Covering your run and perimeter fencing ideas for anyone looking or curious

[lintlicker]

Hey yall,

We have a lot of aerial predators where we live such as hawks, eagles and other various predators and wanted to share something that has worked very well for us if anyone needs ideas.

We have a 50'x50' chicken run and a separate attached 50'x20' run all surrounded with 6' high 2x4 welded wire buried about 1.5-2' and also 1/2"x1/2" 7.5' high metal fencing over the outside of that to keep out all the 4 legged critters that roam around including bobcats, fox and a ton of coyotes. We also ran 4 strands of electric fencing on the outside of that...

For our covered run, I originally tried netting off of Amazon...terrible idea with the amounts of snow we get.

My next idea which worked great and I encourage you all to try, is buying rolls of 25 or 50 lb test fishing line and attaching it to the top of the fencing starting 12-16" at a corner and running it across the length of the coop. Do this until you complete it in one direction with spacing about 12-16" between strands. I then did this in a square pattern from another side across the whole coop and I would then weave it by going over a cross strand, then under the next to kind of bring it together. I recommend NOT weaving it by going entirely around each strand as it seems to work better if you just run it up over one cross strand and under the next line and attach it to the opposite end of your run. Hope that description helps anyone.

We have only had one instance of our turkey run where a new hen tried to fly out and got tangled in it when it broke with 25lb test, so we clipped their wings and beefed it up to 50 lb test...now that they're used to the run, they don't try to fly out anymore.

So far in the last 2 years, we have lost ZERO animals to aerial predators, and nothing tries to or has been able to get into the run from the air, or from the ground. Unfortunately, the only losses we have had were due to free ranging from a fox.

In case of a zombie apocalypse, we will be living in the coop lol

EDIT: I will upload some pictures later when I get out of work to help anyone out. Feel free to post here with any questions

 

[thistlewick]

Hey yall,

We have a lot of aerial predators where we live such as hawks, eagles and other various predators and wanted to share something that has worked very well for us if anyone needs ideas.

We have a 50'x50' chicken run and a separate attached 50'x20' run all surrounded with 6' high 2x4 welded wire buried about 1.5-2' and also 1/2"x1/2" 7.5' high metal fencing over the outside of that to keep out all the 4 legged critters that roam around including bobcats, fox and a ton of coyotes. We also ran 4 strands of electric fencing on the outside of that...

For our covered run, I originally tried netting off of Amazon...terrible idea with the amounts of snow we get.

My next idea which worked great and I encourage you all to try, is buying rolls of 25 or 50 lb test fishing line and attaching it to the top of the fencing starting 12-16" at a corner and running it across the length of the coop. Do this until you complete it in one direction with spacing about 12-16" between strands. I then did this in a square pattern from another side across the whole coop and I would then weave it by going over a cross strand, then under the next to kind of bring it together. I recommend NOT weaving it by going entirely around each strand as it seems to work better if you just run it up over one cross strand and under the next line and attach it to the opposite end of your run. Hope that description helps anyone.

We have only had one instance of our turkey run where a new hen tried to fly out and got tangled in it when it broke with 25lb test, so we clipped their wings and beefed it up to 50 lb test...now that they're used to the run, they don't try to fly out anymore.

So far in the last 2 years, we have lost ZERO animals to aerial predators, and nothing tries to or has been able to get into the run from the air, or from the ground. Unfortunately, the only losses we have had were due to free ranging from a fox.

In case of a zombie apocalypse, we will be living in the coop lol

EDIT: I will upload some pictures later when I get out of work to help anyone out. Feel free to post here with any questions

I cannot wait to see the pics, this sounds interesting!!

I'm curious about the fox -- we have seen a fox regularly (grey fox, so a small variety, size of a cat really) on our cameras -- and one time just at dusk in another pasture, where we yelled and scared it off (never ever have seen it at dusk again)

I just started letting my girls out 2+ hours after dawn. Foxes are crepuscular and by then, they are back in their dens. Not a single loss and mine free range from then til bedtime.

Just wondering, do you let yours out at the crack of dawn?

 

[lintlicker]

I cannot wait to see the pics, this sounds interesting!!

I'm curious about the fox -- we have seen a fox regularly (grey fox, so a small variety, size of a cat really) on our cameras -- and one time just at dusk in another pasture, where we yelled and scared it off (never ever have seen it at dusk again)

I just started letting my girls out 2+ hours after dawn. Foxes are crepuscular and by then, they are back in their dens. Not a single loss and mine free range from then til bedtime.

Just wondering, do you let yours out at the crack of dawn?

hey there,

we usually only let ours out when we are home, especially after the attack. Our fox attack happened last summer, and we lost 10 babies around a few months of age and 2 adult egg layers. We were about 30 minutes away while driving back home and daughter was home and supposed to be supervising but was not outside. It happened around 11:30am and a neighbor happened to drive by and saw carcasses in the front lawn and the red fox chasing the birds all around so they stopped and were able to chase it off. It would have cleaned us out and luckily we didn't lose more than that and haven't seen it since.

Ill definitely try to get some good pictures of everything to update it here, broken ankle so ill be getting around on crutches trying to do my best! Snow is just melting here in upstate NY so it'll look pretty drab but ill definitely come up with something!

 

[thistlewick]

oooh I don't know anything about red foxes, I've only seen the much smaller (in comparison) grey foxes here where I am in NC
edit; I looked it up - Red Foxes hunt very differently than Grey Foxes and will indeed hunt throughout the morning, while Grey Foxes are more purely nocturnal. Interesting!

I'm super curious about your fishline top of the open air run -- we are extending a run (for vacations/traveling) and that sounds lighter than what we were planning on doing. Always love good ideas!!

 

[lintlicker]

oooh I don't know anything about red foxes, I've only seen the much smaller (in comparison) grey foxes here where I am in NC
edit; I looked it up - Red Foxes hunt very differently than Grey Foxes and will indeed hunt throughout the morning, while Grey Foxes are more purely nocturnal. Interesting!

I'm super curious about your fishline top of the open air run -- we are extending a run (for vacations/traveling) and that sounds lighter than what we were planning on doing. Always love good ideas!!

The fishing line works great, our coop is inside the 50'X50' run, so i tacked in roofing nails every 12-16" along the roof line to accommodate the fishing line being able to attach to something going from the fencing to the opposite side since the coop presents a clear roadblock.

The only bad thing I experienced was a turkey trying to fly out and getting caught in the line...thats definitely a concern because it can get tangled in it and potentially strangle it. But they havent tried to fly out since last year and are much better with it. Havent had any issues with the chickens trying to escape through it and havent had a single hawk or aerial predator trying to hang out and grab a quick meal! So maybe its luck, maybe its the setup, but its working!

 

[lintlicker]

oooh I don't know anything about red foxes, I've only seen the much smaller (in comparison) grey foxes here where I am in NC
edit; I looked it up - Red Foxes hunt very differently than Grey Foxes and will indeed hunt throughout the morning, while Grey Foxes are more purely nocturnal. Interesting!

I'm super curious about your fishline top of the open air run -- we are extending a run (for vacations/traveling) and that sounds lighter than what we were planning on doing. Always love good ideas!!

Pics updated

 

[StinkyAcres]

oooh I don't know anything about red foxes, I've only seen the much smaller (in comparison) grey foxes here where I am in NC
edit; I looked it up - Red Foxes hunt very differently than Grey Foxes and will indeed hunt throughout the morning, while Grey Foxes are more purely nocturnal. Interesting!

Gray Foxes are not purely nocturnal hunters, especially during breeding season. My flock was decimated by a Gray Fox during morning daylight hours.

 

[AnnPann]

Thank you for this post! I've been trying to figure out a similar solution, as we have a pair of hawks that have decided to nest nearby and they are driving me crazy. I am going to look into the fishing line. Do you have a link to the specific product you bought? I don't fish, so I have no idea what/where to look for that.

From the pics, yours looks too to walk under? I need mine to be high enough I'm not having to crouch down under it, as it will be over my only route to the coop door. I was thinking of using those poles you can get for holding up string landscape lights around the perimiter and running the lines from the poles to the coop roof. Do you think they would hold the weight of all of that fishing line?

 

[Ted Brown]

I am reading Prince T Woods' 2nd book "How to Raise Chicks" published 1912. This photo from there. He recommends height that allows walking under.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

don't know how pricy "telegraph wire" is but my 14ga electric fence wire is now $53 / 1,250 feet. I need most of two rolls for every line of wire (5, total) around my pasture. It feels like its doubled in price in the last year or two.