installing rabbit-proof fencing
neilbradburn
Posts: 142
Hi all,
About a month ago I acquired a new allotment plot around the corner from me (I've already got one about 7 miles away, but the proximity of this one makes like so much easier! :-) ). It's about 70qsm and I've left no bed unfilled - obviously allowing for the recommended inter and intra row spacings. Anyway, all the veg is starting to grow tremendously and, being aware there are rabbits in the area and that the allotment site has no protection, I've decided I really should protect my plot from the munchers of everything green.
I did some reading around and formulated a first-pass plan. I plan to use 25mm 1.2m height chicked wire, to knock 1.2/1.5m fence posts every 2m and to attach the chicken wire to this. There'll be a tensioned length of garden wire across the top to stop the wire from sagging.
Now, the important bit - the anti-burrowing system. The plan is to bury 30cm of the wire in a 10cm wide, 25cm deep trench, and to turn the bottom 10cm of the buried wire under.
I'd really appreciate any input I can get from those with experience. I'm trying to do it both cost and labout economically, but I don't in any way want to compromise on its effectiveness, otherwise it's somewhat a waste of time doing it.
Many thanks in advance!
Neil
Posts
Sounds absolutely fine to me. The bottom should turn outward as opposed to towards the plot, it's said, and that's what I did. Also check carefully they aren't already inside, have a look for burrows if you haven't already.
The weak point is gates, allowing other people access etc. In a home situation Mr. Yodel will leave the gate open.
I'm not sure that a 10 cm turn out at the base of the fence is enough - I would make the turn out at least 15 cm - probably 20.
Last edited: 27 June 2017 08:07:37
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks, Dovefromabove! And would you alter the buried length accordingly to 40cm - thus having the mesh going down to a vertical depth of 20/25cm? Obviously burying more of the mesh will result in less up top. Assuming I go for 1.2m mesh, burying 30cm would result in a 90cm fence, whilist burying 40 would result in an 80cm fence. I wonder how high thumper can jump :-)
My garden is bunny central. My veg patch is protected by a standard 1.2m wide chicken wire fence, the bottom 20cm or so of which is turned flat just below the soil surface - maybe 10cm of cover - with grass growing over it. So the fence is only about 90cm high. Touch wood - they've not got in yet. They don't climb and don't really jump - more a loping hop - so it doesn't need to be enormously tall. Rats are much harder to keep out - they do climb - so whether you'll need more height depends on what else may be around that has plans for your parsnips.
As a1154 has said, don't neglect the gate. My 'gates' are old pallets wrapped in chicken wire and I have a brick threshold strip to give a very flat surface for the gate to close against so the clearance is minimal. There is a strip of flat chicken wire buried under the bricks to stop them being excavated and there is an extra length of chicken wire fixed with a little 'give' at the hinges so the gate can open but there's no gap in the fence there.
This was 8 years ago, when I was still building it.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I agree with raisingirl 100%
Use nice tall posts as she has done, then if you find they are getting over the fence it'll be easier to put another strip of netting around the top than it would be to bury more if they were getting underneath.
Last edited: 27 June 2017 09:45:47
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I don't think you need to bury a great depth - 10 cm deep would probably be more than enough - turning out wider would be better than burying deeper.
Remember to brace the corner/turning posts, otherwise the tension will pull them over. Use hog rings & hog ring pliers to fix the mesh to the wire.
Or use 'gripples' for tensioning wire - genius little things
.
My garden fence wire isn't tensioned because it's a post and rail fence and the wire is fixed to the rails. I hadn't put them in yet when that the pic was taken
. I have DIY windbreak 'trellis' on all sides but you may not need that.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Hi all (dovefromabove,raisingirl,onoprodum)! I really appreciate your input! You've given me lots to go on.
Method-wise, it would appear I should follow the following key points:
- bury the mesh to a depth of around 10mm, but turn it out so that around 20cm sits horizontally on the rabbit occupied side.
- add a gate but make sure that it also has suitable anti-burrowing material in place and that it meets plushly with any housing.
- use longer posts than anticipated to allow for future vertical upgrades to the height of the fence
- use hog staples and pliers to join the mesh to the wire
- stabilise the corner posts
Factoring in the above, I'm trying to get together a purchasing list for my 6x12m plot. My first stab at it is given below:
- 18 sturdy vertical posts ( (((6*2)*2)+((12*2)*2)/2). I'm leaning towards 6ft chestnut stakes which can be had for a reasonable £1.90 each from my local nursery. With 45cm buried, it should leave about 1.35 metres above ground for fixing the mesh to.
- 8 shorter posts for bracing - Onopordum: do I really need these if I'm only tensioning to take up the slack in the chicken wire, and not to withstand any marauding bulls? :-)
- 40m of wire rope - can I use garden wire for this, or do I need the braided 3mm stuff?
- a box of netting staples to 'guide' the wire around the posts.
- 10 saddle clamps to secure the loops of wire on each side around the posts
- a pair of hog pliers and a box of hog rings to attach the mesh to the wire. The Rapid Fence Pliers seem to get good reviews on Amazon; does anyone have a favourite tool?
- a wire tensioner for each seperate run of wire - so probably one for the 3 non-gate sides and 2 on the gate side. I'd love to get some of those gripples that you mention raisingirl, but the tensioning tool seems prohibitively expensive for a 'recreational' fence builder :-(
36m of 1.2m high chicken wire with 25mm holes
a suitable gate and a surrounding tight fitting housing.
Any further feedback would be hugely appreciated, and would help save my oh so beloved and vulnerable parnsips and leaks. I think (hope!) I'm nearly there! :-)
I think you'll need some kind of bracing, otherwise the posts will lean over time with even a moderate tension.
I have those same hog pliers which I bought to put up our rabbit fence. For the price and occasional use they're OK. I don't think the quality's that brilliant but it's not worth spending twice the price on a better pair if you won't be using them much. Buy plenty of rings because you use more than you think and a lot get wasted when the pliers jam or malfunction.
90 cm high fence should be plenty.
You could probably do 3m spacing to save some money, so only 12 rather than 18 posts, plus at least one gate post (assuming one of your fence posts acts as one gate post).And you could use wooden rails to hold the wire straight rather than do all the tensioning. You'd need to price up at least 36m of 4x2inch timber (72m would be better - i.e. 2 rails - but one is enough for the purpose) and see if that's cheaper than all the hog pliers, tension wire and corner posts.
I don't know where you are but you might find your local farm supplies shop cheaper than a nursery (or Amazon) for fence wire and posts.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”