New to the Country - Putting up a fence

[Tara Brown]

Hi Everyone,

Well we have made the move! We are settling in nicely on our 2 acre property.

We are now thinking about fencing. We would like to fence 1 acre of our property. Within this acre we want to keep chickens, rabbits in a colony and either goats or sheep.

We dont know anything about putting up fencing so are hoping to get some info.

Our uncle lives on a farm close by and has a post hole digger we can use so we are hoping to do much of it ourselves.

Are there any good sites for DIY fencing?

Here are some general questions we have:
-how tall should a fence be to house chickens and goats/sheep
-how far apart do you position the posts?
-how deep do the post go underground?
-what gauge wire should be used for chickens/goats/sheep. What about rabbits being raised in a colony?

Thanks everyone!

[Wolf mom]

A lot of your questions can be answered at a good fencing company. Pick their brain, look at different types of fencing, prices and what you want to use it for.

Around here, fencing inside the lot line about 6 inches is normal. If it's on the lot line, others can tie into it, build against it, etc. Your money - your labor, your fence.

I believe in double fencing. My acreage is completely fenced - t-posts, cedar H corners and the original barbed wire. I attached 4' woven field fencing to that. No sags, solid, keeps all critters (except the elk) in &/or out. Then I have non-climb fencing around the horse pasture, different fencing around the chicken yard. All within the border fencing.

May seem to be overkill, but when you read threads (rants) about dogs & 2 legged trespassers, I'm happy.

You post that you want chickens, goats, etc., go to the other forums at HT. They're a wealth of information on individual animals.

[Danaus29]

Check your state and local fence laws and regulations. Here I cannot put up any kind of fence, in the rest of the county you have to get a $75 "certificate of zoning compliance". Ohio allows you to put your fence on the property line and you can force your neighbor to pay for part of it now or later (which IMO is pretty crappy to force your neighbor to pay for a fence you want to put up unless they are causing a situation where you need to fence them out).

I got pretty good at installing chain link fence with t-posts before the county took away our right to fence our property. I would use some good wood posts set in corners or every so often since you are fencing a much larger area than I did. Treated lumber or cedar would work, locust would be the best option.

[Fowler]

We use cattle panels for sheep, chicken wire for chickens, and I dont think there is anything that can hold in a goat....~waiting to get thumped on head~

What is.... rabbits being raised in a colony?....sounds like a cult

[Callieslamb]

I have 4" woven wire and cattle panels for the sheep. The chickens can get through the 4" squares so if you want to keep them out - you will need either chicken wire or the 2x4" welded wire fencing. I run a 2' tall piece at the bottom of the fences and the chickens haven't gotten in through those places yet. Goats will be the hardest to fence. Ask on the goat forum. I like cattle panels since I like to move my fences and repurpose my pastures. They are about the same cost if you catch the panels on sale.
For my woven fence, I have metal T-posts 8-10 feet apart with a wooden post every 8 Tposts. I used wooden posts for the corners. Cattle panels can be used with just the Tposts.

[SFM in KY]

Too many 'unknowns' so I second the suggestion of talking to some of your local fencing companies and/or farm supply stores that carry fencing. So much depends on type of ground (flat? hilly? rocky? trees?).

I would expect you to have to fence sheep/goats separately from the chickens and rabbits. I understand goats are difficult to fence though I've never had sheep or goats. Chicken wire will keep chickens in but needs to be fairly high as many breeds of chickens can/will fly up and over. I raise rabbits but keep them caged. Based on what I've been told, fencing for colony rabbits needs to be buried as otherwise they will dig under ... and they can also jump quite high.

I don't know the 'stocking rate' for grazing land where you are, but one acre, if you have chickens and rabbits with their areas, plus sheep or goats, I would think you would have to expect to buy feed most of the year for the sheep/goats. An acre of pasture is unlikely to provide pasture for very many animals.

[Joshie]

Chickens can fly pretty high and predators from the sky can be pretty determined. We've had chickens go visiting to a neighbor's place across a good sized pasture... way more than one acre's distance. They had to fly over fencing to get there. Chickens are sneaky little things when they want to be.

[Belfrybat]

My preference for a perimeter fence is "horse fencing" -- 2x4 linked mesh (not welded as welded wire doesn't stretch). 48" high is adequate for most needs except for goats, go 5' high and don't have anything close the fence they can climb. Build a separate pen for the chickens of 1" chicken wire and make sure to wire the top as well. I have no idea about rabbit colonies as I've never heard of them. If you mean not caging rabbits, then I think you'd need a barn with wire around it buried 1 foot underground, and also wired over the top. It's amazing the number of predators that can climb fences.
I use t-posts with either pipe or stout wood posts in the corners. I prefer the pipe if I can get the welding done cheaply enough as it lasts forever and a day.

[Sanza]

Wolf mom's post had good ideas to think about.
Another suggestion is to get your uncles' advice on the types of fencing best suited to your plans because he knows the terrain and also the predators you'd want to keep out...or pay him to do it for you.

[motdaugrnds]

Welcome Tara Brown. I trust you will enjoy this forum as much as I have as there are many generous and kind people here.

One acre is not that much to fence.

-how tall should a fence be to house chickens and goats/sheep
-how far apart do you position the posts?
-how deep do the post go underground?
-what gauge wire should be used for chickens/goats/sheep. What about rabbits being raised in a colony?

The fencing you need for chickens is different from what you will need for goats/sheep. However, if you reason it out, you can prepare your parameter fencing in such a way that will hold all you are wanting to raise and use the "same" fence posts. (I can tell you what I think would be best in your situation.)

Posts need to be 6-8 ft' tall and "treated" (unless they are locust posts) as cedar will need to be redone in a few years. Since goats will STAND on the fencing, make sure your posts are close enough to keep the wire tight. Since you are only fencing one acre, I would place posts every 4-5 ft apart. Dig a 2+ ft hole, pour half a bag of quickrete in it, add some water and tap it down good, stabilize that post with 3-4 large rocks near the top of the hole. (David also stabilizes the bottom part of each post with rocks before the concrete is put in.) Let it set up for at least 24 hours before you start nailing fencing to it.

The wire I would use would be "woven" (not welded). 5' high is fine for goats as long as there is nothing they can stand on near the fence. (We raise Nubians and they do not jump a fence this high.) Keep the wire at least 6" off the ground, place it on the "inside" (not outside) of your posts so, if it is pushed on, the wire pushes against the posts and does not push out staples used. Use "barbed" staples to attach your fencing to your poses.

Now this takes care of goats and/or sheep. As for chickens: Just attach small-holed chicken wire onto the existing posts (all the way to the ground).

As for rabbits, I have been wanting to establish a "colony" myself. Just have not had time as yet. The way I intend to do it is to dig a 2' deep trench all around where the colony will be, have my posts and "rabbit" wire ready. Stabilize fencing posts into that trench; then filling trench with concrete, making sure the bottom 2" of that rabbit wire is embedded into that concrete. (This way I would know the rabbits would stay put.)

Since you are wanting to place all your animals in the same fenced acre, I would plan all this fencing so that no wire is overlapping and the same fencing posts are used, which would save a lot of money.

You will need housing for your animals; so you might want to give that some thought "before" you start fencing.

[sticky_burr]

how many animal units is all those animals? it may be too much and you will end up with a 1 acre mud pit or atleast you will be suppling alot of hay

[CornerstoneAcre]

Can't say on rabbits, but we have goats inside cattle panels (16' each) with metal t-posts on the ends and the center of each panel (end posts attach to the ends of two panels). We are newer to goats, and once we figured out that horned Boers can get their heads stuck in cattle panels we added 2' of 2x4 welded wire fence to the INSIDE of the cattle panel. We started from the third opening up as the bottom two panels are smaller than the rest anyway. Also we used a roll of 4' high welded wire and just cut it in half (time comsuming, but the cost savings was worth it). his has also stopped the chickens from getting INTO the goat pen. We actually like the chickens to be able to go into there as they keep the fly population down so we will have to figure out something about this. But this should keep chickens (at least if they are not bantams) in as well as out. Our buck pen is set up the same way. If money is no object or time is, I would just go with the goat panels to begin with (although off the top of my head I can't remember if the holes are small enough to keep chickens in).

[kabic]

Originally Posted by Danaus29

Ohio allows you to put your fence on the property line and you can force your neighbor to pay for part of it now or later

Pretty much the same in Wisconsin. If you have livestock the neighbor has to build half the fence. I beleive it is in the regulations you build the right hand half when looking at the fence from your property. There is also regulations on what types of fence meet the requirement.

http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us/nxt/gat...d=stats&jd=top

Checl out chapter 90 which is devoted to fence law.

[fantasymaker]

I think you might be asking the wrong question.
20 years raising sheep taught me something about fences.
ANYTHING that will keep what you dont want OUT will keep what you do want in!
What dont you want in?
with chickens and maybe at times chicks you need to protect against the nastiest of predators.
CATS.
goats are great bait for coyotes ,wolves ,bear and the second worst predator
DOGS.
Now if you can keep all that out about anything will stay IN
I recommend
6-8 feet of woven horse or ostrich fence with 2 hot wires at top and one a foot up and a foot out on the outside of the bottom.
Be sure they are on separate chargers

[fantasymaker]

Originally Posted by motdaugrnds

Posts need to be 6-8 ft' tall and "treated" (unless they are locust posts) as cedar will need to be redone in a few years. ..... Dig a 2+ ft hole, pour half a bag of quickrete in it, add some water and tap it down good, stabilize that post with 3-4 large rocks near the top of the hole. (David also stabilizes the bottom part of each post with rocks before the concrete is put in.).

Concrete is a great way to get all your posts to rot off at exactly the same height. If you really feel you MUST use the perfectly useless concrete be sure to have a few inches of concrete all around the post specially UNDER and to seal the top around the base of the post EVERY year with a good grade of silicone.
Of course to complete the protection so the inevitable cracks in the wood don't channel water straight into the now sealed base yo will have to keep the top sealed including sealing any cracks that develop COMPLETLY.
What a pain in the butt?
And of course all this is a total waste of time since in the end the concrete bears on the same soil the post would have.
Steel posts are a lot handyer!

[FarmerRob]

Premier1 has a great catalog that is quite educational.

http://www.premier1supplies.com/

[motdaugrnds]

fantasymaker, anything rots after awhile (except those metal posts). We have used metal; but we prefer the wooden because we like to double fence (48" on top of 48") and that requires the wooden posts to do it well...plus they look better in the woods.

[Ken Scharabok]

jd belanger, original editor/publisher of Countryside and Small Stock Journal had a saying. To see if a fence is goat proof throw a buck of water on it. If any water gets through it isn't goat proof.

Once had a Braham bull. He would walk through barbwire like it wasn't even there. He was so gentle I sold him to a guy who had a Braham cow he wanted bred to him, with the calf to perhaps become a rodeo show with him riding the critter. He said there is no way that bull was going to get through his fences. Well, about a month later he called and asked me to take the bull back as it grew a fond affection for a neighbor's garden. I loved that bull, but he went to the livestock sales.

PS: I have had at least two cows who jumped a four-strand barbwire fence to get serviced by a bull. Bred and they come back home. For one, she had to walk well over a mile up creek to get to the bull. I guess the wind was blowing right and she could detect their bull.

[fantasymaker]

Originally Posted by motdaugrnds

fantasymaker, anything rots after awhile (except those metal posts). We have used metal; but we prefer the wooden because we like to double fence (48" on top of 48") and that requires the wooden posts to do it well...plus they look better in the woods.

Wood posts are fine I prefer Hedge or as its someplaces called osage orange.
In fact Id like find a good deal on some hedge lumber to use in my boat.

[Tara Brown]

Thanks for all the help everyone! So much to think about...

We are going to visit a Mennonite man about building our fence this weekend. We will see what he has to say!