Building a Flight Pen - Part 3: Making an Entrance, Attaching the Net, and Electric Fence
In the first blog of this series, I discussed the research that went into the start of our business and ended with placing the posts for the flight pen. In the second blog, I explained the installment of the aircraft cable and chicken wire in creating an “exoskeleton” for the pen.
Next in the process was working on the entryway, the area where we did not install chicken wire between in the last post. We decided to make two sets of doors to have a holding area for a potentially sick bird, easy movement of supplies without worry of leaving doors open, and generally eliminating the risk of birds getting out when entering the pen. We installed two more posts for the outer doorway with extra posts around the farm and created a door frame with boards on the top and ground level of the posts.
To build the doors, I did research (see a trend?) on options and styles that I liked and got to work. All measurements were made leaving an extra quarter inch of space on all sides to leave room when installing. The doors are made with treated one by’s and chicken wire was stapled between two layers of boards. The cut boards were glued and clamped, then screwed together for extra stability. The goal was to make the gates stable and as lightweight as possible. Three years later and they are still in great shape. Quick note: drilling pilot holes and using countersink bits to make screws flush made assembly much easier and resulted in a clean product at the end! Once assembly was completed, we installed the doors with the use of spacers at the bottom to reduce friction with the baseboard in the future.
Next, we worked on the holding entryway itself, framing in the sides using extra lumber from around the farm. We are always diligent to waste as little as possible, keeping leftover cuts for projects just like this. We then dug between the two posts on each side, installed chicken wire for the side, and then along the top. Mike and I then decided to wait until spring to install the netting to save it from the elements of winter.
When spring arrived, we got to work on the netting. I had ordered two nets from 3T Products for the project: 2 inch heavy knotted 50’ x 50’ and 25’ x 50’. I also bought hog ties for attaching the two together when installing. The net needed to go up with the supports inside the pen and drape over the sides to the chicken wire, so the dimensions of what was needed for netting was not as simple as just ordering 40’ x 60’ to match the dimensions of the flight pen.
As prep, we cut strips of extra carpeting we had to go over the edges of the posts to reduce friction that the netting went through in both weight and weather. Hard wood would quickly rub through the netting. We then stretched out the 50’ x 50’ net to the width of the pen, found the ends, got some extra help from family, and brought the net up and over the end of the flight pen. From here, the process was “simple”; we carefully inched the net forward to avoid snags and keep it even. Once we reached the end of the netting, we double checked to ensure it was even and tight (no areas sagging but not too tight as it could tear with increased pressure) across the back and the sides and temporarily secured the net with zip ties to the chicken wire to hold in place, leaving about a two foot overlap between the net and wire.
I then got to work on attaching the 50 foot net to the 25 foot net with hog wire. This involved stretching out the net similarly to the first one: inching over from the other side, making it even with the first net, and then attaching a hog tie every inch to seal the gap. What a mistake I made in buying two pieces. Just buy a 50’ x 100’ net, folks. The leftovers are very useful for other projects.
We checked for evenness, made sure there were not sagging areas, and used more zip ties (every foot or so) to secure the netting to the chicken wire all the way around and then cut off excess netting for future project use. To avoid any birds getting caught between the net and the chicken wire, we started a second sewing project using braided twine. The twine was wrapped around the two materials every inch or so up and around moving forward. We worked with about ten feet at a time, slowly moving the project around the pen. It was important to leave the twine loose while moving forward because we had to touch the same portion a multitude of times. Then once we reached the end, we went back to the beginning and tightened. Probably the most monotonous hours of work I have taken part in, but I think it was the closest to meditating I have ever come. The result is a tight seam that has zero risk for the pheasants.
The final stage for the pen was installation of electric fence. We installed three rows around the pen to keep critters like raccoons away. I have seen pens with metal corrugated roofing as well, but we already had most of the materials for the fence and wanted to be able to observe the birds easily. This wraps up our series on how to build a flight pen! MacFarlane’s flight pen guide was extremely valuable to us throughout this project and a great reference for all looking to build a flight pen. Thank you for reading this series! Please comment or contact us with any questions!