Best way to make a large "fowl" area

Hello all

Im looking for as much advice and as many ideas as anyone can supply to the following conundrum...

We have been keeping fowl in our garden for around 2 years and pretty successfully (no illnesses touch wood) except for a couple of loses to fox incursions... at the moment we have a 25m poultry mesh electric fence surrounding their area (which houses 5 hens and 2 call dusck) with a hen house and duck house inside the fence, plus an old belfast sink as a duck pond.

Further down our garden we have been lending a small area of land to a friend who keeps (kept) bee hives but sadly he has lost all of his bees and is giving up the hives so the extra land "behind" the birds area is now spare.

We are thinking of either moving or expanding the current area to incorporate the spare land which is better ground (ie nice covering of grass) and offers potentially the chance to take a few more brids of some kind (thinking maybe eating birds, geese or standard ducks (ie not call ducks)) if we choose to.

Now the questions are these.

Firstly what is the best way to fence/protect the new area especially if we choose to expand the overall area to something bigger than we have at present... our current 25m fence wouldnt be long enough so can to "chain" fences together or would it need a whole new (50m) electric fence?

As I said we have had some loses to the local fox which have both happened when the battery has gone dead on the fence without us realising. Although we try and keep the area strimmed and tidy we have a lot of overhanging trees which shed leaves all over the fence area and cause shorts, and it is quite rough ground which seems to also cause shorts and despite many efforts at levelling the land it hasnt stopped shorting. Also around the garden we have a post and wire mesh fence which I am worried would give a "launch pad" to the fox to jump the electric fence is we went close to the perimeter of the garden (which we arent at present).

So I am swaying away from electric fence towards something more substantial. However I dont want to spend a bomb and the only other option I can see is to make a fully fenced enclosure with a roof to cover the whole thing. Although I am quite handy I am a bit daunted by tacking a big project, which to my mind is going to need a fair bit of carpentry to include a door/opening and a fenced roof, plus sinking a number of fence posts and huge amounts of chicken wire.

We have looked at some other "left field" options like a second hand large shed or even a barn type structure with an enclosed run but that seems very difficult to transport and site.

So basically any thoughts at all about how to solve my dilemma?

I agree re sticking with the electric fencing although I know it can be problematic from experience. Just a thought but if you are able to use a mains energiser for the fence that is a better deterrent to foxes. It doesn't go flat or go low and you don't have to keep charging it - other than to make sure it is working.

I'm not an expert on foxes but I believe they do indeed think that way. You always have to make sure there is NOTHING they can use  as a launch pad.

Re electrics. We bought the recommended flex for outdoor use - sorry bit technical for me - and, although we were told it wasn't necessary, fed it through old hosepipe as it was going to be trailing on the ground we felt it would give it more protection. If you go on to some websites that sell electric fencing some offer good advice as well as selling the necessary.