I had a similar pen for pheasants. But you probably will have to electrify the outer perimeter of the fence to prevent racoons from climbing to the top then breaking through the netting to do their nasty work. I lost seven one night that way when the electricity failed. Good luck to you. Turkey fencing is probably just as good and much less expensive. Look into it. Jerry

Hello Jerry

It didn't occur to me that raccoons would climb chain link fencing and then tear through poultry netting. I will revise my plan and add electrical wire up there. Any ideas on a physical barrier for when the electricity goes out? Maybe a battery powered fence is best.

I will take a look at turkey fencing.

Thanks Terry

You can get a small solar charger for not too much money - I think most of them will work for about 3 days with no sun. If you shut the fence off in the daytime, the charge/battery would last longer - I doubt there would be too many predators in daylight, except possibly for feral dogs. Using solar power would meant that power outages wouldn't affect your protection.

I would think that a wire about a foot up around the perimeter would work (that's about the height my neighbor-but-one uses around his game-cock pens) - too high, and they might be able to get under it. Too low a wire would mean that you would have to weed-whack or spray around the pens frequently, as grass touching the wire will short it out. That's the major reason I might suggest you go with a hook up to your main power source - the power through a big charger can burn off any vegetation that touches it and won't be shorted out, but solar chargers, esp. the smaller ones, aren't as "hot".

If you can't place enough small, strong mesh wire along the entire run, might it be possible to coop the birds at night in a wooden structure to protect them from nighttime predators?

Velvet ~:>

My solution for my hen enclosure involved a chain link kennel type cage. I laid half inch hardware cloth on the ground, then placed the cage on top. Then surrounded the entire outsides with the same hardware cloth. This solved the burrowing and small animal invasion inside. The top has corrugated panels held down with heavy concrete blocks. This has worked well for me over the past few years.

I might add - my present barred rock hens are doing fine. My first newbie experience getting started in chicken raising - was due to the fine folks on this forum, and I just had to return to say, "thank-you" again.

One of my hens died awhile ago - don't know why - but I felt it might have been fright, as the hens can still see any marauding critters outside the cage - she was perfectly healthy up to that time by my inspection.

I replaced her with two more young barred rock chicks - and now all 3 hens are laying well. We so enjoy those nice fresh eggs - and the fertilizer that really heats up the compost pile.

To get back to the topic at hand, I will say - about pheasants. It will be extremely difficult to contain the young - just hatched chicks unless a very fine wire is used. They are so tiny. My recollection takes me back to my youth, on my uncle's farm in the Dakotas. Many times early in the spring the farm equipment - rakes, etc., would spook a hen pheasant off the nest - or she may be killed as they refuse to leave the nest. My uncle would bring the clutch of eggs to put under a broody hen to hatch. We never could "tame" the hatchlings, because they would run as soon as hatched - the hen house just wasn't strongly equipped enough to confine them.

Just my 2 c's.

And - to say thank you again for all of the great advice that I received in these forums when I first started.

Bejay

dibbit... Solar power and a marine battery will probably have to be used because the pen will be 250 to 350 feet from the house. If the chainlink goes underground a full foot, I think the chainlink will be predator proof until up to where the bird netting starts... right? If so... I'll probably run the electric wire just above the the height of the entrance gates... head high in other words. Do you think that would work?

Velvet and Bejay... I wont be placing chicks in the cage until they're three or four weeks of age,,, do you think they can get through chainlink at that age? I'll have some kind of rain shelter in each cage but the fence/pen is going to have to stop the preditors because I doubt I can herd 100 pheasants into coops each night.

Sorry about your loss Bejay.

Thanks for the ideas!
Terry

Just happened upon this... I'd advise something strong with a tighter mesh to line the chainlink with... I had three golden pheasants, and they were lovely, but one day they were all killed by something that had gotten in. They were in individual pens within a dog kennel, and the only place for something to get in was along the back, which was only chainlink fence. Our guess was a weasel. I was just a kid, and it was sad to have your 3 yr old pet pheasants killed like that. Not even eaten. Just killed. Whatever it was didn't mess with the turkeys or the chickens, for some reason. Good luck! I miss having pheasants, or even being able to have pheasants, for that matter.

I wouldn't count on chainlink alone to protect young birds.

Even though my chainlink cage is entirely surrounded on sides and bottom with tough half-inch hardware cloth, a rat managed to squeeze in a small opening around the door. I wasn't too worried about it, because I felt the hens were big enough. They were - and the rat was "dispatched" by one of my more aggressive hens. Amen.

However, had the hens been younger - or in the case of a small pheasant, I would imagine the rat might have been the winner. Better go with covering the entire chainlink area with something tough and with smaller openings. (hardware cloth - buy at Home Depot).

I even have to cage my vegetable planter boxes. I garden in about 9 of these cedar boxes, and they must be protected from a lot of animals. Just recently, I note that my seedling lettuce is being eaten - even with chickenwire cages. I had to cover with Remay cloth to give even more protection. The culprits could be either small lizards, mice or a flock of small birds - called wrentits.

So from time to time, it's back to the drawing board, whenever a new threat arises. Fun!

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Terry, I would concur with the idea of a smaller mesh at the bottom, not so much to keep the babies in as to keep predators out - a black snake can squeeze through a pretty small hole, as can a rat or weasel - one of the reasons the rodents' heads are so narrow/small in relation to their size is to fit in small places. It does sound as though the electric wire at head height would work, especially with the lower end of the chain link buried by a foot. Just be sure to block any gaps larger than about half an inch at the door, etc..

Despite saying it should work, I might like to put the charged wire lower down at about 12-15" up, just to discourage any thoughts of pushing against the chain link fencing, since it can give and can make predators think harder about trying. There are gate handles for an electric fence - a plastic cover over a spring loaded hook, so the handle is safe to undo. It is still charged, so don't let the hook end touch you or the metal of the fence or gateposts - you WILL be sorry!

The best defense is a good offense; dont wait until you been whacked by a varmint. Keep traps set year round, keep bait stations set for rats/mice. You can take all sorts of measures to prevent losses and they still might occur. I lost 22 birds in 1 nite to a mink, about 600 $$ worth. She came back several more times and evaded all sorts of discouragements and killed my entire flock of Damascene pigeons, my East Indies ducks and more poultry until I finall caught the durn thing.

Years ago, we raised pheasants for the restraunt trade. Our pens were 8 ft. tall. We wired it all in poultry wire netting, including the top. We used corrugated tin panels along the bottom. Prevented critters and snakes from entering. If the panels are too much, I've found sheet metal flashing in 24-inch widths by the roll. The chicks were kept in a solid-walled enclosure until big enough to go outside.

We also put brush piles in the pens so the birds could hide.

Thank you all for the ideas. Tin or hardware cloth at the base, around the entire perimeter, is probably a good idea. I don't think I can afford to hardware cloth the entire 8' height of the outer walls... 50' x 100' x 8' is alot of hardware cloth. So some small preditors might climb in above the low run of hardware cloth.

I can put a small concrete footing under each of the five entrance gates, to deter digging,but I think rodents or snakes will be able to get in the gaps AROUND each gate. Still, I think five week old to adult birds can evade a small preditor that might make it into the pens... each individual pen will be a roomy 20' x 50'. Or is that wishful thinking?

A LOW run of electrical wire that has to configure with five gates will be a bit of a pain to work out. That's why I want to run the electrical wire above the gates, but I may have to use a low one to be safe.

I AM considering making just four pens, two inner pens 20' x 50' and two outer pens, 30' x 50'. That would mean only four gates to deal with.

Brush is a good idea. I was thinking blue berry bushes and perhaps others. Ideas for safe tough plants?

Thanks for the replys. I hope this thread helps future pen builders.

Terry, my chickens have a Forsythia (Witch Hazel) plant that they LOVE, it provides excellent year-round cover, is non-toxic and is very low maintenance. It's also tough as nails and has no thorns. The branches go up a bit and then lean over and out, kind of like a Weeping Willow. It is about 4-5 years old and is about 7 feet tall and covers an area about 10 feet across. In Spring it blooms with lovely yellow flowers, and even in winter when it loses a lot of leaves, it still gives good cover.

Agreeing with the others that I wouldn't use chain link alone. It is VERY strong, but the openings are just too large. You need to not only keep the birds IN, but predators and vermin OUT. And predators LOVE to come by at night, when birds are at their most vulnerable and can't see well. Would a light with a motion detector help? We have one and it seems to help scare away nighttime creepy crawlies and neighborhood cats.

Velvet ~:>

Velvet - I used to think the motion detector idea worked fine. Unfortunately, animals become familiar with it. I happened to be awake one night when our front porch light was on. When I looked out, I saw two of our resident raccoons preening themselves by the light - they reminded me of a couple of monkeys at the zoo, combing each other's fur for brambles, vermin, etc.

Another night, same thing - but it was mamma and young sprout. She was using the light to dig in the Bermuda grass - she would start a hole looking for grubs, then the tad would follow behind and dig in the same hole. It was a bit funny - but couldn't help thinking, "yee gads" "another mouth to feed."

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Have you been to Dan Cowells ' Game bird & waterfowl' pages? There are quite a few pictures of aviaries and some other good stuff including a forum

try gbwf.org see if that gets you there or just google up gamebird&waterfowl forum???

Terry:
Read your idea of putting in a concrete footing at the gates. We had three pens but only two entrances: one thru the main building and one from the outside. The outside gate closed so the bottom of the frame rested on top of a 2x12 board with latches at top and bottom. The internal gates allowed us to herd the birds from one pen to another to separate them by age.

If you aren't opposed to recycling, old screen doors make excellent internal gates. Those with metal kick panels on the bottom are even better.

We used fruit tree, oak and willow trimmings for the brush. Occasionally, we'd throw in a few flakes of oat hay to give them something to scratch and thrash in.

One of the peculiar things about pheasants is that they can become cannibalistic in captivity. When that occurred, our vet suggested we put blinders (blinkers?)on the dominant birds. These little gems looked like solid Ben Franklin glasses and were attached by running a pin thru the holes of the blinkers then thru the nostrils of the birds. Sounds cruel but they were effective. The reason we didn't butcher the offending birds was they tended to be the best laying hens. We hatched the eggs (200 at a time) in large incubators.

Carol