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What kind of fence do you have? If they are unable to see a landing place they are unlikely to just fly over.
A big problem is that chickens like to perch. If the top of your fence looks like a good place to perch, they might fly up there just for fun. Who knows which side they will hop down on? If it is the wrong side they usually don't know to fly back home.
Another potential problem is when one gets trapped against a fence. This might happen in pecking order/dominance fights or maybe a female is trying to get away from an amorous male. When they are desperate and panicked, they can pretty much walk up a fence with or without their wings clipped, flapping desperately. It's easy for them to come down on the wrong side.
Basically if they want out bad enough they can probably get out. The trick is to make them not want to. I keep chickens in a 4' high electric netting without clipping wings. They can easily fly over that if the wish, but the only time I have any problems with them getting out is when one gets trapped against the fence and wants desperately to get away. This is almost always when I have a bunch of cockerels in the flock, it is almost never a female. The top of my netting is not a perch.
So what are the tricks to keep them in? If your fence has a solid top rail or other likely place to perch (posts can be a perch) you can attach stiff wire at the top so it stands above the top by 6" to 12". The top no longer looks like a good place top perch. Don't forget gates.
I can configure my electric netting any way I want, you are stuck with your backyard fence. I found that if I avoid sharp corners (90 degrees is OK but don't go sharper) and I avoid long narrow sections, they don't get trapped against the fence or at least hardly ever. I once configured a narrow section 10' to 15' wide and maybe 20' long before my netting widened out. I was finding 1 or 2 cockerels a day outside the fence. I reconfigured that to more of square and hardly ever had a cockerel get out. If you don't have cockerels the chances of one getting trapped against the fence drops a lot.
Hopefully you can get something out of this that helps.
LOTS of great info, Thanks! The fence is a 4' chain link. We live in a neighborhood, but the area fenced in is good size with lots of flowerbeds (which I assume they'll want to scratch thru & explore which is fine), so I'm hoping thats enough incentive. So far the 4 hens don't seem abrasive towards each other (no rooster) & they actually snuggle together at night rather than attempting the roosting bar....super sweet! Its just that we're in a neighborhood & I don't want to upset the neighbors or make a scene trying to catch them