Single wire or Barbed wire fence for chickens

[steppinthrax]

I'm in the process of constructing my run fence for my chickens. The problem is I have a very sloped area. I originally started to use 4' Welded fence wire with 5.5' t-post. I have around 130' of fence run. I believe the boxes in the wire are around 2" high. Unfortunately when doing this I found that upon going up/down slopes the wire tends to sag/bag. I also have issues with tensioning it. I don't want to do any complicated cutting and making fence panels or sectioning the fence.

I was looking for some solutions and I was seeing people using "single wire" fencing where you just use a single strand of wire and space it apart a few inches. I was also looking at barbed wire, but my concern is the barbed wire would hurt the chickens.

I was looking at my t-post and see there are precisely spaced "nubs". I was planning to put a wire every other nub? My question is would this keep the chickens in. That would cause the wires to be spaced every 2" or so.

Single strand wire also seems to be the cheapest compared to welded wire fencing. With 4,000 feet of single strand wire is cheaper than two 100' rolls of welded fence wire.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I will recommend making it E-wire... it's VERY effective at keeping chickens in, mostly. And even better works VERY well at keeping ground predators out.

I say mostly about keeping chickens in, let me explain. I use it to keep my roosters in a stag pen. They usually completely avoid the fence after their first encounter with it. If however one is being chased by another, as sometimes happens.. the fleeing rooster has been known to clear the fence in a panic. And I know some folks have used the poultry E netting and their hens just hop over into the waiting mouth of a fox.

Now if they learn that they can land on the top and it doesn't effect them from not being grounded.. you can either run a ground wire close so it touches when landed on. Or.. sorry lost my train of thought. MAYBE I was gonna say clip wings (close bilateral). I did have to clip ONE set of wings out of over 100+.

The wire must be placed at the correct height to have impact. They must step on it or touch it with their waddles. It doesn't have any impact though feathers.

I went with solar because it was easier and more reliable than my service. It was also pricier though. It's a very affordable and easy to use option compared to the wire fencing which I also have. Tensioning is much easier.

If choosing between single or barbed wire over the E... single is recommended IMO.

Good luck... and good thinking!

 

[aart]

I was looking at my t-post and see there are precisely spaced "nubs". I was planning to put a wire every other nub? My question is would this keep the chickens in. That would cause the wires to be spaced every 2" or so.

That might work, if you can get it good and tight and well attached to the posts.

 

[123RedBeard]

T-posts won't keep the corners tight ... they will bend in when you try to tighten the wire ... a 4"X4" square post, or 6" round, buried 2'+ in concrete should hold the corners without bracing for the short runs ... then the T-posts just hold the wire up for spacing ...

Small rises in the ground can be dug down to create a ditch for the welded wire, and dips can be filled in to help level the ground ... I like to use 3/8" concrete rebar cut into 15"-16" lengths, then bend a hook on one end, and use them as a tent peg, to secure the fencing in the low spots, then back fill