Whether or not you wish to let your chickens free-range otherwise you desire to maintain them in a smaller, fenced run or different enclosure, you’ve acquired to have an excellent fence. “Good fences make for completely happy flocks,” that’s the previous saying! Really, I might need that flawed – nevertheless it’s nonetheless the reality!
The trick is choosing the correct of fencing on your property and on your personal flock. There are tons of choices on the market available on the market, whether or not you wish to DIY your individual or go together with a purpose-made answer that’s straightforward to arrange and tear down very quickly.
Rifling by means of all of the totally different choices and evaluating them might be robust, so that can assist you try this I’m bringing you an inventory of the ten finest ones to maintain your chickens proper the place you need them.
What’s the Finest Materials for Hen Fencing?
Earlier than we go additional, you would possibly wish to know the basic variations between the several types of fencing materials, used to include chickens.
Mainly, these are metallic, wooden, and plastic.
Metallic usually takes the type of some kind of wire. It has the benefit of being very sturdy, and is the most suitable choice for holding out predators, however it’s usually the most costly and probably the most vulnerable to degradation from corrosion. Metallic additionally poses important dangers for damage when it’s damaged or lower.
Wooden is a superb possibility, seems pleasant and might final for a very long time if chosen fastidiously and completed correctly however it’s susceptible to rotting and fence variations that can include chickens often require loads of further fasteners and many work to erect.
Plastic fencing is affordable, gentle, straightforward to maneuver and often straightforward to arrange with a minimal of fuss. The unhealthy information is that it’s barely sturdy sufficient to maintain chickens in and can solely preserve sure sorts of predators, like birds of prey, out. For bigger predators, the most effective it’s going to often do is purchase you time. Nevertheless, it stays a viable possibility for advert hoc or momentary containment.
Maintain these materials benefits and drawbacks in thoughts as you assess the next fencing choices.
Hen Wire
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You possibly can’t go flawed with a traditional. Chicken wire is recognized as hen wire for a purpose: it’s practically the proper fencing possibility for holding chickens!
It’s fairly sturdy, reasonably priced, straightforward to deal with, can preserve any hen inside, and preserve most bigger predators out so long as you are taking a bit of care when putting in it.
Don’t make the error of placing it up with flimsy posts, and bury the wire a minimum of 6 inches within the floor; then you may be in enterprise.
The ubiquity of these items is certainly one of its finest benefits. You may get hen wire actually wherever, from {hardware} shops and residential enchancment facilities to devoted farm and livestock suppliers.
Plastic Security Fencing
Plastic safety fencing is that brilliant orange or inexperienced plastic mesh that you just see strung up round a development website, up on a scaffold or every other place the place you want a excessive visibility indicator and one thing that’s nominally succesful from stopping motion.
It usually has sq. or rounded rectangular openings, and is often hung from metallic posts or weighted plastic bollards that may be simply repositioned. Typically it’s used with wood posts.
The benefits of the sort of fencing are that it is extremely low-cost and intensely straightforward to deal with and grasp. You received’t be getting jabbed with any metallic wires, and it’s virtually unimaginable that it’s going to damage your birds or different animals.
The draw back is that it actually received’t preserve any predators out. It may be torn, chewed and simply dug below.
However, if one thing falls on it or in case your chickens mess with it sufficient, it will possibly begin to stretch out, maybe permitting escapes.
This isn’t the perfect possibility for safely containing chickens, nevertheless it works properly for momentary paddocks, emergency fencing, or for house owners which are on a strictly restricted finances and don’t thoughts elevated vulnerability to predators.
Aviary/Run Netting
Aviary or chicken run netting is considerably much like the security fencing above, usually made from plastic however generally discovered as a material possibility. Not like fencing, this netting is designed to be positioned over your chickens to maintain birds of prey out and flight-capable chickens in.
If you happen to dwell wherever with a big chook of prey presence, these things is necessary until you’re keen to simply accept losses when letting your chickens out into the run or free vary.
It’s reasonably priced and straightforward to deal with, and might combine with just about every other kind of fencing, however the expense of overlaying a big space can improve rapidly. Accordingly, it’s usually restricted to purpose-built chook enclosures or hen runs slightly than defending open pasture.
In a pinch, you should utilize this such as you would plastic security fencing to arrange a brief enclosure in case a everlasting one is broken or if you happen to simply must relocate your chickens for no matter purpose.
It’s good to maintain loads of further available, as a result of it will get torn up from accidents and assaults.
Welded Wire
Welded wire fencing is one other ubiquitous metallic kind used for holding every kind of animals, not simply chickens. Moderately reasonably priced and pretty sturdy, it’s a good entry-level fencing.
As you would possibly count on from the identify, the intersections between the wires that kind a grid sample are spot-welded in place.
As all the time, utilizing good posts and anchors is vital for efficiency and security, however I warn you that welded wire continues to be one of many weaker forms of metallic fencing even when put in appropriately…
The person welds are pretty weak and appear to corrode and snap rapidly from even modest abuse or publicity to climate.
The bigger gaps on this fencing will preserve chickens in, however will nonetheless admit many sorts of chicken predators like snakes, rats, raccoons, and the like.
Nevertheless, if fastidiously put in and buried with a border of gravel, it will possibly show to be efficient in opposition to coyotes and different bigger canines. Total, not a foul possibility however one that’s finest employed with an understanding of its limitations.
½” {Hardware} Material (aka rabbit cage wire)
½” hardware cloth, extra popularly generally known as rabbit cage wire is mainly a supercharged kind of welded wire fencing. In essence, it combines some great benefits of welded wire fencing and hen wire with few disadvantages aside from value.
It’s a lot stronger than welded wire and even stronger than hen wire fencing due to its thicker diameter and extra quite a few, higher-quality welds.
The gaps between strands are solely half an inch, which means that at any given level of impression or assault there’s significantly extra energy holding the fence collectively.
Throughout, a superb selection particularly if you happen to bury it correctly to cease predators from digging below it.
¼” {Hardware} Material
Do you’re keen on {hardware} fabric however want it have been even stronger, even higher? Do I’ve excellent news for you!
{Hardware} fabric is accessible in a number of sizes which denote the spacing between the strands. Even higher than the ½” stuff usually used for rabbit cages, ¼” hardware cloth has even smaller openings and is correspondingly even harder.
Higher but, this terrific fence can preserve out all however the smallest critters with solely bugs, mice and the smallest snakes with the ability to slip by means of. Goes with out saying it will possibly simply include all grownup chickens and chicks…
These items is so robust it will possibly face up to a protracted assault from a coyote, fox, or decided canine so long as they aren’t in a position to soar over or dig below it.
My private favourite association that offers me most peace of thoughts is to bury it with an equally deep layer of huge gravel extending out about 6 inches to both aspect; this makes it brutally laborious for these different animals to dig by means of with out tearing up their paws.
You’ll pay for this stage of safety, however if you happen to dwell in a state with a number of vicious predators lurking round your homestead, I believe it’s value it…
Chain-link Fencing
Typically missed for enclosing chickens, in order for you most longevity and a reasonably first rate look, chain hyperlink fencing can preserve out the most important predators that roam on the bottom – once more, assuming they can’t soar over it or dig beneath it.
The largest drawbacks with chain hyperlink fencing is that it is extremely costly in comparison with our different metallic fencing sorts and it may be difficult to put in.
Additionally take into account that the bigger gaps in chain hyperlink fencing will permit rats, mice, bigger snakes and different equally sized creatures to get out and in with no issues.
If you wish to preserve these critters out, you’ll must go together with {hardware} fabric or hen wire. However if you wish to enclose a bigger parcel or pasture, preserve appearances, and be capable of depend upon the energy of your metallic fencing for longer, chain hyperlink is a high quality possibility.
Wooden Pickets
Wooden picket fencing has been an ordinary around the globe mainly perpetually. It’s dependable, adaptable and if saved in good restore has an simple cottage- or farm appeal that utterly surpasses the opposite extra utilitarian choices on this checklist.
Assuming you make it tall sufficient, it’s greater than sturdy sufficient to include chickens however it will possibly break down with sustained assaults from bigger predators.
Any weak spots, gaps, unfastened boards and so forth can be ruthlessly exploited till you shore them up, and wooden fencing as all the time is very susceptible to degradation from climate and pests.
The excellent news is that if a single plank goes unhealthy it may be changed simply; you received’t have to switch a complete part as you’d with metallic fencing.
Value, sadly, is certainly an element relying on what sort of wooden you wish to use and the way good you need the fence to look, and that isn’t even accounting for the various fasteners you’ll want and ending on high of that.
However assuming you’re useful with set up, it will possibly nonetheless be fairly reasonably priced for the efficiency it gives.
Pallet Fencing
A part of being a homesteader is making do with much less and improvising, and no form of fencing takes that ethic to coronary heart like pallet fencing.
You in all probability already know by now that pallets have 101 makes use of for development, crafts and all types of different DIY actions together with hen coops. You possibly can simply repurpose a pallet into fencing by stringing collectively utilizing a number of posts and nails or screws.
The benefit, after all, is that pallets are very, very low-cost and even free relying on the way you purchase them. They’re additionally surprisingly sturdy assuming they’ve any service life left.
The draw back is that there are inevitably gaps that you just’ll must shore up utilizing further wooden, and the aesthetic is certainly, how do you say, post-apocalyptic.
But when “wants should”, otherwise you simply care about saving probably the most cash potential pallet fencing is completely viable for holding yard birds that may’t fly or jump very high, and even when they’ll you may all the time simply add extra pallets!
Electrical Fencing
Electrical fencing would possibly look like overkill for chickens, however not when you concentrate on the totality of the circumstances.
Sure, it’s costly. Sure, it’s going to give chickens a painful pop in the event that they contact it. However electrical fencing will even deter predators in no unsure phrases and preserve chickens from straying.
That, mixed with its relative ease of setup makes it extremely enticing in lots of sorts of conditions.
The foremost draw back is, after all, the price of the elements and the requirement for electrical energy. Relying on how your homestead is about up this may be simpler or cheaper to produce, although photo voltaic programs are making electrical fencing on the small scale extra viable than ever.
The opposite concern is, after all, for different animals in your farm and doubtlessly youngsters and pets, although they too will study to avoid the fence in the event that they stray too shut! If you happen to’re useful with electrical energy and electronics, it can save you a bundle on setup, too.
Earlier than you allow, you should definitely save all of those concepts for later in certainly one of your Pinterest boards!
