Snow fence for chickens?

[Kinfolks]

Hi,
My husband and I are building a chicken pen off of our old smoke house size shed. We are thinking of having ply wood starting at the bottom and going up about 4ft. From the plywood we are considering going up using that orange plastic snow fencing another 4ft. high. (We hit a sale for $5.00 a roll) It was something we read about in Countryside magizne, but I think in that article they used green deer fence and they used it as a sort of roof for their outdoor pen instead of for the sides. Anyone ever tried this. Any suggestions?

[PonderosaQ]

Don't know your predator situation but a hungry coon with babies to feed will just rip that plastic stuff apart.

PQ

[Kinfolks]

Originally Posted by PonderosaQ

Don't know your predator situation but a hungry coon with babies to feed will just rip that plastic stuff apart.

PQ

Hi, again, thanks for the advice. Luckily I have 4 dogs that keep the coons away. Or at least keep them in the loft of our barn. This shed is not near the barn. I do worry about Chicken Hawks though. I suppose that could be fixed by adding a covering to the out side pen. We've only had the chickens about a year and as we add more, we keep experimenting with ways to keep them. We can't have free range due to dogs, but I have about six that I have managed to keep in with my goats that have learned to stay in the pen and not fly out.

[fin29]

Go for the thicker black snow fence. We've used it on the sides of our chicken tractors in a pinch, and it has withstood fox and coyote attacks. It's the black plastic stuff with oval holes that you might be able to fit four fingers through.

[Kinfolks]

Originally Posted by fin29

Go for the thicker black snow fence. We've used it on the sides of our chicken tractors in a pinch, and it has withstood fox and coyote attacks. It's the black plastic stuff with oval holes that you might be able to fit four fingers through.

Thanks. Just knowing that someone else has tried snow fencing makes me feel a bit more confident.

[uncle Will in In.]

Get yourself a live trap that is large enough to catch coons. Put it along the outside of plywood fence wall and you will be surprised at how many varmits are out there while your homestead sleeps. You can release them elsewhere or have them for dinner the next time the inlaws show up. If you release anything within 4 miles of home it will likely return. The coons in the barn come out at night to eat. That food would feed some of your animals. Most varmits like cat food or dog food. (Bait)

[Corky]

After several years of homesteading, I have learned the poultry fencing lesson , the hard way of course. Don't we all?
It really isn't about how to keep the chickens in. Its all about how to keep everything else out. That goes for those farm dogs and cats too.
Things go under, over and through fence that you would swear nothing could get through. Snakes and weasels are small but will still get those chickens and eggs. I now use 2x4 heavy grade fence, both sides and top. also have a roof over the pen area to keep it dry. Over the 2x4 fence I have a layer of rabbit wire up about 4 ft from the bottom.This happened when I got an idea from Countryside to have the feeders and waters on the outside with just a tiny opening to push the feeder tray through. Coons removed the feeders and just squeezed right through that little opening. Killed most of my chickens that time too. My pen is built on an old foundation that goes deep in the ground so nothing can get under it. Nothing has got to them in a couple of years now but you just never know.

[RedneckPete]

Tried the snow fence. My chickens flew over it after about four hours.

I now free range my chickens all day every day. My dog has learned to leave them alone.

I went away for two weeks with both my dog and chickens free. A friend stopped by once a day for feeding and egg collection. All animals were in top notch condition when I returned.

Free range you chickens.. I get an egg a day from my hens (20 of them) and spend less then 30 cents a day on food. When they are cooped up they will eat almost 10 times that much.

Pete

[Kinfolks]

[QUOTE=RedneckPete]Tried the snow fence. My chickens flew over it after about four hours.

I now free range my chickens all day every day. My dog has learned to leave them alone.

I went away for two weeks with both my dog and chickens free. A friend stopped by once a day for feeding and egg collection. All animals were in top notch condition when I returned.

Free range you chickens.. I get an egg a day from my hens (20 of them) and spend less then 30 cents a day on food. When they are cooped up they will eat almost 10 times that much.

Pete[/QUOTE
Thanks everyone for your advice. We are making alterations to our plans to see how it goes. I appreciate everyone's help. I love this site.

[jackie c]

I'm using chain link. I did try a heavy landscape mesh, but my dog tore through it like it was plastic snow fence. Get my drift?

[Paul Wheaton]

With our chickens loose, they love to come to the house and crap all over everything. They get into my shop and crap on my tools. They get into the garden and destroy everything.

Of course, when they are loose, they eat lots of bugs and do cut back on feed costs.

I kinda like a hybrid approach. We give them a very large chicken run and turn them loose around 4. They still eat lots of bugs in the run. And the time they are out is short enough so that they mostly want to chase bugs, but their interest in anything destructive is small. We're currently setting up a couple more runs so they can rotate runs (giving the previous run time to recover).

[Kinfolks]

Well, With all of your advice we got our chicken pen built with some modifications to our original plan. We still used snow fencing on part, but the majority was wood. I should mention that the house that the pen is attached to has a thick concrete floor. Wish us luck and thanks to everyone who helped us out.