How high?

[SoonersDucks]

I have decided that the chicken run that I built this spring is not quite big enough for my 8 birds. It is 16ft x 12ft and is 8ft tall. I am new to the game and at the time needed something bigger than what I had for the chicks. It works. They love it, but I feel like I want to add more area to it. I can’t let them completely free range, my dogs would probably kill them all. The lady that had the house before me may have had chickens or something as there is a fenced in area not to far from my current run. I didn’t use it originally because it is in need of some work. Her fence appears to be some 2”x3” no climb fencing about 3 ft tall, then above that she has som chicken wire. It looks like the fence is about 5-5.5 ft tall. How high would you go to keep the chickens from jumping the fence?

it is also in an area of my property that has a lot of trees. How high up would you trim branches to stop them from climbing to high?

I plan on cleaning this all up and such so please don’t mind the mess. The fence is hard to see in the pictures. Red line is top of chicken wire and the fence, blue is top of the no climb. She even has carpet down on the grown for some reason. I am not sure this was for chickens but maybe...?

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

My runs are all 6 ft tall. I have only had one escape because it flew up on the gate.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Depends on what breeds of chickens you have and how determined they might be to "fly." Heavy breeds should stay in a 5.5' fence, but my lighter birds cleared 6' without issue. My run is now netted over so that's no longer an issue for me.

 

[SoonersDucks]

Depends on what breeds of chickens you have and how determined they might be to "fly." Heavy breeds should stay in a 5.5' fence, but my lighter birds cleared 6' without issue. My run is now netted over so that's no longer an issue for me.

My issue is all the trees around make putting the net up very hard. Not to mention all the small branches and leaves that fall on it will pull it down or tear it.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Without some sort of top and assuming a mixed breed flock I'd just aim to make it high as possible, definitely taller than 6' if possible.

 

[aart]

Good post and pics!
Could limb up all branches to ~10'.
And add another couple feet of chicken wire to fence by sticking some garden stakes into current posts and attaching more CW loosely so they can't perch on the top edge of it.
How far from current run?
Could connect with a 'chunnel':
https://www.backyardchickens.com/search/77726117/?q=chunnel&t=post&o=date&c[title_only]=1

Get rid of the carpet.

 

[Manhen]

I have a 6 foot tall 2" x 4" welded wire fence. I had a coil of it, about 15" around on the inside. I put an obnoxious EE roo into it. Climbed/flew out within 1.5 seconds. As I had just finished installing 700 ft. of the fence, it was disappointing. No other birds have escaped.