New to the Country - Putting up a fence

i will add that our chickens can easily clear a 4ft wire fence, and taller if the fence is wide enough for them to land ontop of before jumping back down the other side, so go at least 4 1/2 ft on fencing height, 5ft if your plannign goats.

Dig post holes as deep a practical, brace well and use the best wire you can afford. The better you build your foundation the longer it will last. Loose wire and loose posts, not a good fence make. Perimeter fence should be 4' minimum, posts 3' in the ground minimum and a good nonclimb wire (not welded). Cross fences are not as important, seperate areas for different animals except for daytime freerange....James

I haven't read all the posts, but if I had it to do over again... I'd use no-climb horse fence EVERYWHERE. We space our posts about 6' apart for goats. If you can keep a goat in you can keep most things in (except a chicken or muscovy duck unless you clip wings). I have also discovered that there is not much that can keep in a white leghorn chicken (which is why I no longer have them).

I would buy electric netting made for poultry. It is four feet tall and spaced to keep birds contained. Put that up the way you "think" it will work. When you get a better idea of how the land works throughout the year you will have a better idea of what you need to do before putting up something permanent. Once the permanent fencing is up you can use the el netting to create smaller units or separate the critters if need be. Also a good way to move the sheep to mow your lawn.

Start with chickens. They'll need a little hen house with a nice roost. You could start with a bunch of chicks, but you can also buy a half dozen layers at a local farm fair. They will be too big to go through the el fencing.

Next year get four lambs that are weaned and on grass, like 5 months old, and put them in with the chickens. You'll find that you need to section them onto 1/4 of your pasture, then move the fence over to give them half. Then, move them to give 3/4 and then arrange the fence so they are on the 1/4 they haven't eaten then. If they were born in January they will be ready to butcher at Thanksgiving.

At this point you may have rethought what you want to do with your fencing and what kind of gates you need. If you can't keep sheep in you won't be able to keep goats in.

Other than perimeter fencing, you may need to make some individual areas within your perimeter. If all the critters can graze everywhere all the time they will eat up all the grass and it won't have time to grow and make seeds. Having different areas you can move the critters to will give the grass in the other areas time to rest and grow. Rotational grazing.

If any of this fence is along a a county or state road, please check with your government officials about how far back it needs to be placed. (see above thread..."aaarrrrrgh!))

For that small a yard see if you can afford chain link- will last forever ? and stronger than most but the cattle panels. Real happy with mine and the two of you working together will get it done a lot quicker than I did solo (our first dog arrived a little bit too early..)

__________________
US Army veteran, military retiree spouse, and military; civilian; British NHS; and VA doctor.