Does my pen need to be covered?

[Southern28Chick]

I have a 40'x50' dog pen with 6' tall chain link walls. My husband has built me a 6'x6' chicken house inside the pen. I'm expecting my 25 chicks on May 2cd. Here's my question, can the chickens (when full grown) jump/fly over the top of the 6' tall pen?

We're going to build a run off the side of their house that would be completely surrounded by chicken wire for night time so the coons and all can't get em, but I have 4 huge male cats that stay outside during the day and they eat squirrels so I'm sure they can take down a chicken that jumps the fence.

It would cost a fortune to cover the top of a 40'x50' pen, any suggestions?

Also how do you post pictures so I can show y'all pics of my new hen house.

 

[livestock101]

Can chickens fly over a 6' high fence? Depends on the age of the chicken and/or the breed. Bantams....yup, without a doubt they will be able to get right over. Our bantams can fly high enough to roost in the rafters of the barn. Large heavy breeds, depends on the age. We have a fence that is nearly 6 feet high and a few of the large breeds have gotten over when they were younger....I'd say 12+ weeks old or so. As they got older, they also became heavier and can no longer fly high enough to get over. I watch them attempt to fly around their run in the morning and they are lucky to get 3' high.

Can't help ya with the pictures question.

 

[tiffanyh]

You can also have predators without a cover. My girlfriend had her hens taken away, even a rooster, by a large hawk/raptor. I have a dog kennel set up also and i covered it with the verylight weight garden netting, it may be to large of a kennel to do that, but just a thought.

 

[allen wranch]

Don't expect coons to be detered by chicken wire. It will keep chickens in, but not most predators out. Be sure to lock your birds up at night.

Cats can climb almost anything and a chain link fence will not be a problem for them to get over. I would not trust the birds around the cats until they are grown, and even then it may be a problem. I had an incidence today where my two light weight female cats were stalking my Brabanters when they were out of the run for a while.