Solitary chicken - need advice

[fried-or-boiled]

My girls have had the lion's share of the garden for a year now and it's time to take a bit back! I currently have a wobbly fence of chicken wire containing them but it's not great. Chicken wire is vicious and if one of the girls lands on it, it stays bent and acts as an escape route.

 

I have some safety fence supports (1.3m high poles with a hook on top) and thought I may get safety fencing (that plastic orange fencing that contractors use) but in green.

 

However, I have been told that hens like to peck at it and am wondering if it is the plastic that attracts them or the fact that it is orange (my girls are def drawn to the colour red - they laid eggs in my hedge and one nest had a coke can in and the other nest a kitkat wrapper!

 

This fencing is almost self-supporting whereas I am worried that netting might sag? I looked on the Knowles netting website and it seems pretty reasonably priced and shouldn't be an eyesore. The girls are in eglu/run at night so I'm not attempting to make the fencing foxproof.

 

Any advice would be appreciated

[docsquid]

We've got the orange plastic netting that we had left over from another project fencing off one of our vegetable beds and it seems to be fine. The chickens got in once when the wind blew one corner up, but mostly it keeps them out. They don't peck at it - they prefer scratching around in the fallen leaves and under our trees.

[Plum]

I divided my garden with wire fencing from B&Q

 

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9426502&fh_view_size=10&fh_start_index=10&fh_eds=%3f&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3c%7b9572015%7d&fh_search=B%26Q+colours+kitchen+bathroom+paint&fh_refview=search&ts=1259858249732&isSearch=false

 

They haven't got over it yet and it looks good.

[Tutti Frutti]

We've used black strawberry netting - almost invisible but keeps the girls off our "lawn"!

[Redwing]

i have a roll of the green contractors fencing, its dead good but hard to staple or nail through so cable ties are a good way to go or perhaps those electric fence posts with the hooks and slots would be a good bet for fence posts for it

[Lavenders_Blue]

I've bought netting from Knowles netting. It works fine to keep my girls in. Just be sure that when you're putting it up to make sure it is stretched really taut. You can do this either by weaving your stake through the netting, making sure you keep in in the same row vertically (if you see what I mean) so that you will be making it taut evenly, or else you can hammer your stakes into the ground, then stretch twine between them and tie the netting onto the twine.

I also found securing the bottom of the netting to the ground with tent pegs helps to stop the girls getting their feet tangled at the bottom, as it helps to keep the netting taut vertically as well as horizontally.

Hope this helps you.

 

Edit - I have used exactly the same stakes as you, so these will work fine with the netting.

[bigmommasally]

We've divided our garden with this in the summer, it looks quite nice and seems to do the job. Its not too high so I can step over it but the girls haven't tried to get over it or through it since its been up. We got it from B&Q but I can't see it on their website.

 

http://the-plant-directory.co.uk/border-fence-10m-x-065m-p-2310.html

[Hen Watch]

I'm a big fan of Omlet green netting (and extra poles). Not cheap but worth it.

 

I move my chooks 3 times a year around the garden.

 

In fact last Thursday (when it wasn't actually raining....) I pulled up the 25m of netting and poles to reposition to a fresh bit of grass, took me about 20 mins single handedly. Would recomend cheap tent pegs from Argos to secure the fence to the grass every metre or so.

 

The green blends in with garden really well.

[docsquid]

The Omlet netting really does look better than the orange plastic netting, but I can't justify it at the moment as we have so much orange stuff left over from a building project.

 

I would like to fence off more of the garden though, so maybe in the Spring...

[Egluntyne]

I've used Omlet netting very successfully for years.