some poultry fencing advice please...

I want to fence off my veg patch from our chickens and I need approx 25m of fence to screen that end of the garden from when the chickens are let out of their run during the day. The chickens are showing too much interest in anything green (especially perpetual spinach and chard) and the compost mulch is manna from heaven to them but ruins any chance of getting any veg growing this year.
The chickens go back into their fox-proof run overnight. It needs to be easily movable so that I can get the mower past, doesn't need to be electric, not fox-proof (as the rest of the garden isn't) and reasonable cost.

What I think fits the bill is getting an electric poultry fence but not connecting it to any power source.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

[enrico]

I tried everything. In the end I had the land to give them a large piece of grass to themselves. I had to put up 5 foot fencing which I have hedged. But if you clip wings it can be lower. If the area is large enough they won't turn it to bare earth. I even have to cut the grass as they can't eat it fast enough. They have a secure run within this area. Once they have been in your veg patch they will take every opportunity to get into it! That was our mistake too!
E

 

[Murox]

I had a similar 'problem' a few years ago. I never did find anything easily moveable other than electric mesh - but it was never tall enough. They managed to go over anything under 1.5m - depends how flighty yours are of course. This stuff might work - Plastic Barrier Fencing 1m x 50m Green Barrier Mesh sold by Suregreen Ltd - but will need some fencing pins/stakes its floppy stuff. You could build yourself a "chicken tractor" !

PS - don't rely upon wing clipping, its surprising just how 'high' they can jump/flap.

 

[Curly green finger's]

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.

 

[pargyle]

I built a tractor for them .. I got fed up with free ranging hens trashing what few plants we can get to grow in our garden and the last straw was when our local fox (we have several around us) took two of them in the middle of the afternoon .. we know it was the fox as he could not carry both of them and he left one headless carcass behind !

The flaps at the bottom were installed as the bloody fox tried to dig under the edge one day when they were out on the lawn.

Totally fox proof now. The chooks soon got used to going into the tractor when we opened their run door and hammer across the lawn to where we have put the tractor and queue up to go in. We can then put them where we actually want stuff dug up or eaten. |A tarp over the top when it rains keeps them dry and it's on wheels so easy to move around.

 

[Beefriendly]

I'm in the same situation with raised beds and tunnels with veg etc..
.

Slow roast the hens and eat with your veg....

 

[denise washington]

frames

make some wooden frames and cover with fine chicken mesh then you can just remove them to do weeding and they are safe from hens and rabbits

 

[Jimmy]

Thanks for all the advice. The 3 chickens we have are in an Omlet Eglu Go, like this one:

We have been routinely letting them have free run of the garden during the day and making sure they are back in well before dusk. It seems as though we have been lucky with foxes so far as the garden is not fox proof.
Is the next few months the worst time of year for fox attacks as they have young fox cubs to feed? If letting them out during the day is tempting fate then making more use of the portability of their coop may be the best option for protecting the garden.

 

[enrico]

To be honest a fox will get in that in seconds so I would give them free run and keep your fingers crossed!
E

 

[Jimmy]

To be honest a fox will get in that in seconds so I would give them free run and keep your fingers crossed!
E

How so? It looks like an expensive version of pargyles hen tractor

 

[Ian123]

The chicken in the second pic above appears to have its very own omelet coat

 

[Murox]

I think Pargyle's tractor is for day time use only. His post reads as though he has a separate roosting place/shed for the night.
From experience I can tell you that fox will dig under barriers, jump up onto the top of lowish huts/houses, bite through ordinary chicken wire and wooded doors - they are a determined creature. 12 gauge weld mesh works very well, as do dogs who don't bother the chucks but will bark at all intruders and leave their scent all over the place.

Thinking further - why not just enclose your veg patch in a "fruit cage" - shop bought or homemade then your chickens can roam freely until they go to roost.

 

[citrus]

I have an electric fence and run a cable to power it for our garden hens

But now the fox knows about the fence it never bothers it ... even when the power was off for a few weeks so you could well power off a car battery for a few weeks to educate the fox (and hens !)

The fence is high enough to be an obstacle but they are never going to bounce off it and over .

 

[Millet]

Thanks for all the advice. The 3 chickens we have are in an Omlet Eglu Go, like this one:

We have been routinely letting them have free run of the garden during the day and making sure they are back in well before dusk. It seems as though we have been lucky with foxes so far as the garden is not fox proof.
Is the next few months the worst time of year for fox attacks as they have young fox cubs to feed? If letting them out during the day is tempting fate then making more use of the portability of their coop may be the best option for protecting the garden.

Fasten some pushchair wheel to the back of your chicken coup that way you can wheel them around..i made a load for more lady friend a few years back and they worked a treat as she was not strong enough to lift them to move them..

 

[pargyle]

I think Pargyle's tractor is for day time use only. His post reads as though he has a separate roosting place/shed for the night.
From experience I can tell you that fox will dig under barriers, jump up onto the top of lowish huts/houses, bite through ordinary chicken wire and wooded doors - they are a determined creature. 12 gauge weld mesh works very well, as do dogs who don't bother the chucks but will bark at all intruders and leave their scent all over the place.

Yes,their permanent run is Cluckingham Palace .. which is built on to their night coop and it's all fox proof. The mesh I use is all fox proof as a fox will bite through normal wire netting and the 'roof' has mesh on it as well. The ground around the run is either paved or there is mesh buried under the ground.

The foxes have tried to get in but they are not stupid and give in when they realise they have no chance ..

Rats, however, are something else.

 

[Murox]

Yes,their permanent run is Cluckingham Palace .. which is built on to their night coop and it's all fox proof. The mesh I use is all fox proof as a fox will bite through normal wire netting and the 'roof' has mesh on it as well. The ground around the run is either paved or there is mesh buried under the ground.

The foxes have tried to get in but they are not stupid and give in when they realise they have no chance ..

Rats, however, are something else.

Proper job !!

 

[pargyle]

Proper job !!

Yes it is .. walk in full height with a canopy under the roof to keep the rain and the sun off the hens, the coop is on legs and there's a dirt bath underneath that I top up with some fullers earth occasionally - they love it. Feeding station with a roof over it and lots of toys for them to play with. A couple of branches and a bench they like to stand and sit on and watch the world go by.

 

[Murox]

Yes it is .. walk in full height with a canopy under the roof to keep the rain and the sun off the hens, the coop is on legs and there's a dirt bath underneath that I top up with some fullers earth occasionally - they love it. Feeding station with a roof over it and lots of toys for them to play with. A couple of branches and a bench they like to stand and sit on and watch the world go by.

Your set up sounds & looks very similar to how I had things when I lived on mainland Europe. We used to use diatomaceous earth as well like you; and also for dusting directly on the birds and into the hut's nooks and crannies after cleaning with a heat gun to kill/control the mites. We used to get them a lot in the warm spring and summer months. Pesticides also helped of course but we tried not to use them too often.

 

[theeggman]

I have an electric fence and run a cable to power it for our garden hens.
The fence is high enough to be an obstacle but they are never going to bounce off it and over .

From experience keeping free range hens commercially electric netting is not a long term answer. Hens with a clipped wing will flap over and both wings clipped can still fly but not such a height but still high enough to get out / in. Once a fox has touched a dead fence it will then try to get through, I've taken one or two out with the 12 bore when they had managed to get stuck in the netting.

 

[Vortex]

I tried everything. In the end I had the land to give them a large piece of grass to themselves. I had to put up 5 foot fencing which I have hedged. But if you clip wings it can be lower. If the area is large enough they won't turn it to bare earth. I even have to cut the grass as they can't eat it fast enough. They have a secure run within this area. Once they have been in your veg patch they will take every opportunity to get into it! That was our mistake too!
E

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