How do you keep chickens from flying over the fence?!?:-(

[mommyrottie]

I know that I'm a newbie and all, but I have seen several photos recently of coops with a pretty tall post in the middle of the run. Then there is a netting kind of thing that covers the whole run. I guess it doesn't really help if they are free ranging in the whole yard, huh? just thought about that. tricky

 

[cmom]

When you say clipping the wings you are clipping one wing on each bird.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

If it's a big problem, you may want to put them in a covered run. Or if you want to free-range them in your backyard, maybe put up tall posts every four feet or so along your existing fence. Then put a board on top of the posts pointing inwards to your yard. Then staple aviary netting across the posts and inward-pointing boards to keep them from hopping the fence. Does that make sense? Hope i'm explaining it right.

 

[chic-a-deee]

I covered mine with shadecloth, suspended from the garden fences. The gap at the top is narrow enough to make them hesitate
so I guess Im lucky in that way and they love their run.

 

[mommyrottie]

cmom - Thank you very much for the diagram! It's been a LOOOOONG time since I've clipped wings. That was on Macaws and Cockatoos mostly.

 

[anderson8505]

Just clip 1 wing, not both. This should throw the flight off balance. I had to do this during the summer because the neighbor's plants were just too tempting.

 

[mommyrottie]

I have to get my hands on her first. LOL I just got these two hens that have had a rough couple of months. One of them will let me pet her some. The other, not so much. They have flapped their wings a couple of times while I've had them free ranging.

Thank you for clarifying that I only clip one.

 

[Angiebubs]

I also have a 5 ft fence, and due to hawks and bakd eagles, bought inexpensive bird netting from Lowes', used zip ties to bind the strips together and to the fenicing-has worked great so far.....not sure yet what I will do when it snows hard.

 

[Chicken_Pauper]

I had one: my most friendly, most beloved, most lovely and sweet EE girl... I could hold, carry, pet. She would fly over the fence. Being young and light, not heavy yet, she could even fly over with her wings clipped.
She stopped after the three little dogs next door got her... she was o.k., just shaken. Well, a couple of weeks ago, she went over into the alley behind the house, I (being "not young and nimble") climbed over the fence and got her back into the yard... and re-clipped her wings, shorter -- the next day she did it again. There was a dog, out of its yard, in heat, with a "pack" with her... well.. we found only feathers later when she didn't come into the coop at dusk.
It broke my heart, but I couldn't keep her in. She was the only one in the flock that did this, while not being the only EE.
I can only say that I have found that clipping the wings stops "most" of them, if done right (At least the breeds I have).
Others will only stop if/when they get fat and heavy; and there are some breeds that are known to be 'flyers' and maybe they will always fly over the fence?
I hope you don't lose them, or that it doesn't cause a call that creates problems for you keeping your chickens ('code enforcement', 'animal control').
Good luck.

 

[Hiram]

Quote:
This is what I did. And it works,duh. Although this is my 1st year, I've noticed that my RIRs only jump about 4-5 feet vertical. So they are no problem, however, my Dekalb Amberlinks can really jump. I pulled everything away from the fence so they wouldn't have a platform to jump off of. This worked. In the end, I covered it because those d##n hawks.