Escaping chicken... flying?! Help

[SpringIgloo]

Hey everyone,

I've just gotten back from my neighbours yard where one of my ladies decided to take a day trip. We have 6ft fences so I wasn't aware she'd be able to get out. Can anyone offer any insight? I'll put up some pictures of our fence.

Side 1, is the side she escaped. I have put the lattice up to try and stop them from getting down the side, we have pots and washing line etc. I'm thinking she's jumped up on those. The distance from the back garden to the top of the fence is shorter, but would it be too steep?

Side 2, is the one I was actually worried about because they cluck around in the back garden there and it's quite a short distance to the top of the fence. The neighbours yard is a fair bit lower than our yard though so it's a great drop (they also have a german Shepard so really want to avoid that situation).

What else would you do?

 

[DLA]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ings-of-your-chicken-to-prevent-flight.47727/

 

[rosemarythyme]

Most younger or lighter chickens can easily clear a 6' fence, and your fence has a solid top rail which makes it easier for them to spring over it (they fly up, land, and then springboard), so assuming you don't want to fence them into a run with covered top, clipping the flight feathers is probably your best bet.

 

[KyCoop]

Floppy fence. Get you some of the plastic deer fencing. NOT the thin bird netting but the 7ft black plastic fencing. Cut it to about 1.5 ft wide and staple that (so it stands up) to the top of your fence. They won't land on anything they are not sure it's solid. It might help.

 

[RoyalChick]

As others said - some chickens will fly quite far if there is a solid rail to land on.
One of my chickens used to fly up over 10’ to roost in the rafters.
But if there isn’t something solid to land on they are much less likely to go up there. So something floppy.
The rafter roosting hen was mostly contained by an electric net fence of less than 4’ just to give an example.

 

[perkolator]

Clip feathers would probably be the easiest. Had a white leghorn that used to fly over a 6ft fence like it wasn't even there, I put rows of mason line about 12-16" above the fence to act as a deterrent for her specifically, but I'd see her perching on the darn string a few times! Regularly would jump to about 8-9ft onto the roof of coop too, she was a flyer for sure. I don't clip wings though, because I want my girls to have all chances they can when trying to get away from predators we have in the area. Currently have two adult Barnevelders that I consider large chickens, who earlier this summer started jumping vertically up to their preferred roost that's 6ft high every evening instead of using the ladders, I think to avoid the younger girls being in their way to the primo roost spots, haha

 

[Penpal]

They are probably using the raised garden as a take off point.

At the top of the fence, and six inches on the yard side, run a wire across. Another six inches in, run another wire across. They will try to go over the fence and keep bumping into the wires.

 

[SpringIgloo]

Thank you sk much for the replies everyone. I really appreciate them. I will head off down to bunnings this morning and pick up some fencing stuff

 

[KyCoop]

One more thing to think about is why is the neighbors yard better then theirs. Do they have enough grass, bugs , entertainment in general. I have a 3.5 chain link fence around "my" yard I let them into daily and they never go over.
Make your yard the happening place to be. You can try sitting and talking to them and give them a few treats. They might decide Hey this is better then going over the fence.

 

[RojoMarz]

One more thing to think about is why is the neighbors yard better then theirs. Do they have enough grass, bugs , entertainment in general. I have a 3.5 chain link fence around "my" yard I let them into daily and they never go over.
Make your yard the happening place to be. You can try sitting and talking to them and give them a few treats. They might decide Hey this is better then going over the fence.

Sometimes though, it's not about the what, but the who. I have 1 chicken (Houdini) who insists on escaping, where the other 11 are perfectly happy in their run. Here she is helping DH with some recent truck maintenance.