Galvanised mesh fencing around a rural poultry run with buried skirt

Predator Mesh and Fencing Kit

Buried skirt, heavy gauge mesh and clip-on hardware

If your run backs onto bush, a koppie or open veld, the perimeter is where losses happen. Jackal and caracal test the base of a fence first, and mongoose will slip through anything with a soft gap. This kit is put together for those runs, not for a tidy suburban garden.

What the bundle contains

011.2 m welded mesh at 50 mm aperture, hot-dip galvanised for coastal salt air and Highveld frost.
02A 400 mm skirt turned outward at the base and buried, so diggers hit steel before they reach the run.
03Corner posts, tension wire and clip-on hardware to keep panels taut through a season of wind.
04A top rail that stops climbing predators from pulling the mesh down and opening a gap.

Where it holds up, and where it does not

Chicken wire alone will not stop a jackal. It tears at the fixings and sags within a season. This kit assumes you are overlapping panels at the corners and wiring the skirt to the upright mesh, not just laying it flat. On very rocky ground the skirt trench is slow work, and you may need to pin the mesh rather than bury it. Check the run after heavy rain, since soft soil can expose the skirt edge.

Request this kit See the Highveld Winter Coop Plan

Who put the Predator Mesh and Fencing Kit notes together

The kit notes were compiled by Nomsa Dlamini, who has run a mixed flock of Boschveld and Potchefstroom Koekoek on a smallholding outside Vryburg for eleven years. Her run sits against a koppie where jackal move through most winters, and she lost two batches of pullets to digging before switching from standard chicken wire to welded mesh with a buried skirt. Everything in the kit reflects what actually held up on that perimeter, not what looks tidy in a catalogue.

She writes the fencing and predator sections for Redfox Fowl, including the overlap measurements and the corner-post spacing that stops panels pulling apart under a climbing animal. If you are working out how much mesh your run needs, or whether your soil suits a buried skirt or a surface apron, she is the person to ask.

Role: Fencing and predator control writer
Focus: Mesh gauge, buried skirts, corner overlaps