How do you keep chickens from flying over the fence ?

[janlock123]

Our chickens have about a half acre of land to live on, that has fencing. They will fly over the fence, and continue to get into the rest of the yard. We have tried clipping the one wing on each chicken, it did not work. They have an enclosed chicken house area this is were they sleep at night, I don't want to have to keep them locked up all day to keep them from flying over the fence. But they are asking for it, can anyone relate to this problem?

 

[fordmommy]

Well-

And I had the same problem though I didn't have such a big space. Really the only thing you can do is cover it. I would say build up the fence but you'd have to go super high.

 

[ClairedeLune]

I would say cover it, but a half-acre of land would take a lot of fencing. Perhaps you could look into the price of deer netting, which would have the added bonus of protection from most hawks. My run is covered.
Good luck!

 

[Suechick]

How high is your current fence?
What kind of chickens do you have?
Is it possible that you didn't clip enough length off of the primary flight feathers?
Maybe you could try clipping both wings?

I just put up a 4 ft fence and mine seem to be confined by it pretty well, but then I think they are a bit too heavy to fly very well so they don't get much height when they try.

Good luck.

 

[Tala]

My heavier birds don't fly much (RIR, Red sexlink, Buff Orpington) but my little bitty Leghorns were escape artists until I clipped their flight feathers from BOTH wings.
Clipping one side is supposed to "throw them off balance" (and didn't work for my Leghorns) but clipping both sides seems to keep them from getting enough "lift" under them. They have to work really hard to get up to my 3ft roost.
My fences are 5ft tall and it's rare that anyone flies out since I clipped them.

My rooster is so heavy that he doesn't EVER fly out so he has all his wing feathers intact.

 

[CARS]

1/2 acre... wow. That's great.

I have about 2200 sq feet surrounded by 2"x4" wire 6' high. I just remind the birds the consequences of jumping the fence by doing chores with my faithful dog every morning.

Me and Jewels have an agreement. She doesn't get into the run (or she gets it) and if they get out of the run (they get it)

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I have to also question weather you clipped close enough to the wing. It solved my problem. They all got their left wing clipped real close and then when they tried flying, they fell down because they didn't have balance and now they have given up flying. I believe that clipping both wings would have a similar effect, but would only make flying more difficult than purely natural, but much easier than one sided.

 

[Akane]

Extend the fence at an angle with fiberglass rods or plastic garden stakes and rolls of screen door mesh or bird netting. Also keeps cats out or in. Very cheap and if you angle it in then it means first it looks more intimidating and second they have to fly wider as well as up to go over. However if you have light weight breeds even that won't stop them. My japanese bantams can fly at least 16' up. There is no fence that would stop them if they had a reason to go over it. In that case you'd have to use a covered run if you wanted them confined. Mine just have no reason to go over the fence since they have 40acres to wander about on. Everyone now and then the guineas convince the flock to wander too far but otherwise they don't go over even the little falling down 3-4' high sections.

 

[jojo54]

Mine fly over our 4' fence so we are going to try to go higher. I have Gold sex-links and the ones that do fly over realize quickly that they don't want to be out and you find them scurrying back and forth trying to get back in. We had one that used to fly over the fence into the neighbours yard (the fence was over 7" tall) daily to lay her egg. We tried shutting her in the nesting box to have her lay here but didn't find it worked because she didn't lay the same time every day. She stopped on her own when it snowed and she didn't want to go out.

Good luck on whatever you try. and BTW welcome to BYC

 

[stephanie557]

I'm getting some serema roosters and i have about 3 acres of land all fenced off at about 3 feet, i'm kinda worried that they will fly, and i don't know how to clip their wings, any advice?