Clipping my chickens wings?

[GaryHurt]

I have a large area with 48" high electric poultry netting, and a 9' x 13" steel mesh coop, nesting boxes 30" high. I'd like them to range in the poultry netting area in the day, and walk in the coop at night. 1) How high of a perch? 2) How do I keep them from flying out of the poultry netting, but fly on the perch & netting box?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

9 foot by 13 inch coop? I'm going to assume this is a typo and you mean a 9 x 13' coop. That's a big coop!

Your perch height depends on the size of your birds. IMO, big heavy birds like Jersey Giants probably should not roost much higher than 32" high. Smaller birds can probably roost as high as 36 to 40" up. Perches need to be higher than the nests or they will sleep in the nests and you'll have poopy eggs.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

As to question #2, if you're worried about it, trim the flight feathers from one wing.

 

[StinkyAcres]

What breeds?

I could be wrong, but I believe even with clipped wings some breeds can still fly over a 48" fence. The key is to make sure nothing they can see outside the fence is better than inside the fence - you want the pen to stay very interesting and provide endless foraging. My chicken pen fence is around 3 feet high and they stay in there because it's a large pen and they are not able to scratch it bare. However, in the wintertime, sometimes it's not interesting enough in there and some will fly out to eat under the wild bird feeders. I'll have to move the bird feeders to where they can't see them or lock them in the run then.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

My two mama hens never thought about flying over a 4' fence - until their bibis went under or through it into the Big Girl pen, lol! Then they sailed over it like a couple of Vietnam-era C-47s, heavy and awkward but still managing to get airborne.

 

[ChaosMom]

My two mama hens never thought about flying over a 4' fence - until their bibis went under or through it into the Big Girl pen, lol! Then they sailed over it like a couple of Vietnam-era C-47s, heavy and awkward but still managing to get airborne.

This image will stay with me forever - perfect!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

This image will stay with me forever - perfect!

These girls just became hens right about the time their eggs hatched (one each, I didn't feel like fighting their broodiness). They are lavender EE and if you saw them you'd know there's a lot of lav Orp running through their veins. When I saw them fly over that fence to get to their wayward chicks, that's the picture I saw in my head. I frankly couldn't believe it!

 

[ChaosMom]

These girls just became hens right about the time their eggs hatched (one each, I didn't feel like fighting their broodiness). They are lavender EE and if you saw them you'd know there's a lot of lav Orp running through their veins. When I saw them fly over that fence to get to their wayward chicks, that's the picture I saw in my head. I frankly couldn't believe it!

Our buff Orp hasn’t started laying yet, just turned 18 weeks, so young and athletic (for an Orp.)

She’s a complete scaredy cat about hopping/flying down to the run floor from a height, but when motivated, she can cover some ground! The other day I saw her launch from the roof of her coop (about 5’ up), bank an immediate sharp left out the run door, and flapflapflapflap 10’ through the air until making a not-quite-controlled landing in the sunflowers.

The other two pullets gaped at her as much as I did.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

How high is the roost above the floor? If very high, keep an eye on her feet for bumblefoot. These heavy breeds can bruise when jumping down, leading to foor problems.

 

[ChaosMom]

How high is the roost above the floor? If very high, keep an eye on her feet for bumblefoot. These heavy breeds can bruise when jumping down, leading to foor problems.

We have a Nestera coop. It sits on a platform 2 1/2’ above a well-padded deep litter floor. The other two hop straight down, but she uses an overturned bucket as a step, both going up and down. Her flock sisters wait impatiently for her to jump that 15” from the platform down to the bucket, which I think is why we were all so astounded at her big flight.

Oh, and the roosts in the coop are 9” above the coop floor. Orpington heaven!