How high do chickens fly?

[duckidaho]

We found a hen on top of our henhouse today. About 10 feet off the ground. How high can these gals fly? She then launched herself from the roof over the garden fence and into the garden...to eat peas.

 

[pixie74943]

lol.

What kind of hen is she? Mine are too fat to fly, but god knows they try

 

[duckidaho]

A young Araucana. Maybe she was trying to get away from the attentions of our rooster.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

I have some that can easily make it up onto the 4 foot roosting pole in our coop, and some, like the Silkies, that can't make it no matter how hard they try. I think the size of the bird makes a world of difference.

 

[Judy]

Yup, size and breed, both.

I watched a brown Leghorn fly into the side of a shed one day. I felt she was running from a predator, though did not see one. She evidently thought she could make it over, but hit the side at about 10' or 11' off the ground.

My Leghorns and Kraienkoppe gather in a shed near the coop at dusk, and I have to shoo them in. I often find them on a lumber rack about 8' off the ground. They are both certainly bigger than Silkies. The Australorpe sticks to the spot about 4' off the ground.

 

[emvickrey]

I have seen mine fly about a foot off the ground. They're too heavy and lazy to fly much. They just want to eat. My younger ones will get sas high as they can but they do it in stages. I had some get on top of the garge roof but theywould get on tope of one thing then another then another until they reach their destination. I have 4 that I let roam free in the day time and at niht they will get on top of the cages. I just pick them up and put them to bed. One of the places they get is about 6 foot high. They climb the ladder to get on top of the bachelor run then jump up to the Phoenix cage. Then hunker down for the night. I have one that will hide in front of the shed door in the grass. She is almost invisable there. It took me about 30 minutes to find her. She decided to go up after that.

 

[TammyTX]

Mine will jump about three feet to get up to the outside roost. They come tearing out of the coop when I open the gate and they will sometimes fly about two foot off the ground. Kinda like airplanes they need a running start.

We have a five foot fence around the coop/run and they have not flown out of it.

But, if scared, I think a hen could easily fly 8 foot or more.

 

[Cindy in PA]

One of my first Barred Rock chickens (circa 1993) would fly over the 6 foot fence everyday, fly back in to lay eggs and get herself in at night. She was the only one that could get out & was smart enough to get back in. This original flock was free ranged part of the time, but that was not enought for Brownie, she needed to come up & have coffee with me everyday.

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

There is a neighborhood girl, an OEG, that likes to roost in our front yard (won't come into our pens) and she can hit a branch that is about 14 feet up from a standing position. All ours have their one wing clipped so they can't clear our 6 foot fence.

 

[Ravenseye]

So far, I've found that they can fly about 6" higher than the last piece of fence that you put up to keep them in the pen!

My little Araucana's are "flighty" and seem to want to fly if they need to cover more than a few feet of ground. The Orps don't bother to try. My two Red Stars love to fly although they're always so convinced that they're missing something, they stay with the other hens in the run.