Recent content by perkolator

Looks like creeping charlie, I've got it everywhere in my yard, chickens seem fine. All of what's in your pic will be gone in a short while once you give them access to the area.

Cool project. I'd recommend doing something about the grass/weeds in the gap before fencing it and blocking off access

To find the hypotenuse of your overhead triangle, it's Rise(^2) x Run(^2) = Hypotenuse(^2). For a 2ft rise across 24ft length, you're looking at 24.34 ft long fencing overhead. A 25x25 sheet of netting should technically work, but won't be much extra material to play with. I think it's...

How much height are you looking to add inside? I have 6ft exterior fencing and found it adequate to just keep the overhead netting mostly flat. I'm 5'10" and have to stoop a tad, but it's not like I hang out inside the run much and I'm not actually having to bend over for like you would with...

To me, installing HC is similar to installing window screen or stretching a canvas, or welding thin sheet metal - it's an art form of it's own and basically you can't just go at larger expanses without a plan, or it will likely wrinkle/warp like you experienced. If you start only in one corner...

Pretty sure a live oak will be around for a while growing horizontal like that. My inlaws have many oaks, several growing horizontally like yours; also the large oaks they've had fall or cut down seem to regrow from the stump unless it got ground out.

If that run is secure enough, I wouldn't worry about them sleeping in the run. I'm in your region a little further up the hill and overbuilt a fancy coop for my flock - yet ever since adding a few roost bars inside the run, they all prefer to sleep in the run year-round - two different flocks...

I have several existing trees in my expanded run, cutting any of them down to accommodate chickens wasn't even a thought in my mind. My interference was overhead, as I put overhead fencing to keep flying and climbing predators from getting inside. I used metal chicken wire not only because I...

Leaks will happen - windows have an integrated drain for any water that gets in the channel and routes water to the exterior side, which would leak to the interior if installed in reverse. I suppose you could plug the holes, but then the water won't drain from the channel and it'll likely...

Better than nothing, It'll work until it doesn't :idunno We have hawks overhead daily and I thought for sure they'd be a problem, but it turns out our main predator has been a bobcat instead

For permanently attached I'd use galvanized fence wire and weave the fencing together. For a removable chunnel I'd likely go with the suggested wood door frames on the fencing, and either use screws or bolts + wing nuts/t-nuts + wing bolts for something you can install/remove by hand. Make a...

Buy one of those 11lb bags of dried black soldier fly grubs, and they'll start coming whenever they see you go anywhere near where you store it :lau

I'd do something like that^ Probably use conduit/EMT pipe or even large T-posts as vertical supports down the center, then I'd likely use metal cables connecting them to the fence and to one another like tension wires -- then mount netting over the top.

I use a common metal feeder, located under a roof to stay dry, suspended from a hook and chain that is easily height adjusted. Personally I never understood the desire for those tube feeders unless you have the materials laying around already. These days a commercially made feeder might even...

It's fine. In the summertime I'll occasionally water my chicken run on purpose, my chickens will even go get wet in sprinklers and don't seem to mind foraging in a downpour either. Some moisture promotes decomposition and keeps down dust, insects and worms will likely prefer some moisture too...