Fencing Height

[Smiller1090]

How high can chickens jump/fly? I live in town and am wondering if I put a privacy fence up would it contain them to free range? Would I need to clip wings? Or should I just build a tractor?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It depends on the breed and the Individual bird.
I had a Jersey giant hen who wouldn't stay inside a 6' fence and a flock of Penedesenca cockerels that would easily stay inside a 2' fence.

 

[CluckerFamily]

And it depends on predators and neighbor animals that could climb a fence or dig under a fence.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I have had light birds stay within a short fence and buff orpingtons try to roost on the line of the clothesline 6' up.

Each bird is individual and not all will do as expected.

Recalling a day I stepped outside and my 3 Hamburgs came from BEHIND the coop easily clearing the 8' tall building to be first in line for treats.

 

[Smiller1090]

And it depends on predators and neighbor animals that could climb a fence or dig under a fence.

They would only free range under supervision

 

[Smiller1090]

My chicks are black sex link, grey Wyandotte’s and black Wyandotte’s

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's not a question of how high can they fly, it's a question of how badly do they want to. That means there is no guaranteed answer to your question. But there are some things you can do to help yourself.

One common problem is that chickens like to perch. If the top of your fence looks like a good landing place they may fly up there just because it's fun to perch up there. Once they are up there who knows which side they will fly down from. So make the top of your fence so they can't land up here, including posts. A privacy fence sounds like a bad choice for that. But if you attach at least a foot of wire mesh to the top of a privacy fence so it sticks up they don't have a place to land. I've done this and it doesn't look that bad.

They don't like to fly to somewhere they can't see. They are not likely to blindly take off flying over a fence if they can't see a landing spot. So a privacy fence with a wire mesh sticking up is the best of both worlds.

Lots of people keep them behind mesh fences they can see through. I keep mine in four feet high electric netting. My chickens are equivalent to yours in adult size and flying ability. It's an area big enough that it stays green all through the growing season so there is not a lot of temptation outside. Mine easily fly up to five feet high roosts so they could easily fly over it if they wanted to.

I do have chickens get out. You probably won't have these problems because you only have three and I assume all female. When I have a bunch of cockerels in there and one gets trapped against a fence in their fights, he may go vertical to get away. Often when they land it's outside of that netting area. They don't know to fly back in, though they want to. On very rare occasions that can happen to a hen trying to get away from an amorous rooster, that's only happened a couple of times in many years. With the electric netting I can make it any shape I want. I learned that if I make 90 degree or flatter corners that problem really drops. Also, if I make a long narrow section I can have problems so the more open you can make it the better. They need room to walk by each other without it starting a fight.

I don't know what you have to work with. How big will you make it? How pretty does it need to be, that can be important to some people in certain circumstances? As I said to start you don't get guarantees but I'd think you will be in good shape with a five or six feet high fence if they can't land on top of it to perch.