> In article <47ef6346$0$765$4c56b...@master.news.zetnet.net>, > "Mary Fisher" <mary.fis...@zetnet.co.uk> writes: > |> > |> > What gauge? Chicken wire comes from gauges that I can tear with only > |> > gloved hands up to stuff that I need wire-cutters for. > |> > |> I wondered that too.
> What I would do, were I making a chicken run, would be to use fairly > heavy 2-3" chicken wire to keep foxes, dogs and cats out, and run > 1-2' of 1/2" chicken wire along the bottom, inside, to keep chicks in. > That's a LOT cheaper than using weldmesh.
Last year we found that chicks could get through small holes so Spouse fastened a 6" high length of 1/2" mesh round the bottom. Same as you.
> If badgers were a problem, it would be necessary to use weldmesh (and > I don't mean the 1/2" stuff, either!), but it would ALSO be necessary > to continue it down at least 1' into the soil, probably 2'.
And something underneath too.
> The design of a rat-proof run is left as an exercise for the reader :-)
<sigh> Yes ...
> |> > And are you sure that it is foxes and not badgers making the initial > |> > entry? Badgers like eggs, after all :-) > |> > |> They will eat chickens too.
> And, of all of the UK wild and domestic predators, they are the only > one which can tear chicken wire open without difficulty.
Luckily they can't get into our garden - not that I think there are many round here ...
> Dogs can do > it, but my understanding is that they typically do only for the third > leg or when starving.
"Nick Maclaren" <n...@cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote in message > "FarmI" <ask@itshall be given> writes: > |> "TC" <con...@gmail.com> wrote in message > |> > |> > I've been told that some animals can bite through chicken wire > |> > |> Foxes round here will get through it. They must rake it repeatedly > with > |> their claws till it breaks. they certainly have managed to break into > my > |> outer pen on multiple occasions.
> What gauge? Chicken wire comes from gauges that I can tear with only > gloved hands up to stuff that I need wire-cutters for.
It is a lighter guage stuff that was used for the outer pen - the inner night yard is a heavier guage but the sodding foxes broke the gate on one occasion and knocked off 11 birds in one night. I left the bodies and slit them open and stuffed snail bait into the carcase and the bodies disappearred aver about 3 nights. That cleared out a den on the creek where I knew there were at least 2 cubs.
The light guage stuff surrounds about a quarter of an acre (also serves as the orchard) and I have gradually moved right round it putting a heavier guage wire right round it to about waist height - that has worked (so far) but it took me a year or more to do what with one thing and another.
As you can imagine with a fence of that area, I have been able to keep a good eye out on the fox activity. They seem to spend days putting pressure on one area. For a few days it will be an indentation and scumbled earth near a site they are working on, then a single broken wire will appear and then over a few days a gradual and increasing number of broken wires till it is obvious that they have made an incursion. They can get through amazingly small holes. It's at that stage that I've repaired the holes. I like to let them waste a lot of time.
The other thing the bozos did when they built the fence was that they didn't either bury about a ft of wire or lay the wire out on the ground for about a ft on the foxward side. I've now done that as I went around, so far so good.
> A mistake that people may be making is to use the very lightweight > stuff designs to keep part-grown chicks in as a fox barrier. I can > easily see that won't work.
> And are you sure that it is foxes and not badgers making the initial > entry? Badgers like eggs, after all :-)
Nope. It was foxes. We don't have badgers in Australia and there are no dingos or uncontrolled pet dogs round here (they'd get shot).
>In article <MPG.22582891c25902db989...@News.Individual.NET>, >Charlie Pridham <char...@roselandhouse.co.uk> writes: >|> In article <47ed72d6$0$762$4c56b...@master.news.zetnet.net>, >|> mary.fis...@zetnet.co.uk says... >|> > "Nick Maclaren" <n...@cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote in message >|> > news:fsjkm7$se6$1@gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk... >|> > > In article >|> > > <5808828b-5dee-4f7a-945b-d51516ffd...@s13g2000prd.googlegroups.com>, >|> > > TC <con...@gmail.com> writes: >|> > > |> >|> > > |> I am building a chicken pen and intend to use weld mesh for the sides >|> > > |> and chicken wire for the top as I don't think I need that to be so >|> > > |> substantial. >|> > > >|> > > That's some chickens you have! >|> > >|> > You certainly don't need weldmesh for any chickens. 1" chicken wire is >|> > substantial enough. >|> > >|> Mary and Nick, we no longer have chickens because of local dogs and foxes >|> so a substantial run is not such a silly idea if only to keep things out >|> rather than things in.
>That argues in favour of using heavy gauge chicken wire, such as 2". >You need weldmesh only to stop wolves, hyaenas and so on :-)
At 2" you get stoats getting in easily and they can do a lot of damage.
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