Alternative to wing clipping?

[chicknjane]

I've had my chickens since May. They have a 25' (w) X50' (L) X 5' (h) run that they have access to from sun up to sun down. Three days ago my chickens learned that they could fly. They never tried to fly over the fence before. I think its because the girls are trying to escape the unwanted attention of an overly attentive rooster. They are a mixed flock of mostly standards though I think a few might have a little bantam mixed as they are small compared to the others. I want to discourage their flying the coop without clipping their wings. I believe that flight is one of their defense mechanisms and I do not want to rob them of that because I have let them free range a hour or so before bed time and we have lots of predators in the neighborhood. Because of the size of the run I won't be able to cover it with aviary netting until spring when I can put support posts in the ground to keep the netting from sagging.

I read on this forum that people string cd's across their runs to deter flying predators such as hawks.

Do you think that would deter the chickens from attempting to fly over the fence? They seem to be all flying over at the same spot, which it fortunately close to the coop that I could string something from the coop to the end of the run.

Are their any other alternatives to wing clipping or covering the run that you could suggestion?

Thank you,
Marcy

 

[mdbokc]

My hanging CDs don't phase the girls one bit. They fly over my internal fences w/o hesitation. So I use deer netting to supplement the height to 6-1/2 - 7' high. That stops them. But that likely won't hold up in your wet snow in the winter. So I would attache 1x2x8' to your fence posts and run mason line between them to "raise the bar" and see what happens. Quick and cheap to do.

Here is my invisible deer netting fence arrangement:

We needed an inexpensive containment fence of indefinite time to restrict the birds. They have access to part of a large back yard in the morning. Then mid-afternoon, I let them out onto the acreage. I attached stained 1x2s to standard green utility posts. Then attached the lightweight deer netting to the 1x2/U post combination to provide a virtually invisible, 6-1/2 foot high fence. I simply wired the 1x2 to the chain link fence and gate where needed. This has worked really slick and provides a season without any difficulty (until first bad ice storm). Can be taken down and moved very quickly.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Mine were flying out for the same reason, to get away from the roosters.

My situation is probably a bit different from yours in the way they are built, but on the part that was not covered, I took a 5' wide section of welded wire, split it down the middle so it was about 2-1/2' wide, then added it to the top of the fence, extending the height of the fence. I had enough extra room on the top of my posts so I could attach it and get it to stand up on its own. This photo shows something extra that I had to do at the gate, but you can kinda see what I am talking about to the right of the gate. It did stop mine from flying out. An added advantage is that any raccoon trying to climb over the fence here will pull the free standing section back over and will have great trouble getting over the fence. A raccoon can still come in my run off the building so it is not predator proof, just a little harder for them.

 

[chicknjane]

Thank you for the ideas. Looks like I'm gonna have to go even higher with the fence all around.