Multiple considerations for fencing...not sure how to go about it.

[journey11]

Hi there, I am looking for advice on what type of fence to build to meet several purposes.

1)Keep neighbor's horses out.
2)Keep my goats in (haven't acquired them yet, but planning to get a larger breed dairy goat, nubian or saanen).
3)Protective boundary for free-ranging chickens.
4)Keep neighbor's dogs OUT.
5)Discourage deer and full-grown wild rabbits from feasting on my garden.

I am on one rural acre and want to fence my entire property line. I am not sure what the etiquette or law is on fencing a property line. I was thinking I would use 2x4" knotted wire 4' high horse fencing and add a couple lines of electric. I am not really sure how to effectively position the electric wires, particularly in regard to keeping the goats in. Neighbor's dogs have been my worst problem, killing my chickens on several occasions even when they were in their pen. I know that deer can jump most fence heights, but being a rural area and low-pressure, I am hoping they will get shocked a couple of times and move on to pester somebody else. Thanks in advance for any insight you can me on this. Perhaps you could recommend a good how-to book?

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

I use 2X4 horse fence tight to the ground and do not need any electric to keep my nubians and boers in.

 

[Catahoula]

LOL, I think you'll need a separate fencing for your veggie garden. Unless you want your goats to eat it. We just have 5' utility fencing with t-post around. It is keeping our Boers and Alpines in. Our neighbor's pitbull doesn't try to come in.... We do have a fox that would dig under to come in...so this wouldn't work for the chicken. I guess electric fencing would keep horses out. Sorry, I am no help.

 

[EllieMay]

We use the woven wire field fencing (tight on the ground) and have not had any problems.
We also have electric netting around our garden to keep the chickens, rabbits, and raccoons, etc. out.

 

[journey11]

Thanks for the replies...took me awhile to get back to check because I've had a sick baby all week. Yes, the goats will be sectioned off. I am mostly worried about intruders from the outside robbing my profits. I know I'll at least need a strand of electric along the top to keep the neighbor's horses from leaning over and crushing my fence...the whole grass is always greener thing. Ha. All that aside, I guess I am mostly uncertain about what it will take to contain the goats too. Our first foray into the world of goats was temporarily fostering a pet nubian/boer cross that a friend couldn't keep anymore. She hopped my 4' fence like it was nothing. If I'm going to make an issue of my neighbor's animals hanging out in my backyard, I'd feel pretty sheepish going into theirs to retrieve my goat..LOL.

 

[BarredRockMomma]

Hope the baby is feeling better. With fencing goats we use the 2x4 wire and t-posts for some of the fencing and chain link panles (they were free) and it all works. With that said I have one my wether, Capoine, who will get out of anything if he does not want to be in that yard. Finally I had to move him in with the girls and now he is happy and staying put.

 

[Lupa Duende]

i have four goats here who seem to be able to jellify their bones to squeeze into, on, around whatever they please.
we use cattle fencing (the four inch woven wire) around the property and have not YET had a problem with them getting their horns caught. we filling in the fencing at the bottom as the kids just slithered under the fence when they wanted to scare the neighbours....

if you can keep the vegetation down (yummy kudzu, wild grapes, maple trees, whatnot) on the OUTSIDE of the fence you are unlikely to have too many escapees...
good luck

 

[Fullhousefarm]

We put one strand of wire about 4" above horse fence and that works to keep the horses from pushing the fence down. So, if you can't to electric right away that might work. Before the horses (ours) would step on the fence to push it down so they could reach the grass. With the wire along the top that doesn't work, so they don't do it anymore. You can use barbed wire (Some of ours is) but even a smooth wire worked for us. Electric is great too, but we weren't able to do our whole pasture.

For our goat that would jump over the 48" horse fence without touching it we put a hot wire 10-12" over the top of the area that she was jumping out. No more jumping goat. You can also put a hot wire a few inches off the ground to keep our predators, but we didn't do that since we have little (human) kids in the area and no big predator problems. Our only offenders, though not often, have been coons and possums, and they don't need to go under the fence, so it wasn't worth it for us.

So, if you wanted it to work for both you could probably use the horse fence and put a hot wire over the top and that would stop both problems with the livestock- them maybe hot wire down low around the garden to keep bunnies and such from digging in. You might have problems with your chickens flying in the garden, though, if yours fly. If they are heavier breeds the electric on the fence may keep them out if you clip their wings. Sometimes our RIR rooster hit the hot wire since he is not a nimble flyer and it always puts him in a bad mood for the next few hours. Especially since all his hens have no problem flying over. We don't clip wings.

 

[journey11]

For our goat that would jump over the 48" horse fence without touching it we put a hot wire 10-12" over the top of the area that she was jumping out. No more jumping goat. You can also put a hot wire a few inches off the ground to keep our predators, but we didn't do that since we have little (human) kids in the area and no big predator problems. Our only offenders, though not often, have been coons and possums, and they don't need to go under the fence, so it wasn't worth it for us.

I was hoping that strategy would work, thanks!

Lupa Duende, I think that is where I will have the most trouble. We are surrounded by fields and forrest. Too much temptation for a goat!

I have tried to look at this several ways and of course I hope to stay within some sort of budget. I've considered the Poultry net movable fencing for the chickens. I've had chickens who would fly the fence before (black stars), so I don't think it's worth the money I'd pay for that, although it does have the benefit of being easy to install and I have a bit of a slope to work with. I don't know if Rebbetzin is on this forum or not, but over at TEG I asked her about the 6' chainlink fence that they use with their goats. Ideally, I would like to do that, but I'm afraid it would be way too expensive for me right now. The woven wire with the electric line above sounds like the best way to go... Poor hubby, I think he was voting for the poultry net--less work for him!

 

[Fullhousefarm]

For our goat that would jump over the 48" horse fence without touching it we put a hot wire 10-12" over the top of the area that she was jumping out. No more jumping goat. You can also put a hot wire a few inches off the ground to keep our predators, but we didn't do that since we have little (human) kids in the area and no big predator problems. Our only offenders, though not often, have been coons and possums, and they don't need to go under the fence, so it wasn't worth it for us.

I was hoping that strategy would work, thanks!

Lupa Duende, I think that is where I will have the most trouble. We are surrounded by fields and forrest. Too much temptation for a goat!

I have tried to look at this several ways and of course I hope to stay within some sort of budget. I've considered the Poultry net movable fencing for the chickens. I've had chickens who would fly the fence before (black stars), so I don't think it's worth the money I'd pay for that, although it does have the benefit of being easy to install and I have a bit of a slope to work with. I don't know if Rebbetzin is on this forum or not, but over at TEG I asked her about the 6' chainlink fence that they use with their goats. Ideally, I would like to do that, but I'm afraid it would be way too expensive for me right now. The woven wire with the electric line above sounds like the best way to go... Poor hubby, I think he was voting for the poultry net--less work for him!

We have 6' chain link down half of one side of our property- it's the neighbor's fence along a dirt road and it is nice- especially that we didn't have to put it up.

I will caution you, however, that our neighbor that has had animals for all of her 60+ years says it's not the best thing for livestock- especially horses and goats. I guess she's seen lots of animals get hooves stuck in it and such. I'm sure it's one of those thing that everyone has an opinion on, and they are probably all different. Our goats are in the area that is bordered by the chain-link fence and we haven't had any problems, but it's also a very low-traffic area for them. They eat that vines and brush that has grown along it, but there is nothing over there that interests them otherwise, so they have never tried to get out of it at all. Since it's pricey we never considered putting it up except to keep the kids/dogs in the back yard- but we went with wood.