How high the fence??

[EggyErin]

I'm setting up a large chicken yard, too large to cover, and I'm trying to decide how high the fence should be. Should I go 5' or 6'? I plan to do an electric wire around the bottom. That seemed to be the consensus to the question of top or bottom wire. The yard will be in a wooded area though we have cleared trees that abut the outside of the fence to try to deter climb-and-drop predators. There's a decent price difference between 5' and 6' (I'm going with 1x2) but if I really need 6' then that's what I'll get.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

I'm setting up a large chicken yard, too large to cover, and I'm trying to decide how high the fence should be. Should I go 5' or 6'? I plan to do an electric wire around the bottom. That seemed to be the consensus to the question of top or bottom wire. The yard will be in a wooded area though we have cleared trees that abut the outside of the fence to try to deter climb-and-drop predators. There's a decent price difference between 5' and 6' (I'm going with 1x2) but if I really need 6' then that's what I'll get.

A pair of sharp scissors are far less expensive as purchasing over kill fencing.
We clip wings on the young and light weight birds quite often. And save that money for feed. The hot wires should be mounted on the outside to keep critters from climbing over.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ings-of-your-chicken-to-prevent-flight.47727/

Best regards,
connie

 

[TominWa]

I have a backyard about 100 feet by 60 feet with barely a four foot fence/hedge type of things and they don't even seem interested in jumping over the thing. Maybe I just have happy chickens and they don't want to leave. They are out there clucking at me to come open the coup right now. They have a short cut all figured out and will beat me to the back door and beg treats. It always works.

 

[Eggcessive]

My young chickens would jump over any height fence their first year until they put on some weight. I clipped a wing, but that was a waste of time. I had 2 banties that would jump 8 feet up to my coop roof and hang out. When I put up some electric poultry netting 42 inches high, they stopped jumping over my 4 foot chainlink fence, since they could no longer jump up on it and then over. I didn't need to electrify it except to keep dogs and other animals out. The one I have is this, but without the electric charger which reduces the cost: https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/poultrynet-plus-42-inch-starter-kit?cat_id=190

 

[Lazy Farmer]

My young chickens would jump over any height fence their first year until they put on some weight. I clipped a wing, but that was a waste of time. I had 2 banties that would jump 8 feet up to my coop roof and hang out. When I put up some electric poultry netting 42 inches high, they stopped jumping over my 4 foot chainlink fence, since they could no longer jump up on it and then over. I didn't need to electrify it except to keep dogs and other animals out. The one I have is this, but without the electric charger which reduces the cost: https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/poultrynet-plus-42-inch-starter-kit?cat_id=190

Roger that.. we only have large breeds. Once they put on weight.. no more clipping. I have no use personally for smaller breeds now we don't show anymore. It's all about eggs and meat now.
I like your poultry netting idea..

 

[knwisdom]

Just because I combined chickens with my garden I have 2 layers of fence. I used 7ft deer fencing, to keep the deer out, and on the inside I that I have run 28" welded wire rabbit fencing because the rabbits chew right through the plastic deer fencing. However, baby buns still fit through the rabbit fencing. I did this because of exactly what you are running into. The taller welded wire fencing is really expensive. None of my chickens have flown over the deer fence, but they have flown in to it, they can't steer well, hehehe. Since the deer fence is flexible they jus kind of bounce off it without issue.

 

[lazy gardener]

I used the Premier 1 x 42" fencing for a few years, and still have it, but a change in my predator load rendered it useless. Huge increase in hawk predation, and the birds decided they wanted to fly over it anyways, so it wouldn't even keep them in. I put up a 6' high run. Chose 6', in spite of the $$ b/c it was a bit more of a deterrent to keep the heavier birds in the run. It also makes moving around in the run much less bothersome for me. Still, at 6' some will fly over the top. I keep bird netting over it in the no-snow months, and have put 2 x 4 galv. welded wire over one bay of it so they have a smaller but semi secure winter run. Hawk predation here even in snow months. If you put hot wire around your fencing, I would go with a minimum of 3 strands at the bottom starting at 4 - 6" above ground level, with the first 2 strands 6 - 8" apart, and the next strand 12" above the middle one. Depending on the size of your run, you could put bird netting over it. It comes in some pretty large sizes. Or you could simply run a webbing of fish line over it, and dangle some used CD's from the fish line. Those make an impressive flash as they move with the slightest breeze and catch the sunlight.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m sorry but large doesn’t tell me much about it, but I’ll just give you some principles anyway. Chickens, even my heavier ones, can fly a lot better than many people imagine they can if they want to. My full-sized chickens have no problems flying up to my 5’ high roosts and looking at them it’s easy to see they could go higher if they wanted to. The trick is to make them not want to.

One very common way for chickens to get out of a run is that they love to perch. If you have a solid top rail they often fly up there for fun. Then they are liable to jump down on either side. So don’t build your fence in a way to invite them to perch on top. Make the top of your fence wire, not something they can perch on. Be careful of fence posts, your gate, or your coop providing a perch.

Another way mine sometimes get out is that when a chicken is losing a fight or wants to get away from an amorous rooster and it gets trapped against the fence it might go vertical to get away. This doesn’t mean they fly up. In their panic they can do a real good job of walking up the fence with their wings flapping. Clipping wings will interfere with flying but it doesn’t do much for them climbing the fence in a panic.

I use 48” high electric netting. The only time I find a chicken outside is when I have young cockerels in there and they are fighting. I’ve found that if I do not make sharp corners the rate of them flying out goes way down. 90 degree corners are OK but don’t go any sharper. If you can make them even flatter so much the better.

Another problem is when I have narrow areas. I once set that netting up with a narrow 15’ wide neck leading from the coop to a wider area. Two or three cockerels were getting out daily. It didn’t take me long to reconfigure it to get rid of that narrow neck and make it all wider. The problem went away. Now with flat corners and a wide area I practically never have a chicken get out.

Before I had that electric netting I had them in a 12’ x 32’ run with 5’ high 2x4 wiring. A couple of hens learned they could fly out and go foraging. I’m pretty sure they first got out trying to get away from an amorous rooster. The top of the fence was wire but once they learned they could fly out they’d fly out every day. I made the walls taller by attaching more 2x4 wire at the top of the fence. I took more 5’ 2x4 wire and attached it about 2’ below the top of my fence, then stood it up and attached it to the top of the fence. The stiffness of the wire caused it to stand up so I had 8’ high fences. That stopped them. You could do that with cheaper wire up that high. The bottom 5’ will stop whichever predators it’s going to stop no matter what you do at the top if you leave it open.

I don’t know how big your area is, its configuration, or your current or future flock make-up. I’d go with the less expensive 5’ wire and see how that works. It will probably work fine. If it doesn’t, go with less expensive wire, maybe chicken wire, and stand some up at the top to raise the fence.

 

[EggyErin]

Oh, goody, lots of feedback! My question about height is more from a predator perspective than a chicken one, but I did wonder about flyovers. I won't have a solid cap on the top of the fence because I know that just encourages fly-ups. I hadn't thought about fence posts, though, so I'll slant the wooden ones. Or is there another way to handle that? Netting isn't an option because of size - the entire perimeter will use about 300' of fencing; I think the longest side will be 80'-90' with a few shorter sides - kind of an odd configuration. Plus, there are trees within the yard. I've thought of the flashing cd idea and will add that. We do have bobcats (one of which decimated my flock a few months ago but they were free-ranging then) so I want to make sure they get zapped before trying to climb. If I have electric, do I need I need to run an apron around the bottom? My current flock is one hen and nine babies which are still in the coop's playpen. They won't be ready to go outside for another month or so and I'll probably contain them in a smaller area at first. My hen was fine in my current yard while recovering from injuries but now flies up to the top of the gate and away she goes. I'll do gates differently in the new yard.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I understand it's a different configuration but roughly an 85' x 65'. Avoid sharp corners and you should be fine. That's tremendous!

To stop predators going under the fence you either need an apron or a very low hot wire. One problem with a low hot wire is that vegetation will grow up into it and short it out when it's wet. Fences are hard on weed-eaters. Aprons can reduce your need to weed-eat but you still have to stop the grass and weeds from taking over your fence. There are trade-offs both ways.