Hi, 2 escapes this weekend have forced me to put my 6 chix on lockdown. As you all know they much prefer to be scratching about in the WHOLE yard rather than their tractor. So, with clipped wings what is the recommended fence height? Thanks in advance. Matt
I have some banties that try to fly now and then so I bought some mesh that is meant to keep birds off of strawberries etc. I stretched it across the fence and tied with twist ties.
I have a white leghorn hen that can fly up on top of the hen house. Nine foot high. Maybe you should think of a topper! You could also clip one wing. But most of our hens can't get over the 7 ft fence.
We keep all of our chickens in a large run. However, we've had a LOT of escapees since they've been in there. The fence height is 6ft & they have NO PROBLEM AT ALL flying to the top of it. Even our big Black Australorps, sight impaired [due to head feathers] Polish and tiny Millies have no trouble flying to the top of the 6ft fence of the run. This wkend we bought and installed some netting that we got from Lowe's that was a 4ft wide by 50ft long roll of netting for just over $13 per roll. It's worked great! So, we basically had to make our run into an aviary since they always had no prob getting out...until now.
LOLS The higher the better, our girls are standards and they have a 10ft fence and even they can fly right on over that, no problems. I came home one day to see 5 of them roosting on the top of the fence.
Wow! I guess I am surprised they have only gotten out once then. We are in the city and they have been out all day every day for 2 wks or so now (they roost in the coop as soon as it gets dark). The back fence is only a standard chainlink. Will clipping their wings help? I will do the netting thing if I have to but its cold out and it would be a bit of a project to undertake in Dec! Its an exciting time, these are our first chix and we are just starting to get eggs (1 wk). Any one got any guesses as to who is laying? I think only one of them is laying right now.
My Rita used to go over the 4ft fence after having both her wings clipped. Strong thighs on that partridge rock. I guess I should have named her Grasshopper...
Clipping their wings will help a little - only clip ONE though. I have an American Game hen who we clipped one of her wings & she still has no prob at all flying to the top of our 6ft fence. Could just be the spunk that an Amer Game has though, I don't know. We named her Zoomer since she can zoom soooo easily to the top of our fence. If I had to guess as to who is laying I'd say RIR as my first choice and second choice wld be the BO. Then again, I'm no expert since we've only had our chickens since the first wk of June.