Escaping hens, what can I do to cover pen?

[dawgnchickmomma]

I'm a new chicken mom as of May, up until about a month or so ago all my chicks were small enough that they didn't leave the coop, now they "escape" daily. They either jump from the top of their run or they hop/fly over their fence. The fence is 4 ft. tall, chicken wire. We would like to cover the run to keep them from escaping, especially since now one of my Rhode Island Reds was killed today

Can nets be used? Cover with more chicken wire? I want to avoid any more senseless deaths. I think it was a cat that got her.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Sorry about your RIR chick. If you just want to keep the chickens in, chicken wire, light weight netting like what they sell as deer netting, or heavier netting like the game bird netting will all work. But they are only good for keeping chickens in, not keeping predators out.... the chicken wire and game bird netting would work for cats probably, but not for racoons or anything like that. How big is the run? If the run is small and you leave them in it all the time, you might want to cover the whole thing with hardware cloth. Also, if it is only 4" tall, it might be a nuisance to get in and clean. And ...

 

[OScarlet]

as ours is only temporary right now I used an old piece of fabric and clipped it on. It provides some shade too.

 

[Hokum Coco]

My run is about 4 ft high. If you clip the feathers on one wing of each bird it will help.

Make sure there is no blood in the shaft of the feather before you clip or your bird may bleed to death.

On some birds you may even have to clip a few secondary flight feathers.

One wing throws the bird off balance and is more effective than trimming equal amounts off both wings.

 

[yogifink]

I have a 4 foot fence too, clipping their wings helps but does not always do the trick. This is what I did to our fence after we lost 2 girls to our neighbors dog the day after we clipped their wings and got over the fence...