The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: thenovice on February 10, 2012, 08:31:43 pm
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Just a quick one. Has anyone had any experience of keeping sheep (southdowns) behind chicken mesh for a short while? Wondered if it was mman enough to keep them in a field for afew weeks? Thanks in advance people :thumbsup:
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If they are anything like Ryelands, they'll be fine ;D
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If it's bordering a hedge should be o.k, but as a dividing fence probably a bit flimsy!
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I HATE working with chicken wire - wrecks your fingers and is impossible to tension ::)
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To tension it, I 'weave' it in and out of a bar and then have someone pull it tight whilst I pin it. Do I think it'll hold sheep? No.
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It isn't strong enough to stop a sheep, no. So the question is, would they challenge it? If there's plenty of good grazing and they would be and feel secure, then tame downland sheep would probably not challenge it, eh? So the next question is what would be the consequences if they did get through? If they could only get into another field, somewhere safe, then maybe risk it if you have to and it's only a short term thing. But if they would be able to get to a road, or somewhere that was unsafe for them, or somewhere where they'd be a nuisance to others, then perhaps it would be a good idea to look at an alternative or augmented fencing plan.
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as usual there is conflicting views i have a piece of woodland that is fenced on one side with rabbit netting and has been for over 20 years cattle and sheep have been on the field side of the rabbit netting and pigs have been on the other side for the last 10 years admittedly it has a scare wire along the bottom on the pig side and a scare wire along the top serving both sides never had any problem even with wild boar (iron age pigs)
even the best fences can fail if animals are starving or scared :farmer:
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Again, lots of sound advice. Thanks one and all :wave: