How tall should the pen be??

[Oceanseve]

For buff orps, australorps, and americaunas, how tall is tall enough to keep them in w/o a roof? I'm not that worried about keeping things out, just keeping them in......

 

[Chickie Mamma]

My pen is 4ft tall and my Buff Orp does not try to get out. Its worked well for 2 years now.

 

[hooksetz]

I think it depends on what you use them for. My barred rocks are a grazing flock, they go out into the yard freely every day,so their pen needs only a couple of nest boxes, and roosts, it is only 4 ft. tall. I have RIR, in another pen, they live there so they have a 12x10 6 ft. tall. Meat birds need only enough top area to move around in without hitting their heads. Hope this helped.

 

[patandchickens]

3' is fine for all but the tallest breeds, unless you want them to have room to jump and flap and fly short distances.

However don't neglect to think about *your* convenience too... you will need to get in there sometimes to clean, retrieve objects, chase chickens, etc, and the pen needs to either be small enough that you can have a hinged lid (preferably designed to reduce the chance of chickens hopping out when you're in there with them) or something tall enough you can reasonably walk around in.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gkeesling]

the fence in my pen is 7' tall. My Barr Rocks haven't tried to fly out, but I just got two Americana's this weekend. I'll have to watch them to see if they try to fly over the 7' fence. I'm planning on putting some type of netting over the top to protect against hawks but haven't got around to it yet.

 

[SewingDiva]

Mine is tall enough to stand in, which makes it easier to clean.

Phyllis

 

[Oceanseve]

this is assuming I do not put anything up top, we are in the city and I am not too concerned about wild animals, nor my cats, the design I have in mind won't allow them to climb it. I just want to make sure the chickens can't jump out of it.... My orp can jump/flap 4 ft., with effort.... I figure the lorps can do the same, so I was thinking 6-8 ft.... the ameraucans are what I'm really worried about....... How high can they get??

 

[Z_chicken]

I have an araucana who can jump and fly pretty high and far, but unless I have a mid point for her to jump onto, she hasn't, to my knowledge, even tried to escape the 52" fence that surrounds my pen. However, because she's such a jumper, I can't put anything close to my 6" fence line or she'll jump onto it and into my neighbor's yard.

Hope that helps!

 

[Oceanseve]

That definately helps.... the shed we plan on using as a coop is about 6 ft tall...... so I guess I could just keep any perches outside under.... what do you think 2 ft? or would that give them plenty of help to jump a 6 ft fence?

 

[crzychicken]

If your going to build it on the 4 to 5 ft side I would put a clean out door and bump out nesting boxes. On nesting boxes I put in 10 for 29 hens they only use 6 at the most and mostly only 5 get used every day.