Many thanks all - food for thought, although I'm
more confused now than when I started!! Would be good to try to get this right from the start though, so really appreciate your comments.
The complication is that we intend to get chickens, if not this year then next, and planned to have them free ranging in the orchard (currently newly planted fruit trees). So the fruit trees would be fenced in with the poultry netting, keeping fox out of the chickens and sheep away from the young trees. With time, would plan to put up more permanent fencing in the rest of the paddock to allow rotational grazing for the sheep (the paddock is only an acre, including the orchard).
So I planned to use the poultry netting to divide the paddock initially and then turn it into a pen around the perimeter of the trees when we eventually get chickens. Trying to avoid the expense of two different types of electric fence as it's so expensive.
Actually, when I originally started on deciding fencing options, I had thought I'd prefer not to have poultry netting. So looked in to fencing the perimeter and adding fox-proof electric strands to the outside top and bottom of the perimeter fence to keep the fox out, but this seemed to be getting complicated and possibly not successful so I abandoned that idea. Do you think this is something I should revisit?
Where we live is pretty rural and I'm sure there must be foxes, although I've never seen one actually on our land. I'm sure they would come soon enough once the hens arrived.
The problem is, if Im thinking of more permananet fencing, a further, immediately pressing complication is that our man who is coming to fence the perimeter of the paddock is very booked up and won't be able to fence it all by the time the sheep arrive next month. Weve agreed that he will fence half of it in time, with the assumption that I would keep them off the unfenced bit with the poultry netting.
So regardless of whether I go with more permanent fox-proof fence or not, I still need a temporary solution to keep the sheep in one half of the paddock. Am loathed to spend £300+ on something that won't be used long term!
Can you hire electric fencing?
Any other ideas welcome (if this long and complicated explanation has made any sense at all!!)