Escaping chickens

[Gelky]

I recently had my chicken come of age enough to jump over a fence in my backyard and onto the bushes on the street side of the neighborhood. Yes their wings were clipped. After 2 weeks of occasionally seeing them strut around and unable to catch them. They miraculously showed up my front lawn early this evening. Needless to say. I was able to corner them and return them to their coop.

I surmised that the chicken initially escaped by hoping on top of the coop via an lower extended area of the coop and then hoping over the fence which is another 3 feet up. With that in mind, I made it so it is hopefully very unlikely if not impossible for the chickens to make that 3 hop escape by making the top of the coop un-accessible.

However, the surrounding fencing area is a 4ft welded wire fence. I am afraid that the chickens may still be able to jump the 4ft fence and into the general yard and the dog who thinks chicken are nice little chew toys. Now is that very likely that the clipped wings chickens can jump a 4ft fence?

Here is how the coop and fencing area looks like, it's not fully built yet. The fencing is 4ft tall. Should I be concerned? I am thinking about running another 3 feet of welded wire on top of the existing fencing to create a taller fence.

Thanks!

 

[Judy]

Yes, they will probably be able to jump or fly over a 4' fence.

 

[crtrlovr]

Oh, yeah, they'll be able to hop that even with clipped wings. Have you thought about covering the run with netting? I'd definitely build the fence up higher AND cover it with mesh or net of some kind.