How high can chickens jump?

[LtDanFan]

i’m thinking of re-vamping out chicken yard. Basic set up is an interior 4 ft fence (poultry wire) with a 6 ft solid wooden fence surround and a 2 ft walkway around the inner yard. The ladies have been regularly jumping the inner fence and exploring the space between the 2 fences. If we get rid of the inner fence, can they still be contained within 6 ft fencing? How high can chickens jump/flap when wanting to go vertical?

 

[thecatumbrella]

What breeds do you have?

The larger, heavier breeds aren't great at getting height, and you can clip their wings to try and keep them in. Smaller breeds, forget about it. I remember reading that someone's d'Uccle cleared the roof of their house.

Also, fences will a solid landing surface (like a wooden fence) are not great for containment. If they're jumping the 4-foot wire, I'd be skeptical of the 6-foot wood.

 

[TOMTE]

Depends on breed/size, mostly. Like @thecatumbrella said, small birds are usually a lot more "flighty". Less weight, easier for them to lift off and stay in the air for longer periods.

2 of my chickens (a BSL and a SLW) are pretty heavy but surprise me by effortlessly jumping up 3½ - 4ft frequently. So I wouldn't put it past a very determined heavy bird to scale a fence, either. They use their beaks, feet, and wings to climb wherever they can find purchase.

Bird/trellis netting over the area you want to keep them in is an option. And it has the added bonus of keeping birds of prey out.

 

[FunClucks]

How high can chickens jump? However high they want to. If they're determined, they'll find a way.

That being said, how much do your birds weigh? My 10-12 lb meat are not going to be scaling a six foot fence, but most of my birds are 5-7 lbs, and they fly as high as they like.

 

[LtDanFan]

I have one token meat bird (got her for company until the layers were old enough to join the older hens i purchased). The rest are olive eggers, Easter eggers and cream legbars or baby yard mixes of the aforementioned breeds. I’ve never seen meat bird jump, but the other pullets seem to perch on the chicken wire with regularity.
I like the idea of netting though. Would this also prevent raccoon invasion from the top? One night we saw them scale the 6 ft fence and had to beat it off to protect the ladies.
Is there a concern about them getting stuck in the netting? What kind of netting should we use?

 

[RubelliteRose]

Our silver leghorn and a couple of our Easter Eggers would easily fly up to my husband's shoulder when they were younger, so a 6 foot fence would not be an issue.
We use poultry netting from Pinnion Hatch Farms over the run to protect the flock from hawks.
https://pinnonhatch.com/poultry-sup...medium=email&utm_source=customer_notification

I can confirm that it is very heavy duty as we had 2 luffa vines full of 2 foot long luffa gourds growing over the netting one year. The chickens loved it, but we decided to move the garden out of the chicken run after that

Edit to add: We have never had a raccoon in our run, but it probably won't stop a determined raccoon from getting in if it really wanted to get in.