get your volaille forage in a modest yard means they will engage in a scratched - earth policy worthy of an invading U. S. Army . Free - rangingin a small yard is a great opinion except for the following problems :
A couplet of chickens would be thrilled with the resulting broom filth yard punctuated by a few unfearing shrubs . However , most gardeners would n’t be too happy . Yes , some bad insects and weed seed will be devoured but at what cost ?
It took only a few twenty-four hours of free - ranging at the kickoff of our poultry practice before my wife and I got fed up with the amount of destruction our three hens wreaked in the garden . brusque of building fancy little fences around every bed or patio , what does a gardener and pro - foraging chicken - custodian do ? The answer is to set up a unsubdivided crybaby cow pen , a station where your hens can scrounge without destroying your gardens .
Also , choose plantings of found shrubs and trees that are big enough to stand firm chickens scratching around their roots . Their branches will also protect your hen from hawk . If you’re able to corral your chickens in there during the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , the rest of your yard can flourish .
That ’s what we did . We sequestered our hens in a bottom composed of five mature decorative shrub . I quickly enclosed the bushes with a corral made from a low - cost fence . We also call it a forage woodlet . ( See single-valued function on pageboy 18 . ) The poulet are now happy , and the rest of our yard has recovered .
Chicken Corral How-To
With a locating selected , I needed a way to corral the birds . I wanted a unafraid enclosure that either looked good or was near invisible . I also require to economize clock time and money . It sound like a set of conflicting goals , but that sort of matter often brings out the best design solution .
Because a 4 - metrical foot chain - link fencing already confine our yard , I did n’t need something warm enough to keep stray dogs out . I just needed something stable enough to keep the hens in during the day . A established fencing with a gate and posts would look nice but would be expensive and time - consuming to build . A preassemble electrical fencing was n’t in the budget either .
I finish up using a twosome of roll of 3 - by-50 - foot weld conducting wire , 14 - standard of measurement fencing that ’s coated with mordant vinyl group . It ’s long - lasting but cheap : It cost less than a $ 1 per running foot . The black finishing chew over very little light , so the fence does n’t catch your eye . This 14 - gauge fencing has 2 - by-4 - in openings ( the same gauge of fence as I recommend for the wimp run ) .
In the open air , chickens can flee over a fencing only 3 feet mellow , but by running the fencing along the proscribed branch of the shrubs , I create a “ no fly - zone ” along the top of the fencing material . The shrubs ’ limb also keep predatory hawks at bay . At that height , I could also just step over the fence on the rare occasions I needed to get within . Using a few architect baksheesh , I installed this fencing in a pair of hours without post or a logic gate .
Tip 1
With the fencing still range up , I used a metal - cutting blade on a circular saw to remove the miserable strand of horizontal wire . ( you’re able to also ignore the low strand off with needle - nozzle pliers as you make the fencing . ) This exposes prong at the bottom boundary of the fence .
When you get installment , these bottom prong can be pressed direct into moist territory . ( teetotal grime will be difficult as concrete . ) That ’s what bear the fencing up . It also makes the fence 4 in short and prosperous to step over .
Tip 2
With the bottom strand removed , I then rolled the fence out on the ground a bit . It ’s springy , so I keep open it from wind back up with a bucket of creature , but anything heavy will do . Using pliers , I cut the fencing into doable panels about 4 animal foot long . Cutting to that duration also made it easier to suit the slope as it rose or fell . cut this way leave behind one side of each venire with endanger prong . These side prongs can wrap around the smooth side of the next control board to stiffen the fence and preclude escapes .
Tip 3
Before installing the panels , every 12 by 18 in I used pliers to dress out a duo of strands near the bottom of the fence , bending them up and out of the way of life . This made an opening in which to introduce my animal foot so I could well contract the bottom prongs into the ground . Not every prong will go straight into the ground . But if enough do , each panel will stand on its own .
With the corral fill out , it was then a matter of figuring out how to get the hens from their run to this idyllic eatage grove . I did n’t desire to contain the chickens from run to corral . I require them to express themselves : more physical exercise for them , less bother for me . But the chicken corral was about 25 feet away from the run ’s gate , yet the cattle pen was less than 6 feet away from the nigh point on the run .
Tip 4
The root was to install a crybaby - size of it burrow between the corral and the run . This sort of contraption is called a “ Channel Tunnel ” , short for chicken burrow . Do a web hunt for “ chunnels for crybaby , ” and you ’ll see stack of images for this valuable innovation .
Chunnels can be made from these same 4 - metrical foot - wide panel of fencing bent over like a hoop . They make a chunnel that ’s about 16 column inch high and 16 in wide . By reduce the side of the fencing wire , divulge prongs on both edge can be pressed into moist soil to hold the chunnel in place . By colligate the run to the cattle pen with a Channel Tunnel , the birdie can come and go , and the chunnel is low enough that we can ill-treat over it to get to the rest of the yard . Plus , we can move the chunnel apart temporarily so a barrow can get through .
Tip 5
With the chunnel in place , we close down its remainder prongs to colligate it to the corral fence . Using pliers , I cut out the hemicycle of fencing material defined by the chunnel to create a chicken - sizing opening night into the corral .
Tip 6
Where the Channel Tunnel meets the run , I made a standardised size vulture - proof miniature logic gate with flexible joint and a latch . To open up and close down that gate , I simply move the chunnel aside . The prongs do n’t have to penetrate the soil along its whole duration ; the chicken do n’t render to scooch under the Channel Tunnel .
With the investment of just a slight bit of money and time , we now enjoy watching our biddy scrape around in their crybaby corral woodland grove . And I can watch them while sitting in a garden chair that has n’t been “ fowled up . ”
This pillar is adjust from Frank Hyman ’s forthcoming account book , Hentopia : make a Hassle - Free Habitat for Happy Chickens : 21 Innovative Projects .
This story originally appeared in the September / October 2018 issuing ofChickensmagazine .
