KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013

Tag: fencing (page 2 of 2)

Chicken Moats: Permaculture Ideas in the Garden

December 2, 2014 / / 4 Comments

I just came across a new concept while researching fencing and it’s pretty cool. Chicken Moats.

A chicken moat is essentially a perimeter chicken run that performs the functions of insect pest control, weed control, deer fencing and protection, trellis, and off course chicken protection and grazing control.

chicken moat permaculture

chicken moat diagram from Edible Forest Gardens

The basic concept is to have two fences spaced a short distance apart that encircle a garden or orchard. This creates a laneway where you let chickens graze and scratch. Here they are able to much on bugs, and help control some of the tougher weeds that spread by rhizomes and runners. They are also in a prime location to receive garden scraps, fallen fruit, and pulled weeds and because the two fences create a hallway effect, deer are less likely to try and jump over them, keeping another potential threat out of the garden.

Other benefits include a nutrient flow, where chicken manure washes from the moat into the garden area, or perhaps deep litters are simply thrown over the fence and into the garden as compost. This type of structure can also be used as laneway and set up strategically with gates that allow the homesteader to graze their chickens in certain paddocks at certain times, or even let them loose in the central garden space to clean things up for winter.

chicken moat homesteading

an example of a chicken moat in action

Edible vines (kiwis, grapes etc.) and fruiting plants can be planted along the fences of the moat providing both shade and snacks for the birds, as well as pollinator habitat, and fruit for the farmer. Herbs like comfrey and rue can be planted on the edge of the moat, outside of the fence, where the chickens can eat some, but not completely scratch it to pieces.

A concept like the chicken moat is permaculture thinking at it’s best. It demonstrates the principal of function stacking wonderfully, while producing  a yield, caring for the earth, animals, and people. As we think more and more about fencing, and multi-species rotational grazing, concepts like chicken moats make me excited to see what our farmstead will look like in the next few years.

backyard chickens: finally in the backyard!

July 18, 2014 / / Comments Off on backyard chickens: finally in the backyard!

hilariously, our “backyard” chickens have never actually been on any of our backyard pasture. for some reason, we started them in the front yard and they never ran out of green spaces to occupy. now, though, after a year of having them, they’ve made their journey to the back. and with that journey came a new way of piecing together their fencing. instead of the usual 6 cattle panels that made up their old chicken pen, we’re only using 4 of those panels, permanently tied together on three of the four corners just like with our goose pen. we also are not rolling their house inside the pen, instead using it as a fifth side that the two unattached fence corners can lean against. the space between the front wheels of the house  and the house itself act as perfect slots for holding the 2 fence pieces in place. one of those connections act as the gate, and all you have to do to get in is lift the fence up and over the wheel and walk on in. bird netting is still draped over the top to deter hawks and escaped chickens, and a metal bar is leaned up against the base of the house to prevent small bantams from escaping that way. we have 2 wooden poles with tennis balls attached to keep the netting up higher and we remove when we move the fence so that the netting won’t get too taut from pulling and rip.

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our backyard chickens get a newly designed pen!

some of our reason for making this change are:

  • once the chickens go in their house at night and we close them in, we can easily roll the house whenever we want without first disassembling all of the cattle panels and step-in posts that we used to use.
  • once the house is rolled away, we attach the open side of the fence with a clip and can slide it along the same was we slide the goose fence, with the netting still attached. the square shape is really easy to move, we’ve discovered. this also requires no posts at all!
  • since the gate is right by the house it is so much more helpful to be able to set food and snacks on top of that while you walk into the fence. i’ve always found it annoying and difficult to get inside the fence holding buckets of food while chickens walk under your feet or try to fly up in the air to land in your bucket.
  • since the square shape of the pen can be pulled on to be made more diamond-shaped, it will be easier to fit their pen in tighter spots in the the yard (like in and between garden beds and trees).
  • even though the area of their pen has been cut in half, since the house is no longer inside that area, they probably have 3/4 of the actual grassy area that they had before. and since they are so much easier to move now, this is a benefit for them. they’ll probably get moved every 5 days or so (they used to be moved every 2 weeks) and they still get 3/4 of the pasture area that they did before. it a good deal for all of us!
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our chickens, enjoying their fresh grass.

.:.

Easy, Fun, and Attractive Wattle Fencing

July 10, 2014 / / Comments Off on Easy, Fun, and Attractive Wattle Fencing

Part of the process of clearing land is dealing with the abundance of small trees, branches and other woody material. On our property, we try to utilize as much of the wood as possible, either by burying the wood to make hugelkulture raised beds, dropping it as rough mulch, piling it in gullies to slow erosion, or as firewood. But the other day we came up with another way to use this surplus…wattle fencing.

simple wattle fencing

Wattle fencing is an easy and elegant way to re-purpose waste wood for good use.

Wattle fencing is an ancient technique that farmers, peasants, and the rest of humanity have utilized for hundreds of years. At it’s most basic level, it involves weaving long, thin pieces of supple wood around upright posts to form a solid fence. We decided that a wattle fence would be a great way to make an attractive dog enclosure for Bridey in our front yard under a nice shady maple tree. Much more appealing than the chicken wire paddock she has now.

wattle fencing homesteading

The natural variation among the different sizes and types of wood looks great in our homemade wattle fence.

 

Traditionally, coppiced woods like hazel, willow, and chestnut were used for both the vertical poles and the horizontal weavers, but we used the mixture of woods that we had piled up from our recent clearings, mainly oak, poplar, tree of heaven, and some maple. For uprights, we used fiberglass step-in-posts that are used for electric fencing and portable poultry netting. We decided on a circular shape that matched the shadiest area beneath the tree, and placed pairs of posts a few inches apart, every 4-5 ft to hold the fence together. We then slid the long pieces of wood between the pairs of posts, following the natural curve of the branches, and weaving the supple twigs together to form a pretty weave that is simple, strong, and sturdy.

wattle fencing technique

We used step in posts to keep the wood in place, but next time  we will probably just use wooden posts.

This is actually a lot of fun, and is half puzzle, half art project. Our mix of woods makes for a rustic look, and we are already planning where else we can build some wattle fencing, but first we’ll have to finish Bridey’s new dog pen. In the future we will definitely use wooden posts for a more authentic feel, most likely digging with a post-hole digger and setting the uprights in place like corner posts. Either way, wattle fencing is an age old technique, but a beautiful one that modern homesteaders should consider when designing and laying out their property.

our goose fence!

July 1, 2014 / / Comments Off on our goose fence!

our geese seem happy in their fence, although when we got them they were used to roaming around wherever they wanted to go. at first, they tried to escape so that they could get to the greener grass on the other side, but once they got used to their pen, during the few times we let them out on purpose they would willingly walk back into the safety of their pen after sending some quality time outside.

our goose pen is made out of four 16-foot cattle panels that are lashed together with very large and very long zip ties. 3 of the four corners of the panels are lashed at the top and the bottom and the 4th corner is attached with a caribeaner so we can use it as a gate.

3-foot tall poultry wire is attached to all of the panels so that they can’t squeeze out of the larger holes (which they did before we added the poultry wire).

they also have a kiddie pool where they are often seen splashing about and jumping on each other. a few bricks,  a cement block, and a metal disc make up their ramp into the pool.

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they have a tarp strung over a portion of their pen so that they have shade and a rain shield. their water bucket sits under this shade so that the water doesn’t get too warm. their two dishes get placed near the pool and the bucket when we feed them each afternoon because geese like/need water as they eat their food so it “goes down” their throats easier.we only feed them grain once a day since we move their pen every two or three days and they have fresh, delicious grass to snack on, which they much prefer to the grain.

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one corner of the pen has another metal covering to help keep out the rain and to provide a cozy nest spot whenever they decide to build another nest and lay some eggs!

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and that’s our goose pen!

.:.

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