HOW TO ATTACH A GATE on T-POSTS THE FAST WAY

After a week of rain, it was hard not to cuss as I slipped my way into the chicken yard, scraping my leg on part of our “gate”. Our current access was pulling up one plastic fence pole which was attached to the plastic fencing that kept the chickens contained, while also having to step over an 24″x18″ piece of metal that keeps the dog from putting his nose under the fence. He likes to be as close to the chickens as possible.
When he goes to another location, then chickens flock through the gapping hole at the bottom of the fence where the dog’s head was resting. The moment I got back inside, I started sketching plans for a Framed X Gate and corrections to the south face of our chicken yard fencing. While also researching how to hang a gate on t-posts. Now we have a wooden framed X gate, covered in chicken wire and attached to t-posts, easiest gate we have made.

PLANS

Here are the plans.

We had moved about 16 ft of 2×4 wire off the west side of the fence to replace that with a cattle panel we found in the back pasture. This gave us the ability to change all the fence on the south side of the fence to be metal, attached to t-posts.

In the end we chose to hinge the gate on the right, instead of the left – but all is working well. Much smoother than poles and sharp edged metal.

Go HERE for a guide on building the gate.

HINGE SYSTEM

Attaching the hinge system to the t-post was done by using pole fence hinges. We had two of the female hinge parts, shown below, laying around. Actually these had been moved from bin to bin, basement, barn to shop and needed to get put somewhere. Then we bought pins to match and attach to the wood frame of the gate.

For those of you who are just arriving here – and still reading – you might be wondering why we used a bunch of stuff from the shop. Why did we mix wood hardware with t-posts and chain link fence hardware? It is because we are making our property better, not perfect. We don’t want to paralyze ourselves from moving toward better by waiting for perfect. It is likely that we end up modifying our gate and posts, but if this system works, then we might not.

HOW

We put the hinge around the t-post, it was a tight fit. Then moved it to the location we wanted the pin to drop. Tightened it down between two of the nubs on the t-post that way it wouldn’t slide around. Then we put the pin in the hole of the hinge, matched it up on the wooden frame and fastened the pin in the correct location. Now we have hung a gate on t-posts. It seems to be holding up just fine.

CLOSE

We found a small chain that is no longer used, it was from the top of a screen door. I stapled one of the links to the wooden frame of the gate, looped it around the t-post and hooked it with a small carabiner. It is not fancy, but it is simple and practical.

UPDATE: Three months later, we have kept chickens in the yard and this gate keeps the dog out.

Q & A

Why are you keeping the dog and chickens separated?

We have two reasons for a chicken yard.

First is actually not about the dog. It is about the rooster. Our rooster is a good rooster – as far as roosters go. He is good to the girls. But if you aren’t watching and too close to the rooster – he will pounce. This is okay if you are an adult, it actually doesn’t hurt just makes us mad. But having a rooster flap and jump at three young kids (4 and under) is more serious, as he can actually hurt the kids. This small danger makes it stressful to constantly keep an eye on everyone in the yard. It is significantly more relaxing to have the chickens in their own space.

The second reason is that our Anatolian Pyrenees is just a puppy, around six months old, and loves to play. This means that chickens are grand playmates, for added excitement they run and squawk and fly. Understandably he wrestles them too hard and some of the birds have end up dead. He has killed three or four birds already and we don’t want to lose more.

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