Chicken fence brainstorm, please

Okay. I have succombed to a bad case of the chicken pneumonia and the Barnevelder flu. Before I get them, I have to fence off a section of my yard. There is a privacy fence between the yard and the street, and I am going to use fenceposts at front and back as guides for an enclosure that will run the depth of the yard (about 40 ft.) and about 8 ft. wide for the outside of the coop. I'm buying a Chick-n-Hut from Randall Burkey (http://www.randallburkey.com/prodinfo.asp?number=10680) and will set it inside this enclosure.

It has to be strong and safe, and I would like it to be beautiful. There is a beauty to posts with chicken wire stapled to them, so that is not excluded. However, a wattle fence would be beautiful as well as functional (this IS a back yard of a house in a subdivision, remember, and I will want to sell it when I retire to The Farm), or I've thought of using wooden trellis, like I have above the privacy fence. That's why you see a picture of me smelling a rose, so you can see the trellis behind me.

I'm going crazy thinking of options and I would like to get at least a good start this weekend. It has to withstand cats. Bird netting will be at the top of the whole thing as there are hawks in the area. I do not want to cement posts into the ground; I'd rather drive rebar or t-posts or something like that. And by the way, it has to be doable by me alone. Not being obsessive; I just have no help!

PLEASE! Any suggestions are very, very welcome. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

edited to say I meant lattice, not trellis.

This message was edited Feb 6, 2009 11:40 AM

WOW!!! I sure cant wait to see those new birds!! I saw the pic of what ZZ's look like and I want some now tooo!!! I used AKC dog kennel pannels for my run. My DH wanted to frame wood and attach the chicken wire. It was too much work and I am not a patient person...I will work on that when I am not waiting for something. hehehe
I am sure someone has better ideas than me though. There are a lot of creative people here. Good luck with everything!!!!! woohoo!! PS...where will the sheep go??? LOL

Stormin' -back after supper w/ some plots and plans....

I'd post some ideas.. but I have yet to come up with a fence idea.. I have a huge area to fence, and can't really afford it. (not my property anyway) but I am going to put up a trellis and cover it with vines for privacy.. at least in the front.. I never realized how much attention my chickens attract!!

Sorry. Supper put me under...I did sleep soundly however...lol. How much fence precisely? They have PVC trellising, either in diamond or square pattern -4x8' sheets. And light weight green metal posts 4-5' high. Those sheets are easy to cut or have cut and can be tied with wire or zip ties even to a metal post behind. The metal post gets hammered into the ground. Miniature roses planted in front of the seams. If you used that to form a perimeter then bird netting could be used to close it off. Even using a light grade wire to create a cage to then be netted. Might even be possible to put in 2 regular wood posts (think landscaping timbers, flat side in) and then attach a reclaimed door to it for garden art and entrance to the chicken domain... You'd end up with a virtually see through chicken yard. Decorative on bottom, invisible on top...'Course it's very easy when it's you doing it and not me...still...it's a thought.

Too bad you didn't live up here. The fencing we used nothing can get in that the chickens won't destroy. Plus when you put up the fence, make sure that you have something over the top of it because chickens do fly. DH found that out one day in Hudson. One of our batams fly to the top of the roof on us. Straight up. Look at the right side of the coup.

Here's another picture showing you a close-up. Now we have a metal roof over the fenced in area, but they still get the fresh air. This fencing is really heavy duty with vynl coating. It was left over from a job at DH's work and since he's a welder, you can imagine how heavy duty this is.

Wow rhodiegirl, that's a robo fence! I just have a regular fence around my hen pasture. I put aviary netting where they like to hang out for protection, but for the most case, they don't fly out. I trimed the flyers wings when they were small and I guess they don't think they can fly out now.

We didn't bother clipping wings. They don't fly very high, but where we live, danger is most certainly to come about. DH is planning on moving their coup to a different spot and make it bigger for them.

Innbetween, I love your duck pond!!! hehehe

go get her, JM!!! teehee!!

Here it is! Not great, but if this doesn't work out for some reason, I won't have invested way too much. I'm building a pretty little gate for the opening, and a chick-n-hutch from Randall Burkey will go inside. I've sown purslane seeds in the dirt in the cinder blocks.

If you can suspend wire across the front the bird netting should stay up high enough for you to walk in it. Looks great, though. Are you planning on hanging gorgeousness from the hooks? We did something similar but not quite as nice with our chick run and our only problem was that the bird netting keeps wanting to sag. But if you've got that 6ft fencing at either end you may be able to string a wire tight and have the bird netting drape down the front?

The gate (which will be brilliantly beautiful... at least in theory...) will have an arch tall enough for me to walk under, though I will have to stoop. A wire from the side fences, over the arch, should work. I don't know if hawks could get to them in that pen, but I don't want to take the chance.

Sounds wunderbar!!