Chicken Run fence height?

[MaineGrant]

I just purchased a coop yesterday and next weekend I need to get the run made to get ready for the arrival of the birds. My questions is how high do I need to make the fence? I was planning on getting some 8' 4x4's and burying 2 feet of them leaving 6 feet above ground ... does it need to be this high? Or could I get away with 6' 4x4 burying a foot leaving a 5' wall ... or possibly shorter?

Thanks!

 

[sparkles2307]

Well, that depends a lot on the breed of chicken, the predators you deal with, etc. If you're not going to cover the run then I suggest at least 6' height, as a bored chicken will fly much higher than that quite easily. I've got a run with about 5.5' fencing and have had chickens escape easily. It was originally built for goats, otherwise the fence would've been done differently. If you plan to run mesh over the top, then make it high enough for you to walk inside if you want...

 

[MaineGrant]

We are getting 2 golden comets and 2 Bard Rocks ... I guess I will plan on making it 6' high then. I plan to let them have out of the run and into the yard when we are home on the weekends, but during the week I want to be able to let them out in the Run.

 

[mikecnorthwest]

Take a look at my BYC page. I just added a run to my coop and like you want to do I sunk two 4x4 posts and ran two rows of 36" poultry wire.