Chicken Escape Defense Need!

[SFChickens]

Hi BYC Family!

We've had our girls for 6 months, and they are happily giving us Eggs every day - a'mazing! But now I have a new challenge.

We clipped their wings recently, using a youtube video as a guide - and that worked really well - but they are still able to "jump" to the roof of their coop, waddle over the peak roof to the side of the coop that borders the backyard fence, and jump ship to explore/destroy/poop on the rest of the yard - where the kids play and my wife's garden is.

I was hoping that wing clipping would solve this, but the coop we used (from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008NC5NUE) is only a few feet tall - and even post wing clipping, they can jump to the roof over their door, and then walk over the peak to the nesting boxes, and jump down to the yard.

I made an extremely technical and perfectly to scale drawing of the situation (KIDDING!) attached here - the Orange Dotted Lines are their escape path right now - the first leg is a jump, the second leg is a a cautious climb, and then they are free.




Any advice is much appreciated. Let me know if I can provide better info about the structure/setup? One thought I had was to use something like Pigeon Strips along the roof above their door, to prevent roof jumping/sitting - but they are very sweet and a bit dense, and I don't want them to hurt themselves

Also, my wife is concerned about an "ugly" solution, as our girls just take up one part of the yard - and we'd prefer not to hang a large net, or put up a big structure where the current Gate is - the material on the gate matches the run in height and type, so it's aesthetically pleasing now...

Thank you!!!

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

So you have found out, chickens can jump, I've seen them jump as high as 5 feet some even six feet. Best bet, since you have 4 foot of roof height, is to install some 2x2 post, one for each corner of the coop, extending up above the roof line to around 7 feet, then you can install either chicken wire or some other type of fencing that will prevent them jumping onto the roof for their escape escapades.

The alternative would be to actually put the coop on stilts so the roof is above their ability to jump.

My grand mother had four high nest boxes (top one was at five feet from the ground) and her birds never needed a walk board, they would just jump to those high boxes to lay their eggs. The roosts were the same way.

 

[MeepBeep]

I would get some 3/4" condulit, it comes in 10 foot lengths, secure that to the existing fence or the existing fence pole so that you now have 10 foot tall post in the area of the coop, maybe 3 fee to each side of the coop... Get some poly (plastic) deer fence, it's generally a very fine black weave and generally 6-7 feet tall, secure that to your new poles above the existing fence, so you now have a 10 foot or so fence... Same could be done with chicken wire, but the poly stuff is lighter, and drapes better...

Or you could put a heavier pull at the corner of the yard and a hook at the house, pull a tight 'clothes line' at about 9 feet tall and hang the deer fence from that line...