"Marshall Wilkinson" wrote in message
...
We are planning to fence off our small orchard (15 m x 15 m) which has a
couple of plum, pear, peach and apple trees and double the fence as a
chook
yard. We plan to have half a dozen or so chooks and plant forage for them
as
well as a few other fruit trees. Can anyone foresee any problems with
this?

Nope, I run my chooks an orchard of about a quarter of an acre. Just make
sure it is fox proof. I've lost a lot of chooks and have spent a lot of
time and money on fixing up what was an abortion of a fence done by a
supposed expert fencer. Ha!

The fruit trees are 2 - 3 m tall and we plan to cover the top but are
still
working on a design. If we use hardwood posts what should the spacing be
and
is chicken wire the best thing to use over the top/roof of the
orchard/chook
yard?

Gosh you must be very rich :-)) You don't need to put a top on the whole
orchard, just make sure the chooks have a fully ceilinged night house with a
small secure ceilinged yard attached to it and let teh chooks out in the
morning and lock them up at night. It gives you extra security against
foxes, costs way less than a fully enclosed yard with netted ceiling.