How tall should my chicken run be?

[JackE]

I have a 4' high fence of electrified poultry net around my coop. A 100X200' run. My birds don't go over that. I've read about people keeping them contained in 3' high fencing. But, depending on what breed of chicken you have, like Bantams or others, they may like to fly over anything. It is no mandatory that you have a covered run, mine seen to do quite well in an uncovered run.

 

[donnavee]

Just because its under trees dose`nt mean hawks wont get your chickens,By all means put a cover on top.

Ditto! Hawks & Owls will use trees to sit in and scope out your flock. I would at least cover it with netting to keep out daytime predators. Most young chicks can easily fly over a 5 or 6ft fence. As heavier breeds get older, they are more easily contained but I would at least go with 6ft.

 

[JackE]

Ditto! Hawks & Owls will use trees to sit in and scope out your flock. I would at least cover it with netting to keep out daytime predators. Most young chicks can easily fly over a 5 or 6ft fence. As heavier breeds get older, they are more easily contained but I would at least go with 6ft.

I don't know, I must be extremely lucky. I have hawks, owls, even eagles, and my birds don't seem to have any problems. What is most important in an uncovered run, is some kind of cover. My birds have the coop, plus a big bushy area, behind the coop to hide in. My chickens have learned and adapted to the flying preds around here. I have even see them react to the local crow's hawk warning call. The crow call out in a certain way, and the chickens haul it to cover.
Funny, but I didn't have any of my young birds go over my fence. I've seen them go through. but not over.

 

[sn0wwhite]

Yesterday my Black Austrolorpe, SLW and EE flew up to roost in the top of the peak of the 7' coop I'm building. The BO just looked up at them.

 

[ChickenLife]

In response to # 9 Post
Your Chickens would be in danger of the hawks in the middle of the trees or in the bushes for that matter, because the hawks would go right in after them. They go after the birds and doves
all the time in my yard. I have huge arborvitaes 25'wX25'h they are old ones, they are thick and wide the hawks go right in them after the other birds and come out with them in there claws
and then set in the high trees eat them in the yard, I get feathers all over the grass and in the garden too. They watch my chicken all the time and are trying to figure out how to get at them fat
little Bantams. The chickens are growing use to it now but they use to cry and get in the corners of the pen and the next morning wouldn't come out of their house. I would have to put them out
and set with them tell they settled down. Now they have figured out the hawks can't get at them so they just cry a little bit and go to the other end of the pen and settle down. I have a pasture
around my house and trees in the yard and this has been this way for years and I have all kinds of Hawks and Falcons from very small ones to big ones and they would love to eat my little
chickens. Just keep in mind that the wildlife you have move into or they have move into your space, are just doing the their natural thing, and your chickens are a easy food source , sorry to say.

 

[LittleBits]

Long before we had chickens, the neighbor's (free-ranging) would come and visit. I have no idea what breed it was, but that it was white and looked quite large. We did not have a deck off our kitchen door at the time. I pulled the curtain open one morning and there was this chicken, sitting in the tree, on a branch about 30 feet off the ground. So...whether it flew up there, climbed branch to branch or what...I don't know. But it was high! Guess they'll go up as far as their environment will let them...??

 

[ChickenLife]

The pen is 10'X30' 2 panel dog runs 10'X10' put together. It's 6' on the out side pen walls and it peaks in middle of the roof at 8', if that helps you. I needed chain link fence then chicken wired on inside it all around and up and over and put 1'X1' paver all around the outside it made a good walkway. My bantams fly a lot just to do it and I have roost for them up high to make them happy.