chicken proofing 3' fence

[danrhodes]

We have an adequately sized coop and run, but the girls just love being outside so much, we also let them free range over our yard. With the rainy season approaching and our "lawn" completely destroyed by them, the wife wants new sod.

We have a 3 foot fence which is supposed to keep the birds on the side yard, but even with clipped wings, they easily hop it. Has anyone tried methods to top short fences to contain the little dinosaurs?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

You could rig up a vertical fence extension:
http://www.deerfencecanada.com/Post-extension.html
found this on a search...I am not familiar with this website.

here is another:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/fences-visible-invisible

It depends on the breed though...some will fly over anything. If they are heavy brown egglayers though you can make it high enough.

 

[janicem]

I have a similar problem with a 4' fence, despite wing clipping. I am now researching either 2-ft. fence extensions or 6 to 8 ft. high, narrow round posts (found on deer fencing sites). I will probably use lightweight plastic deer fencing for the extension so that the posts don't have to be hefty. Of course, this is not critter-proof, but they are locked into their coops at night anyway, so that is not a worry.

 

[Hokum Coco]

My run is about 4 ft high. If you clip the feathers on one wing of each bird it will help.

Make sure there is no blood in the shaft of the feather before you clip or your bird may bleed to death.

On some birds you may even have to clip a few secondary flight feathers on the same wing.

One wing throws the bird off balance and is more effective than trimming equal amounts off both wings.

Then again some birds are excellent jumpers!

It is not fool proof.

 

[aceoftrumps]

I too have a 4' fence and have problems with 4 or 5 chickens getting out. I read on here that chickens need a target to land on and don't just fly over the fence in one bound. I watched them and found that they would fly to the top rail and then to the ground. So I installed some additional 2x4 extensions to the 4x4 fence posts and stapled some orange construction fencing I found the city had rolled up and discarded after repaving one of the streets. Free and they don't get out anymore Problem solved!

Ace

 

[danrhodes]

Pretty much the solution I ended up with too. Added some thin redwood garden stakes and strung some very thin, lightweight netting that I used to use to keep the bluejays off my apple trees. From more than 5 feet away, you really can't see it at all and after 1-2 times bouncing off of it, the girls learned their lesson (and started digging under the fence, but that's another story).

 

[yogifink]

Here are three options I have tried.

add some longer pieces to your existing fence and add netting.

adding a line of wire or string above the top bar will keep them from jumping onto the fence

add somesort of angle pieces to the top of the fence and drape with netting