Solitary chicken - need advice

[beach chick]

anyone got any thoughts on the pros and cons of either? having seen the latest dreadful fox attack story on here, plus the need to exclude enthusiastic Lab from the chicken area, I think I need to do something.

 

my concern about a permanent run, although I think its probably the safest if more expensive option, is that it would somehow be unfair on girls who have freeranged for a long time - would they feel desperately confined? also, how easy is cleaning out a permanent run? I'm thinking of a big walk-in run, not necessarily as beautiful as those I've seen on the sticky thread, but practical. could I start with the permanent run on grass, allow them to trash it and then lime/hemcore it?

 

elec fencing I guess I can move about as required; I'd probably get a 50m kit rather than reuse our omlet 25m. can it touch other things, eg wooden fence, trees, or does it have to be in an area with space all round? and I guess the ground can be uneven? if so, I could move the whole chicken set up into the field, rather than the garden, which has its own advantages... if I went with this, I'd just park the 2 eglus inside it - or the cube, as and when I get one... would that be ok?

 

thanks in advance, it would be good to know how easy you all find either option to use!

[..lay a little egg for me]

OK, I have electric fencing so can answer some of your Qs.

 

elec fencing I guess I can move about as required;

Its quite a faff to move it about so we are intending leaving it in one place until the grass starts to look too tatty. The faff is getting it all taut, because if it is too floppy the lowest electrified wire starts to touch the grass which reduces the efficiency of the fence (the bottom wire is not electrified)

 

I'd probably get a 50m kit rather than reuse our omlet 25m.

Definitely get 50m. We have 50m for 4 chooks and the grass keeps growing (we cut it every couple of weeks) so we are hoping they won't reduce it to mud in the winter. I worked out that the chooks are 'officially' free range with this much netting (we have 4 girls).

 

can it touch other things, eg wooden fence, trees, or does it have to be in an area with space all round?

It can't touch other things as it will short out and be no good. you have to keep the grass down around the fence because if too much touches then it won't work. Very dry things that don't carry any current are OK, but vegetation has too much moisture so saps the current. We have ours in the orchard so there are plenty of trees for the girls to shelter under but we make sure the trees don't touch the fence. So far, they haven't tried to use the trees as a launch pad to escape. If there are trees etc too near the outside of the fence, mr fox can use them to jump over the fence.

 

and I guess the ground can be uneven?

Only a bit uneven. If it is too bumpy you get sections that don't go all the way to the bottom in the dips (so mr fox can crawl under) or the electrified sections will touch the humps. You will need extra posts to help keep the fence taut in these bits. I used bamboo pea sticks threaded through the wires with the bottom and top wires wrapped around the stick to make it tighter.

 

if so, I could move the whole chicken set up into the field, rather than the garden, which has its own advantages... if I went with this, I'd just park the 2 eglus inside it - or the cube, as and when I get one... would that be ok?

As long as your field is not too rutty it should be fine. However, the chooks don't really like wide open skies so some shelter (small trees etc) is nice but not essential.

 

thanks in advance, it would be good to know how easy you all find either option to use!

 

Other tips. We have to trim the grass along the bottom of the fence each week to keep it low enough not to touch the electrified wire. I am thinking of using some old pond liner cut into a long strip to go along the bottom under the fence to stop the grass touching the wire. Alternatively you can use weed killer to kill the strip of grass under the fence, but that means that if you move the fence you will have a (semi) permanent mark where it was. My OH was not keen on that idea though it would be the least work. Make sure you get a sender (aka fencer) that is powerful enough to drive poultry netting...the ones designed for horse fencing are not strong enough.

 

I think the electric fence is probably more work than a permanent solid run but it does allow a much bigger space for the girls, plus the chance to move it around if needed.

 

Hope this helps

Edited March 4, 2009 by Guest

[beach chick]

thank you Caroline, that really is enormously helpful!

the area I have in mind is half tree-ed (is that a word?) and half open, so the best of both worlds. it's also at the back of the field, so I can hide the eglus a bit from passers-by, next door to the compost heaps as well, so that's good. slightly further to extend the hose, but nothing serious. slopey/up and downey, rather than rutted.

I like the weedkiller idea, that sounds the easiest option in terms of keeping grass/weeds off the bottom of the fence. so clearly you dont peg the fence down (!!) so the leccy works to keep the chooks in as well?

to be honest, I think with 8 chooks in 50m, they would be fine and certainly not deprived of anything.

thanks again, I do appreciate your comments.

[Gamebird]

I agree with everything Caroline has said.

 

I choose a 50m electric fenced enclosure rather than a permanent run because not only was it cheaper but it gives them much more space to do what chickens like to do. At the moment they have not touched the grass area but prefer to scratch about under the oak tree where the grass never grew anyway.

 

There is no need to pin the netting down unless there is a gap. You will also need a deep cycle leisure battery to power the energiser. Actually 2 is preferable so that one is recharged while the other is being used.

 

I bought my fencing from Solway Feeders (omlet had run out of stock at the time). However Solway's netting is designed to work in a circuit and the ends clip together very easily. It also comes with 4 guy ropes for each corner. I bought extra poles to keep the fence from sagging.

 

I always leave my fencing turned on whether or not the chickens are in the enclosure so that whenever the fox tests it he will always get a shock.

 

My chickens have never attempted to fly out but they have touched it (only once!) and it does make them squawk a bit but no harm done.

 

I am surrounded by foxes - they breed in the wood - and I have seen several since erecting the fencing but having tested it and received a shock they now keep their distance!

 

Good luck with your project.

 

[beach chick]

your set up looks fantastic gamebird, most impressed! mine will look rather more 'rustic', if not messy, but I think its the way to go...

[..lay a little egg for me]

BTW, although a deep leisure cycle battery is recommended, an old car battery will do but may need charging more often. We got one from a breakers yard for £10, as couldn't seem to find 2nd hand leisure batteries. As we had spent £170 for the fence and sender, plus nearly £500 on the hen house, hens, feed etc etc, we felt it was time to economize.

 

Oh and one more tip. You need a ground spike to go with the battery, sender and fence. If you get a kit of fence + sender it will come with a ground spike, if not you will need to buy/make one. Basically it is a long steel rod which needs to be bashed into the ground (they say 3 ft, but we only managed to get ours in about a ft and it was OK) and it is attached to the sender with a lead. This then completes the circuit when someone/thing touches the fence...the electricity goes from the battery, round the fence, through the person/fox/chook through the ground and back up the ground spike.

 

Good luck with your project!

x

[beach chick]

just ordered a kit from Solway Feeders, £210 and seems to have everything. bit disappointed they say 7 days delivery, but will give them a ring in a bit and see if its possible to speed it up!

thanks for all the advice ladies...

[Yolky]

I love your set up game bird.

 

 

How do you make the Omlet stuff electrified?

[Gamebird]

Thank you Yolky. After the fox scare I had it really is good to see my chickens free ranging in safety without me having to watch them the whole time.

 

The Omlet netting can be electrified in exactly the same way as the above explanations.

 

You will need an energiser (this is the device that converts battery power into pulses of electricity and then pushes these pulses down the electric fence line) a battery to give power to the energiser and a metal spike to earth it.

 

Anything touching the fence with their feet on the ground completes the circuit, i.e. battery powers energiser which sends electric pulses down the fence, fox touches fence and electric pulse passes through his/her body (nasty shock) down through the ground the fox is standing on and back up the spike, it then starts all over again.

 

Birds sitting on the fencing (but preferably not your chickens!) will not be harmed because there is no contact with the ground.

 

I hope all that makes sense.

 

I live near a water course so one more advantage with electric fencing is that mink cannot get through either.

[Yolky]

Thanks for the info Gamebird, very useful

[Egluntyne]

Fab set up Gamebird.

[Gamebird]

Thank you Egluntine - much appreciated.

[beach chick]

update and a bit more advice please! we've just measured out the area - looks like it will be 8m wide by 14m long, and will incorporate an 'island' of long grass/wildflowers which is on top of an old anchorage pit for a barrage balloon from WWII! it is a haven for frogs, so I hope they have the sense to move out...

 

anyway, that's the good news. I have just mowed the area and realised that there is a big fall away in levels from left to right. not so much bumpy, but not an entirely even fall either. I 'hope' it will be ok and that we can maintain the circuit, using extra poles if necessary.

 

the other solution would be to add extra topsoil to the sloping bit, but that is beginning to sound even more expensive!

 

those of you with leccy fences, are you able to sort out slopes? I seem to gather from layalittleegg's post that it should be ok, but OH is a bit more sceptical. bumps we can dig out if necessary, but the slope is worrying me a little.

 

thanks in advance for any more advice!

[Gamebird]

My electric fence layout is on a slope but it is a fairly even slope.

 

In a lot of places I have had to put 2 extra posts in between each 'fixed' post to stop the fencing sagging but it has worked. Luckily I don't have any gaps at the bottom but you could peg the netting down if you do.

 

Rather than putting down top soil to fill the gap could you not just dig a small trench through the bump where the netting will go - a bit like a railway cutting. It doesn't have to be wide just as long as it doesn't touch the netting.

[..lay a little egg for me]

I agree with Gamebird.

 

It is ruts rather than slopes or gentle uneveness that cause problems.

[beach chick]

thanks for that, I think we will manage it somehow. just got to wait for it to arrive now, and hope the howling gale stops!!

[MedusA]

I was going to suggest permanent run, but as you've already plumped for the electric netting, I won't!

 

I have a smallish garden, so a run was the most practical for me. Plus I was paranoid about foxes having lost one hen to them.

[beach chick]

the leccy seemed the best option for us... but you do what fits the site and suits you best dont you?!

[frogprincess]

Hello,

 

I'm new (I'll post in the introductions thread as soon as I have sent this!). We're expecting a cube and three pretty chickens ( ) on Monday 16th and we want to get an area of the garden ready before they arrive. We live in a semi-rural area very close to a fox den (we see them all the time and know where they live). We figured that electric fencing would be a good starting point and have been looking at 50m kits, but the area we want to fence off has a perimeter of 38-40m.

 

Can we roll up or trim the spare 10m?

 

Sorry if this is stupid or if it's been answered before - I did a search and couldn't find anything!

 

Thank you very much in advance for your advice!

 

Lesley

 

[Patricia W]

You can do either - roll up or trim. Those with electric netting swear by it. And it is flexible. But it does require some care. I'm sure you'll get lots of help to make up your mind!

 

Tricia

[marianne40]

We left our chickens out for first time last night in eglu. They are on bark chippings with I woodern edging. The fox has dug around the eglu itself.

We are thinking of putting up electric fencing around the woodern edging. Any advice?

Thanks

Marianne

[Mollie333]

Run

Pros: Safe and can be made 100% fox proof.

Girls can go out without you being there.

Cons: grass is ruined, takes up space.

 

I do not at all reccomend electric fencing! My dads friends farm, he lost all his ducks and chickens, because of insecure housing with electric fencing which the foxes just dug under..

pros: more room for the chooks

cons: listen above, plain unsafe.

[Mollie333]

Run

Pros: Safe and can be made 100% fox proof.

Girls can go out without you being there.

Cons: grass is ruined, takes up space.

 

I do not at all reccomend electric fencing! My dads friends farm, he lost all his ducks and chickens, because of insecure housing with electric fencing which the foxes just dug under..

pros: more room for the chooks

cons: listen above, plain unsafe.

[buvarka]

Hi, here is our garden (well, a couple of years ago, now the plants on the sides are a bit bigger) and I need some help to make it a safe hen-paradise

At the moment the eglu with the 3m run is on the top-bit (I replace it every 3-4 days to have fresh grass under them and to clean up the poo), near the swing (which is unused now, my son is more into facebook than gardenswings... I thought to put a comfy swinging chair on it maybe if not to demolish it)

I thought to put a WIR on the raised-bed part in the back, alongside the shed and/or an electric fence on the top bit, where the guinea-pigs' run is on the picture, possibly all the way, from fence to fence, or in a U shape, leaving on the right hand side a path to go to the shed without switching it off.

But I have a LOT of open questions.

Can a fox jump/climb OVER a 6ft wooden fence? (the underpart has a concrete foundation, I can make it safe anyway)

If the fenced-off part is near to the raised bed, can/would a fox jump from there over, into the run?

I'd like to include the beds near the fences, as the girls really enjoy to scratch under the plants and have cosy naps.

The other issue, that this area gets lots of sunshine and has virtually no shades, and I noticed that they are not big fans of plain sunshine, they prefer shade. I need to replace a cherry-tree anyway, would that be enough?

 

I wonder, if the fenced-off part is not in direct contact with the WIR, would it be a big trouble to transfer them into it when we can let them free-range?

 

More I read about it, more confused I become, would you mind to help me brainstorming? What would you do with this garden? I'd appreciate opinions about the hens and not just them, I'm not great in landscaping and this garden is not great at all.

Any help will be very much appreciated thanks

 

 

[beach chick]

wow this is an old thread!!! 3 years on, our electric fencing is still going strong and we seem to be (mostly, fingers crossed) safe from foxies.

will have to read your post properly buvarka before I can respond!