We have a 4 ft fence around our chicken yard and one of my hens hopped it ran to the other 4 foot fence near the street and hopped over that into the magnolia bushes out front, she laid 2 eggs over the fence. she is a brahma I think, how do I keep her in the yard? She has a nesting box non of my other hens get out of their yard. It's just gwen.
We did clip her wings. She still jumps out some how. Other then keeping her in lock down and only letting her run the yard when I'm out there doesn't seem fair for her. I don't really want to give her away either but I'm worried with her jumping out all the time that she might get hit by a car or picked off by a stray cat when I'm not around.
I'm not a wing-clipper myself, but I've read that you clip ONE wing to keep them off-balance. I'm sure you could research here on how to do it.
I've watched her, she uses her legs so she's on lock down till we can build a higher fence. Thanks for advice
I tried to make do with a 4 foot chicken wire fence for a long time. They either got over it or under it. And it certainly did not prevent preadators from getting to them. The best thing is to use a higher and heaver gauge wire fencing such as a 2x4 grid which you can get at Lowe's. It's about $50 for 50 foot roll. ($1 per foot) You have to anchor your corner posts (should be a 4x4 post) with cement. Then stretch the wire tight. In a pinch you can run a bar in and out of the wire holes and hook it up to a chain and pull it GENTLY and SLOWLY with a truck or other heavy equipment. (My fourwheeler couldn't pull it tight enough, not enough traction) then while the tension is on, nail the fencing to the other post. This makes the bottom nice and tight along with the middle and top. I had the same problem as you and tried running kite string from each metal post making the fence higher but they still were able to get over it. All in all, if you can't build a new fence, clip their wings, remove anything they can get up on to get a vantage of jumping over, and use cheap metal stakes to hold down the bottom of the wire snug to the ground.
Make a smaller run inside and stick a top in it. When you let them (or her if it's just her) in the main yard watch them. I must warn you though, mud becomes a problem when you don't have grass.
With our ladies; it's a 6 ft fence and wing clipping for the hamburg (she can still get out unclipped). The top 2 feet are just chicken wire; it's enough to block escape attempts and wasn't at all expensive to install. Good luck!
